Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is a historic photograph

Photograph

A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...

taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal

Joe Rosenthal

Joseph John Rosenthal was an American photographer who received the Pulitzer Prize for his iconic World War II photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima. His picture became one of the best-known photographs of the war.-Early life:Joseph Rosenthal was born on...

. It depicts five United States Marines

United States Marine Corps

The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...

and a U.S. Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

corpsman raising the flag of the United States

Flag of the United States

The national flag of the United States of America consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows...

atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima

Battle of Iwo Jima

The Battle of Iwo Jima , or Operation Detachment, was a major battle in which the United States fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Empire of Japan. The U.S...

in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

The photograph was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography

Pulitzer Prize for Photography

The Pulitzer Prize for Photography was one of the Pulitzer Prizes. It was awarded from 1942 until 1967. In 1968, it was split into two separate prizes: the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography and the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography .* 1942: Milton Brooks of Detroit News, for his photo...

in the same year as its publication, and came to be regarded in the United States as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.

Of the six men depicted in the picture, three (Franklin Sousley

Franklin Sousley

Franklin Runyon Sousley was one of the six men in the famous photograph of United States Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima in World War II.-Childhood:...

, Harlon Block

Harlon Block

Harlon Henry Block was a United States Marine during World War II. Born in Texas, Block joined the Marine Corps in November 1943 and subsequently saw action during the Battle of Bougainville and the Battle of Iwo Jima where he was killed in action...

, and Michael Strank

Michael Strank

Michael Strank was a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He was photographed raising the flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The leader of the group in the famous picture was Strank, who got the order to climb Mt. Suribachi to lay telephone wire...

) were killed during the battle; the three survivors (John Bradley

John Bradley (Iwo Jima)

John Henry "Jack" "Doc" Bradley was a United States Navy corpsman during World War II, and one of the six men who took part in raising the Flag on Iwo Jima...

, Rene Gagnon

Rene Gagnon

Rene Arthur Gagnon was one of the U.S. Marines immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's famous World War II photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.-Early life:...

, and Ira Hayes

Ira Hayes

Ira Hamilton Hayes was a Pima Native American and an American Marine who was one of the six men immortalized in the iconic photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima during World War II. Hayes was an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community in Sacaton, Arizona, and enlisted in the Marine...

) became celebrities upon their identification in the photo. The picture was later used by Felix de Weldon

Felix de Weldon

Felix Weihs de Weldon was an American sculptor. His most famous piece is the Marine Corps War Memorial of five U.S. Marines and one sailor raising the flag of the United States on Iwo Jima during World War Two.-Biography:...

to sculpt the Marine Corps War Memorial, located adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...

just outside Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

Background

On February 19, 1945, as part of their island-hopping strategy

Strategy

Strategy, a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. In military usage strategy is distinct from tactics, which are concerned with the conduct of an engagement, while strategy is concerned with how different engagements are linked...

to defeat Japan

Empire of Japan

The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...

, the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

invaded Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima, officially , is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located south of mainland Tokyo and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo...

. Iwo Jima was originally not a target, but the relatively quick fall of the Philippines

Battle of the Philippine Sea

The Battle of the Philippine Sea was a decisive naval battle of World War II which effectively eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War...

left the Americans with a longer-than-expected lull prior to the planned invasion of Okinawa

Battle of Okinawa

The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...

. Iwo Jima is located half-way between Japan and the Mariana Islands

Mariana Islands

The Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up by the summits of 15 volcanic mountains in the north-western Pacific Ocean between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east...

, where American long-range bombers were based, and was used by the Japanese as an early warning station

Ground-controlled interception

Ground-controlled interception an air defense tactic whereby one or more radar stations are linked to a command communications centre which guides interceptor aircraft to an airborne target. This tactic was pioneered during World War II by the Royal Air Force with the Luftwaffe to follow closely...

, radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

ing warnings of incoming American bombers to the Japanese homeland. The Americans, after capturing the island, deprived the Japanese of their early warning system, and used it as an emergency landing

Emergency landing

An emergency landing is a landing made by an aircraft in response to a crisis which either interferes with the operation of the aircraft or involves sudden medical emergencies necessitating diversion to the nearest airport.-Types of emergency landings:...

strip for damaged bombers, saving many American lives.

