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| The second flag raising finished, the men start to gather for the “Gung Ho” photo. |
Raising the Flag on
Iwo Jima is an iconic photograph of six United States Marines raising the U.S.
flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in the final stages of
the Pacific War. The photograph, taken by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press
on February 23, 1945, was first published in Sunday newspapers two days later
and reprinted in thousands of publications. It was the only photograph to win the
Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and was
later used for the construction of the Marine Corps War Memorial in 1954, which
was dedicated to honor all Marines who died in service since 1775. The
memorial, sculpted by Felix de Weldon, is located in Arlington Ridge Park, near
the Ord-Weitzel Gate to Arlington National Cemetery and the Netherlands
Carillon. The photograph has come to be regarded in the United States as one of
the most significant and recognizable images of World War II.
The flag raising
occurred in the early afternoon, after the mountaintop was captured and a
smaller flag was raised on top that morning. Three of the six Marines in the
photograph—Sergeant Michael Strank, Corporal Harlon Block, and Private First
Class Franklin Sousley—were killed in action during the battle. The other three
Marines in the photograph were Corporals (then Privates First Class) Ira Hayes,
Harold Schultz, and Harold Keller; Block was identified as Sergeant Hank Hansen
(helped raise the first flag and was present at the second flag raising) until
January 1947, Schultz (was at both flag raisings) was identified as Sousley who
was identified as PhM2c. John Bradley (was at both flag raisings) until June
2016, and Keller was identified as Rene Gagnon (carried the second flag up
Mount Suribachi) until October 2019. All of the men served in the 5th Marine
Division on Iwo Jima.
The Associated Press
has relinquished its copyright to the photograph, placing it in the public
domain.
Background
On February 19,
1945, the United States invaded Iwo Jima as part of its island-hopping strategy
to defeat Japan. Iwo Jima originally was not a target, but the relatively quick
fall of the Philippines left the Americans with a longer-than-expected lull
prior to the planned invasion of Okinawa. Iwo Jima is located halfway between
Japan and the Mariana Islands, where American long-range bombers were based,
and was used by the Japanese as an early warning station, radioing warnings of
incoming American bombers to the Japanese homeland. The Americans, after capturing
the island, weakened the Japanese early warning system, and used it as an emergency
landing strip for damaged bombers.
Iwo Jima is a
volcanic island, shaped like a trapezoid. Marines on the island described it as
“a large, gray pork chop”. The island was heavily fortified, and the invading
Marines suffered high casualties. Politically, the island is part of the prefecture
of Tokyo. 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.
The island is
dominated by Mount Suribachi, a 546-foot (166 m) dormant volcanic cone at the
southern tip of the island. Tactically, the top of Suribachi was one of the
most important locations on the island. From that vantage point, the Japanese defenders
were able to spot artillery accurately onto the Americans—particularly the
landing beaches. The Japanese fought most of the battle from underground
bunkers and pillboxes. It was common for Marines to disable a pillbox using
grenades or flamethrowers, only to come under renewed fire from it a few
minutes later, after replacement Japanese infantry arrived into the pillbox
through a tunnel. The American effort concentrated on isolating and capturing
Suribachi first, a goal that was achieved on February 23, 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 March 26.
Two Flag Raisings
There were two
American flags raised on top of Mount Suribachi, on February 23, 1945. The
photograph Rosenthal took was actually of the second flag-raising in which a
larger replacement flag was raised by Marines who did not raise the first flag.
Raising the First Flag
A U.S. flag was
first raised atop Mount Suribachi soon after the mountaintop was captured at
around 10:20 on February 23, 1945.
Lieutenant Colonel
Chandler Johnson, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, 5th
Marine Division, ordered Marine Captain Dave Severance, commander of Easy
Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, to send a platoon to seize and occupy the
crest of Mount Suribachi. First Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier, executive officer
of Easy Company, who had replaced the wounded Third Platoon commander, John
Keith Wells, volunteered to lead a 40-man combat patrol up the mountain.