Iwo Jima is a volcanic

Volcanism

Volcanism is the phenomenon connected with volcanoes and volcanic activity. It includes all phenomena resulting from and causing magma within the crust or mantle of a planet to rise through the crust and form volcanic rocks on the surface....

island, shaped like a trapezoid

Trapezoid

In Euclidean geometry, a convex quadrilateral with one pair of parallel sides is referred to as a trapezoid in American English and as a trapezium in English outside North America. A trapezoid with vertices ABCD is denoted...

. Marines on the island described it as "a gray pork chop

Pork chop

A pork chop is a cut of pork cut perpendicularly to the spine of the pig and usually containing a rib or part of a vertebra, served as an individual portion.-Variations:...

". The island was heavily fortified, and the invading United States Marines suffered high casualties. The island is dominated by Mount Suribachi, a 546 feet (166.4 m) dormant volcanic cone

Volcanic cone

Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic formations. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and size of the fragments ejected during the eruption...

situated on the southern tip of the island. Politically, the island is part of the prefecture

Prefecture

A prefecture is an administrative jurisdiction or subdivision in any of various countries and within some international church structures, and in antiquity a Roman district governed by an appointed prefect.-Antiquity:...

of Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. It would be the first Japanese homeland soil to be captured by the Americans, and it was a matter of honor for the Japanese to prevent its capture.

Tactically, the top of Suribachi is one of the most important locations on the island. From that vantage point, the Japanese defenders were able to accurately spot artillery onto the Americans - particularly the landing beaches. The Japanese fought most of the battle from underground bunker

Bunker

A military bunker is a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks...

s and pillboxes. It was common for Marines to knock out one pillbox using grenade

Grenade

A grenade is a small explosive device that is projected a safe distance away by its user. Soldiers called grenadiers specialize in the use of grenades. The term hand grenade refers any grenade designed to be hand thrown. Grenade Launchers are firearms designed to fire explosive projectile grenades...

s or a flamethrower

Flamethrower

A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...

, only to have it begin shooting again a few minutes later after more Japanese infantry slipped into the pillbox using a tunnel. The American effort concentrated on isolating and capturing Suribachi first, a goal that was achieved on February 23, 1945, four days after the battle began. Despite capturing Suribachi, the battle continued to rage for many days, and the island would not be declared "secure" until 31 days later, on the 26th of March.

Raising the first flag

The famous picture taken by Rosenthal actually captured the second flag-raising event of the day. A U.S. flag was first raised atop Suribachi soon after it was captured early in the morning (around 10:20) of February 23, 1945. Captain Dave Severance was ordered by 2nd Battalion Commander Chandler Johnson to send a platoon to go take the mountain. Severance, the commander of Easy Company (2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division), ordered First Lieutenant

First Lieutenant

First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...

Harold G. Schrier

Colonel Harold George Schrier was an officer in the United States Marine Corps, recipient of the Navy Cross, the nation's second highest award for valor, and a combat veteran of World War II and the Korean War...

to lead the patrol. Just before Schrier was to head up the mountain Commander Chandler Johnson handed him a flag saying, "if you get to the top put it up." Johnson's adjutant, second lieutenant Greeley Wells, had taken the 54-by-28-inch (140-by-71-centimeter) American flag from their transport ship, the USS Missoula (APA-211)

USS Missoula (APA-211)

USS Missoula was a Haskell-class attack transport built and used by the US Navy in World War II. She was a Victory ship design, VC2-S-AP5. She was named after Missoula County, Montana, USA. She was the second ship to bear the name ....

. The patrol reached the top without incident and the flag was raised, and photographed by Staff Sergeant

Staff Sergeant

Staff sergeant is a rank of non-commissioned officer used in several countries.The origin of the name is that they were part of the staff of a British army regiment and paid at that level rather than as a member of a battalion or company.-Australia:...

Louis R. Lowery

Louis R. "Lou" Lowery was a United States Marine Corps photographer best known for taking the first flag-raising photograph on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945...

, a photographer with Leatherneck magazine

Leatherneck Magazine

Leatherneck Magazine of the Marines is a magazine for United States Marines. It was first published as a newspaper by off-duty Marines at Marine Corps Base Quantico in 1917, and was originally named The Quantico Leatherneck...

. Others present at this first flag raising included Corporal Charles W. Lindberg

Charles W. Lindberg

Charles W. "Chuck" Lindberg was a United States Marine who was part of the first raising of the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II...

, Platoon Sergeant Ernest I. Thomas Jr., Sergeant Henry O. "Hank" Hansen, Private Gene Marshall

Gene Marshall

Gene Marshall is a 15.5 inches tall collectible fashion doll inspired by Hollywood's Golden Age. It was created by the illustrator Mel Odom...

(sometimes disputed as Raymond Jacobs

Raymond Jacobs

Raymond Jacobs was a United States Marine Corps Private First Class, a Radioman with the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines of the 5th Marine Division , and later a news reporter...

), and Private First Class James Michels

James Michels

Private First Class James R. Michels was one of the six United States Marines who raised the first American flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945.-Biography:...

. This flag was too small, however, to be seen easily from the nearby landing beaches.

The Secretary of the Navy
United States Secretary of the Navy
The Secretary of the Navy of the United States of America is the head of the Department of the Navy, a component organization of the Department of Defense...

, James Forrestal
James Forrestal
James Vincent Forrestal was the last Cabinet-level United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense....

, had decided the previous night that he wanted to go ashore and witness the final stage of the fight for the mountain. Now, under a stern commitment to take orders from Howlin' Mad Smith
Holland Smith
General Holland McTyeire "Howlin' Mad" Smith, KCB was a General in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He is sometimes called the "father" of modern U.S. amphibious warfare....

, the secretary was churning ashore in the company of the blunt, earthy general. Their boat touched the beach just after the flag went up, and the mood among the high command turned jubilant. Gazing upward, at the red, white, and blue speck, Forrestal remarked to Smith: "Holland, the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years."

Forrestal was so taken with fervor of the moment that he decided he wanted the Suribachi flag as a souvenir. The news of this wish did not sit well with 2nd Battalion
2nd Battalion 3rd Marines
2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines is an infantry battalion in the United States Marine Corps based out of Marine Corps Base Hawaii consisting of approximately 1000 Marines and sailors...

Commander Chandler Johnson, whose temperament was every bit as fiery as Howlin Mad's. 'To hell with that!' the colonel spat when the message reached him. The flag belonged to the battalion, as far as Johnson was concerned. He decided to secure it as soon as possible, and dispatched his assistant operations officer, Lieutenant Ted Tuttle, to the beach to scare up a replacement flag. As an afterthought, Johnson called after Tuttle "And make it a bigger one."

The roar of the Marines on the islands and ship horns blasting away alerted the Japanese who up to this point had stayed in their cave bunkers. The Americans quickly found themselves under fire from Japanese troops but were able to quickly eliminate the threat with the only casualty being Lowery's camera.

Raising the second flag

On orders from Colonel

Colonel

Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

Chandler Johnson, passed on by Captain Severance, Sergeant Michael Strank, Corporal Harlon H. Block, Private First Class Franklin R. Sousley and Private First Class Ira H. Hayes spent the morning of the 23rd laying a telephone

Telephone

The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

wire to the top of Suribachi. Severance also dispatched Private First Class Rene A. Gagnon, a runner, to the command post for fresh SCR-300

SCR-300

The SCR-300 was a portable radio transceiver used by US Signal Corps in World War II. This backpack-mounted unit was the first two way radio to be nicknamed a "walkie talkie".- History :...

walkie-talkie batteries.

Meanwhile, according to the official Marine Corps history, Tuttle had found a larger (96-by-56 inch) flag in nearby Tank Landing Ship

Tank landing ship

Landing Ship, Tank was the military designation for naval vessels created during World War II to support amphibious operations by carrying significant quantities of vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto an unimproved shore....

LST 779, made his way back to the command post, and given it to Johnson. Johnson, in turn, gave it to Gagnon with orders to take it back up Suribachi and raise it. The official Marine Corps history of the event is that Tuttle received the flag from Ensign Alan Wood of LST 779, who in turn had received the flag from a supply depot in Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

. However, the Coast Guard

United States Coast Guard

The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...

Historian's Office supports claims made by Robert Resnick, who served aboard LST 758. "Before he died in November 2004, Resnick said Gagnon came aboard LST-758 the morning of February 23 looking for a flag. Resnick said he grabbed one from a bunting box and asked permission from commanding officer Lt. Felix Molenda to donate it. Resnick kept quiet about his participation until 2001." The flag itself was sewn by Mabel Sauvageau, a worker at the "flag loft" of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard

Mare Island Naval Shipyard

The Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard from the main portion of the...

.

The Marines reached the top of the mountain around noon, where Gagnon joined them. Despite the large numbers of Japanese troops in the immediate vicinity, the 40-man patrol made it to the top of the mountain without being fired on once, as the Japanese were under bombardment at the time.

Rosenthal, along with Marine photographers Bob Campbell and Bill Genaust (who was killed in action nine days after the flag raising) was climbing Suribachi at this time. On the way up, the trio met Lowery (the man who photographed the first flag raising). They had been considering turning around, but Lowery told them that the summit was an excellent vantage point from which to take pictures.

Rosenthal's trio reached the summit as the Marines were attaching the flag to an old Japanese water pipe. Rosenthal put down his Speed Graphic

Speed Graphic

Produced by Graflex in Rochester, New York, the Speed Graphic is commonly called the most famous press camera. Although the first Speed Graphic cameras were produced in 1912, production of later versions continued until 1973; with the most significant improvements occurring in 1947 with the...

camera (which was set to 1/400th of a second shutter speed

Shutter speed

In photography, shutter speed is a common term used to discuss exposure time, the effective length of time a camera's shutter is open....

, with the f-stop between 8 and 16) on the ground so he could pile rocks to stand on for a better vantage point. In doing so, he nearly missed the shot. Along with Navy Pharmacist's Mate Second Class John H. Bradley, the five Marines began raising the U. S. flag. Realizing he was about to miss it, Rosenthal quickly swung his camera up and snapped the photograph without using the viewfinder

Viewfinder

In photography, a viewfinder is what the photographer looks through to compose, and in many cases to focus, the picture. Most viewfinders are separate, and suffer parallax, while the single-lens reflex camera lets the viewfinder use the main optical system. Viewfinders are used in many cameras of...

. Ten years after the flag-raising, Rosenthal wrote:

Out of the corner of my eye, I had seen the men start the flag up. I swung my camera and shot the scene. That is how the picture was taken, and when you take a picture like that, you don't come away saying you got a great shot. You don't know.

Bill Genaust, who was standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder with Rosenthal about thirty yards from the flag raising, was shooting motion-picture film during the flag-raising. His film captures the flag raising at an almost-identical angle to Rosenthal's famous shot.

Of the six men pictured — Michael Strank

Michael Strank

, Rene Gagnon

Rene Gagnon

Rene Arthur Gagnon was one of the U.S. Marines immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's famous World War II photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.-Early life:...

, Ira Hayes

Ira Hayes

, Franklin Sousley

Franklin Sousley

Franklin Runyon Sousley was one of the six men in the famous photograph of United States Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima in World War II.-Childhood:...

, John Bradley

John Bradley (Iwo Jima)

John Henry "Jack" "Doc" Bradley was a United States Navy corpsman during World War II, and one of the six men who took part in raising the Flag on Iwo Jima...

, and Harlon Block

Harlon Block

— only three (Hayes, Gagnon, and Bradley) survived the battle. Strank was killed six days after the flag raising when a shell, likely fired from an offshore American destroyer, tore his heart out; Block was killed by a mortar

Mortar (weapon)

A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....

a few hours after Strank; Sousley — the last of the flag-raisers to succumb in the battle — was shot and killed by a sniper on March 21, a few days before the island was declared secure.

Publication and staging confusion

Following the flag raising, Rosenthal sent his film to Guam

Guam

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

to be developed and printed. George Tjaden of Hendricks

Hendricks, Minnesota

Hendricks is a city in Lincoln County, Minnesota, in the United States. The population was 713 at the 2010 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, of it is land and 1.03% is water...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, was likely the technician who printed it. Upon seeing it, AP

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

photo editor John Bodkin exclaimed "Here's one for all time!" and immediately radiophotoed

Radiofax

Radiofax, also known as weatherfax and HF fax , is an analogue mode for transmitting monochrome images. It was the predecessor to slow-scan television...

the image to the AP headquarters in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

at 7:00 a.m., Eastern War Time. The photograph was picked up off the wire very quickly by hundreds of newspapers. It "was distributed by Associated Press within seventeen and one-half hours after Rosenthal shot it—an astonishingly fast turnaround time in those days."

However, the photo was not without controversy. Following the second flag raising, Rosenthal had the Marines of Easy Company pose for a group shot, the "gung-ho

Gung-ho

Gung ho is a slang term in American English used to mean "enthusiastic" or "dedicated" originally used in Marine slang.It is an anglicised pronunciation of "gōng hé" , the shortened version and slogan of the "gōngyè hézuòshè" or Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, which was abbreviated as INDUSCO in...

" shot. This was also documented by Bill Genaust. A few days after the picture was taken, back on Guam, Rosenthal was asked if he had posed the photo. Thinking the questioner was referring to the 'gung-ho' picture, he replied "Sure." After that, Robert Sherrod

Robert Sherrod

Robert Lee Sherrod was an American journalist, editor and author. He was a war correspondent for TIME and LIFE magazines, covering combat from World War II to the Vietnam War. During World War II, embedded with the United States Marine Corps U.S. Marines, he covered the battles at Attu, Tarawa,...

, a Time-Life

Time-Life

Time–Life is a creator and direct marketer of books, music, video/DVD, and multimedia products. Its products are sold throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia through television, print, retail, the Internet, telemarketing, and direct sales....

correspondent, told his editors in New York that Rosenthal had staged the flag-raising photo. Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

s radio show, 'Time Views the News', broadcast a report, charging that "Rosenthal climbed Suribachi after the flag had already been planted... Like most photographers [he] could not resist reposing his characters in historic fashion."

As a result of this report, Rosenthal was repeatedly accused of staging the picture, or covering up the first flag raising. One New York Times book reviewer even went so far as to suggest revoking his Pulitzer Prize. For the decades that have followed, Rosenthal repeatedly and vociferously denied claims that the flag raising was staged. "I don't think it is in me to do much more of this sort of thing... I don't know how to get across to anybody what 50 years of constant repetition means." Genaust's film also shows the claim that the flag-raising was staged to be erroneous.

The 7th war bond drive and the sixth man controversy

Upon seeing the photo, President

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

realized the picture would make an excellent symbol for the upcoming 7th war bond

War bond

War bonds are debt securities issued by a government for the purpose of financing military operations during times of war. War bonds generate capital for the government and make civilians feel involved in their national militaries...

drive, and ordered the Marines identified and brought home. The Marines were brought home at the conclusion of the battle. Using a photo enlargement, Rene Gagnon identified the others in the photograph, but refused to identify the sixth man (Hayes), insisting he had promised to keep the man's name a secret. Gagnon had promised not to discuss Hayes's identity because Hayes—who despised Gagnon—had threatened to kill him. After being brought to Marine Corps headquarters and informed that he was being ordered by the President to reveal the information, and that refusing an order to reveal the name would be a serious crime, Gagnon finally revealed Hayes's name.

Gagnon also misidentified Harlon Block as Sergeant Henry O. "Hank" Hansen, who had not survived the battle (but who had, incidentally, participated in the first flag raising). Initially, John Bradley concurred with all of Gagnon's identifications. On April 8, 1945, the Marine Corps released the identification of five of the flag raisers (including Hansen)—Sousley's identity was withheld pending notification of his family of his death during the battle.

The three survivors went on a whirlwind bond tour. The tour was a success, raising $26.3 billion, twice the tour's goal.

Questions lingered about the misidentification of Harlon Block. His mother, Belle Block, refused to accept the official identification, noting that she had "changed so many diaper

Diaper

A nappy or a diaper is a kind of pant that allows one to defecate or urinate on oneself discreetly. When diapers become soiled, they require changing; this process is often performed by a second person such as a parent or caregiver...

s on that boy's butt, I know it's my boy." Immediately on arrival in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

on April 19, Hayes noticed the misidentification in the photo, and informed the Marine public relations

Public relations

Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

officer who had been assigned to him. The public relations officer told Hayes that the identifications had already been officially released, and ordered Hayes to keep silent about it.

Over a year and a half later, amidst the depression

Depression (mood)

Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...

and alcoholism

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

that would characterize the rest of his life following the war, Ira Hayes hitchhiked

Hitchhiking

Hitchhiking is a means of transportation that is gained by asking people, usually strangers, for a ride in their automobile or other road vehicle to travel a distance that may either be short or long...

to Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

to inform Block's family that Block had, in fact, been the sixth flag raiser.

Ira remembered what Rene Gagnon and John Bradley could not have remembered, because they did not join the little cluster until the last moment: that it was Harlon [Block], Mike [Strank], Franklin [Sousley] and himself [Hayes] who had ascended Suribachi midmorning to lay telephone wire; it was Rene [Gagnon] who had come along with the replacement flag. Hansen had not been part of this action.

Block's mother, Belle, immediately composed a letter to her congressional

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

representative

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

Milton West

Milton Horace West was a US Congressional representative from Texas.West served in the Texas state legislature from 1929 until 1933, when he was elected to fill the seat from the 15th district vacated by John Nance Garner. West died in office in 1948.West died in office in 1948...

. West, in turn, forwarded the letter to Marine Corps Commandant

Commandant of the Marine Corps

The Commandant of the Marine Corps is normally the highest ranking officer in the United States Marine Corps and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

Alexander Vandegrift

Alexander Archer Vandegrift, KBE, CB was a General in the United States Marine Corps. He commanded the 1st Marine Division to victory in its first ground offensive of World War II — Battle of Guadalcanal. For his actions during the Solomon Islands campaign, he received the Medal of Honor...

, who ordered an investigation. Both Bradley and Gagnon, upon being shown the evidence, agreed that it was probably Block and not Hansen.

Legacy

Rosenthal's photo won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Photography

Pulitzer Prize for Photography

, the only photograph to win the prize in the same year it was taken.

News pros were not the only ones bedazzled by the photo. Navy Captain T.B. Clark was on duty at Patuxent Air Station
Naval Air Station Patuxent River
"Pax River" redirects here. For the river, see Patuxent River.Naval Air Station Patuxent River , also known as NAS Pax River, is a United States Naval Air Station located in St. Mary's County, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Patuxent River. It is home to the U.S...

in Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

that Saturday when it came humming off the wire. He studied it for a minute, and then thrust it under the gaze of Navy Petty Officer
Petty Officer
A petty officer is a non-commissioned officer in many navies and is given the NATO rank denotion OR-6. They are equal in rank to sergeant, British Army and Royal Air Force. A Petty Officer is superior in rank to Leading Rate and subordinate to Chief Petty Officer, in the case of the British Armed...

Felix de Weldon
Felix de Weldon
Felix Weihs de Weldon was an American sculptor. His most famous piece is the Marine Corps War Memorial of five U.S. Marines and one sailor raising the flag of the United States on Iwo Jima during World War Two.-Biography:...

. De Weldon was an Austrian immigrant schooled in European painting and sculpture. De Weldon could not take his eyes off the photo. In its classic triangular lines he recognized similarities with the ancient statues he had studied. He reflexively reached for some sculptor's clay and tools. With the photograph before him he labored through the night. By dawn, he had replicated the six boys pushing a pole, raising a flag.

Starting in 1951, de Weldon was commissioned to design a memorial to the Marine Corps. It took de Weldon and hundreds of his assistants three years to finish it. The three survivors posed for de Weldon, who used their faces as a model. The other three who did not survive were sculpted from pictures.

Most people are unaware that the flag raising Rosenthal photographed was the second that day. This led to resentment from those Marines who took part in the nearly-forgotten first flag raising. Charles W. Lindberg, who participated in the first flag raising (and who was, until his death in June 2007, the last living person depicted in either flag raising) complained that he "was called a liar and everything else. It was terrible."

The photograph is currently in the possession of Roy H. Williams, who bought it from the estate of John Faber, the official historian for the National Press Photographers Association

National Press Photographers Association

NPPA is the acronym for the National Press Photographers Association, founded in 1947. The organization is based in Durham, North Carolina and its mostly made up of still photographers, television videographers, editors, and students in the journalism field...

, who had received it from Rosenthal. Both flags (from the first and second flag raisings) are now located in the National Museum of the Marine Corps

National Museum of the Marine Corps

The National Museum of the Marine Corps is the historical museum of the United States Marine Corps. It is located in Quantico, Virginia and is open to the public with free admission. The museum had its grand opening on November 10, 2006 and is now the number one tourist attraction in Virginia,...

in Quantico

Quantico, Virginia

- Demographics :As of the census of 2000, there are 561 people, 295 households, and 107 families living in the town. The population density is . There are 359 housing units at an average density of .-Racial composition:...

, Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

.

Following the war, plagued with depression brought on by survivor guilt

Survivor guilt

Survivor, survivor's, or survivors guilt or syndrome is a mental condition that occurs when a person perceives themselves to have done wrong by surviving a traumatic event when others did not...

, Hayes became an alcoholic. His tragic life was memorialized in the folk song "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", written by Peter LaFarge and recorded by Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

in 1964. Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

later covered

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

the song, as did Kinky Friedman

Kinky Friedman

Richard S. "Kinky" Friedman is an American Texas Country singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician and former columnist for Texas Monthly who styles himself in the mold of popular American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain. He was one of two independent candidates in the 2006 election...

. According to the song, after the war:

Then Ira started drinkin' hard

Jail was often his home

They'd let him raise the flag and lower it

Like you'd throw a dog a bone!

He died drunk early one mornin'

Alone in the land he fought to save

Two inches of water in a lonely ditch

Was a grave for Ira Hayes.

Likewise Rene Gagnon's last years were bitter and alcoholic before his death in 1979 at the age of 54.

Following the war, John Bradley was staunchly tight-lipped about his experiences, often deflecting questions by claiming he had forgotten. During his 47-year marriage, he only talked about it with his wife Betty once, on their first date, and never again afterwards. Within the family, it was considered a taboo

Taboo

A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...

subject. He gave exactly one interview, in 1985, at the urging of his wife, who had told him to do it for the sake of their grandchildren. Following Bradley's death in 1994, his family went to Suribachi in 1997 and placed a plaque (made of Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

and shaped like that state) on the spot where the flag raising took place. At the time of his death, Bradley's son, James Bradley

James Bradley (author)

James Bradley is an American author, specializing in historical nonfiction chronicling the Pacific theatre of World War II. His father, John Bradley, was one of six men who became famous for being photographed raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi...

knew almost nothing of his father's wartime experiences. As a catharsis

Catharsis

Catharsis or katharsis is a Greek word meaning "cleansing" or "purging". It is derived from the verb καθαίρειν, kathairein, "to purify, purge," and it is related to the adjective καθαρός, katharos, "pure or clean."-Dramatic uses:...

, James Bradley spent four years interviewing the families of all the flag raisers, and published Flags of Our Fathers

Flags of Our Fathers

Flags of Our Fathers is a New York Times bestselling book by James Bradley with Ron Powers about the five United States Marines and one United States Navy Corpsman who would eventually be made famous by Joe Rosenthal's lauded photograph of the flag raising at Iwo Jima, one of the costliest and...

, a definitive book on the flag raising and its participants. This book inspired a 2006 movie of the same name

Flags of Our Fathers (film)

is a 2006 American war film directed, co-produced and scored by Clint Eastwood and written by William Broyles, Jr. and Paul Haggis. It is based on the book of the same name written by James Bradley and Ron Powers about the Battle of Iwo Jima, the five Marines and one Navy Corpsman who were involved...

, directed by Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...

In other media

Rosenthal's photograph has been reproduced in a number of other formats. It appeared on 3.5 million posters for the 7th war bond drive.

The Iwo Jima flag raising has been depicted in other films including 1949's Sands of Iwo Jima

Sands of Iwo Jima

Sands of Iwo Jima is a 1949 war film that follows a group of United States Marines from training to the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. It stars John Wayne, John Agar, Adele Mara and Forrest Tucker. The movie was written by Harry Brown and James Edward Grant and directed by Allan Dwan...

(in which the three surviving flag raisers make a cameo appearance

Cameo appearance

A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

at the end of the film) and 1961's The Outsider

The Outsider (1961 film)

The Outsider is a 1961 biopic film about Ira Hayes, who was a Native American who fought in World War II in the United States Marine Corps and was one of the Marines who Raised the Flag on Iwo Jima. The film stars Tony Curtis as Hayes.-Cast:*Tony Curtis...

, a biography of Ira Hayes starring Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...

.

In July 1945, the United States Postal Service

United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...

released a postage stamp

Postage stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

bearing the image. The US issued another stamp in 1995 showing the flag raising as part of its 10-stamp series marking the 50th anniversary of World War II. In 2005, the United States Mint

United States Mint

The United States Mint primarily produces circulating coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce. The Mint was created by Congress with the Coinage Act of 1792, and placed within the Department of State...

released a commemorative silver dollar

Marine Corps 230th Anniversary Silver Dollar

In 2005, the United States Mint released a silver dollar commemorative coin in honor of the 230th birthday of the United States Marine Corps.The coin was sold as both as a proof coin and an uncirculated coin, for a total number of 600,000 coins...

bearing the image in this photograph.

A similar photograph was taken by Thomas E. Franklin

Thomas E. Franklin

Thomas Ewan Franklin is an American photographer for The Bergen Record, best known for his photograph Raising the Flag at Ground Zero, which depicts firefighters raising the American flag at the World Trade Center after the September 11, 2001 attacks.-Biography:Franklin is a 1988 graduate of the...

of the Bergen Record

The Record (Bergen County)

The Record is a newspaper in northern New Jersey. It has the second largest circulation of New Jersey's daily newspapers, behind The Star-Ledger. Owned by the Borg family since 1930, it is the flagship publication of the North Jersey Media Group. Stephen Borg is the publisher of The Record...

in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Officially known as "Ground Zero Spirit", the photograph is perhaps better known as "Raising the Flag at Ground Zero

Raising the Flag at Ground Zero

Raising the Flag at Ground Zero is a photograph by Thomas E. Franklin of The Record , taken on September 11, 2001. The picture shows three New York City firefighters raising the American flag at ground zero of the World Trade Center following the September 11 attacks. The official name for the...

", and shows three firefighter

Firefighter

Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...

s raising a U.S. flag in the ruins of the World Trade Center

World Trade Center

The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...

shortly after 5pm. Painter Jamie Wyeth

Jamie Wyeth

James Browning Wyeth is a contemporary American realist painter. He was raised in Chadds Ford Township, Pennsylvania, son of Andrew Wyeth and grandson of N.C. Wyeth...

also painted a related image titled "September 11th" based on this scene. It illustrates rescue workers raising a flag at Ground Zero. Other iconic photos frequently compared include V–J day in Times Square

V–J day in Times Square

V-J Day in Times Square is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays an American sailor kissing a young nurse in a white dress on V-J Day in Times Square on August 14, 1945. The photograph was published a week later in Life magazine among many photographs of celebrations around the country...

, Into the Jaws of Death

Into the Jaws of Death

Taxis to Hell – and Back – Into the Jaws of Death is a historic photograph taken on June 6, 1944, by Robert F. Sargent. It depicts U.S. Army First Division soldiers disembarking from a LCVP from the U.S...

, Raising a flag over the Reichstag

Raising a flag over the Reichstag

Raising a flag over the Reichstag is a historic World War II photograph taken during the Battle of Berlin on 2 May 1945, by Yevgeny Khaldei. It depicts several Soviet troops raising the flag of the Soviet Union atop the German Reichstag building. The photograph was instantly popular, being...

, and the raising of the Israeli Ink Flag.

The highly recognizable image has been parodied several times. Anti-war

Anti-war

An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...

activist

Activism

Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...

s in the 1960s altered the flag to bear a peace symbol, as well as several anti-establishment

Anti-establishment

An anti-establishment view or belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern sense in 1958, by the British magazine New Statesman to refer to its political and social agenda...

artworks. Edward Kienholz

Edward Kienholz

Edward Kienholz was an American installation artist whose work was highly critical of aspects of modern life. From 1972 onwards, he assembled much of his artwork in close collaboration with his artistic partner and wife, Nancy Reddin Kienholz...

's Portable War Memorial in 1968 depicted faceless Marines raising the flag on an outdoor picnic table

Picnic table

A picnic table is a modified table with attached benches, designed for eating a meal outdoors .-Uses:...

in a typical American consumerist

Consumerism

Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...

environment of the 1960s. It was parodied again during the Iran hostage crisis

Iran hostage crisis

The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian...

of 1979 to depict the flag being planted into Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

Ruhollah Khomeini

Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran...

’s behind. The logo of the NetBSD

NetBSD

NetBSD is a freely available open source version of the Berkeley Software Distribution Unix operating system. It was the second open source BSD descendant to be formally released, after 386BSD, and continues to be actively developed. The NetBSD project is primarily focused on high quality design,...

operating system from 1994 to 2004 was a parody of the photograph, and an altered version appeared on the cover of Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...

's novel Monstrous Regiment

Monstrous Regiment (novel)

Monstrous Regiment is the 31st novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. It takes its name from the anti-Catholic 16th century tract by John Knox, the full title of which is The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regimen of Women....

in 2003. Time magazine

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

came under fire in 2008 after altering the image for use on its cover, replacing the American flag with a tree for an issue focused on global warming

Global warming

Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...

. The British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association

British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association

The British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association is a branch of the British trade union Unite.BASSA was originally formed exclusively for British Airways cabin crew....

likewise came under criticism in 2010 for a poster depicting employees raising a flag marked "BASSA" at the edge of a runway.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.