Lieutenant Colonel Johnson (or 1st Lieutenant George G. Wells, the battalion
adjutant, whose job it was to carry the flag) had taken the
54-by-28-inch/140-by-71-centimeter flag from the battalion’s transport ship,
USS Missoula, and handed the flag to Schrier. Johnson said to Schrier, “If you
get to the top, put it up.” Schrier assembled the patrol at 8 am to begin the
climb up the mountain.
Despite the large
numbers of Japanese troops in the immediate vicinity, Schrier’s patrol made it
to the rim of the crater at about 10:15 am, having come under little or no
enemy fire, as the Japanese were being bombarded at the time. The flag was attached
by Schrier and two Marines to a Japanese iron water pipe found on top, and the
flagstaff was raised and planted by Schrier, assisted by Platoon Sergeant
Ernest Thomas and Sergeant Oliver Hansen at about 10:30 am (on February 25,
during a CBS press interview aboard the flagship USS Eldorado about the
flag-raising, Thomas stated that he, Schrier, and Hansen (platoon guide) had
actually raised the flag). The raising of the national colors immediately
caused a loud cheering reaction from the Marines, sailors, and coast guardsmen
on the beach below and from the men on the ships near the beach. The loud noise
made by the servicemen and blasts of the ship horns alerted the Japanese, who
up to this point had stayed in their cave bunkers. Schrier and his men near the
flagstaff then came under fire from Japanese troops, but the Marines quickly
eliminated the threat. Schrier was later awarded the Navy Cross for
volunteering to take the patrol up Mount Suribachi and raising the American
flag, and a Silver Star Medal for a heroic action in March while in command of
D Company, 2/28 Marines on Iwo Jima.
Photographs of the
first flag flown on Mount Suribachi were taken by Staff Sergeant Louis R.
Lowery of Leatherneck magazine, who accompanied the patrol up the mountain, and
other photographers. Others involved with the first flag-raising include
Corporal Charles W. Lindberg, Privates First Class James Michels and Raymond
Jacobs, Private Phil Ward, and Navy corpsman John Bradley This flag was too
small, however, to be easily seen from the northern side of Mount Suribachi,
where heavy fighting would go on for several more days.
The Secretary of the
Navy, James Forrestal, 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, 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 Second
Battalion’s flag flying on Mt. Suribachi as a souvenir. The news of this wish
did not sit well with 2nd Battalion 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 obtain a replacement flag. As an afterthought, Johnson called after
Tuttle: “And make it a bigger one.” — James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers
Raising the Second Flag
The photograph taken
by Rosenthal was the second flag-raising on top of Mount Suribachi, on February
23, 1945.
On orders from
Colonel Chandler Johnson—passed on by Easy Company’s commander, Captain Dave
Severance—Sergeant Michael Strank, one of Second Platoon’s squad leaders, was
to take three members of his rifle squad (Corporal Harlon H. Block and Privates
First Class Franklin R. Sousley and Ira H. Hayes) and climb up Mount Suribachi
to raise a replacement flag on top; the three took supplies or laid telephone
wire on the way up to the top. Severance also dispatched Private First Class
Rene A. Gagnon, the battalion runner (messenger) for Easy Company, to the
command post for fresh SCR-300 walkie-talkie batteries to take to the top.
Meanwhile,
Lieutenant Albert Theodore Tuttle under Johnson’s orders, had found a large
(96-by-56–inch) flag in nearby Tank Landing Ship USS LST-779. He made his way
back to the command post and gave it to Johnson. Johnson, in turn, gave it to
Rene Gagnon, with orders to take it up to Schrier on Mount Suribachi and raise
it. The official Marine Corps history of the event is that Tuttle received the
flag from Navy Ensign Alan Wood of USS LST-779, who in turn had received the
flag from a supply depot in Pearl Harbor. Severance had confirmed that the
second larger flag was in fact provided by Alan Wood even though Wood could not
recognize any of the pictures of the 2nd flag raisers as Gagnon. The flag was
sewn by Mabel Sauvageau, a worker at the “flag loft” of the Mare Island Naval
Shipyard.
First Lieutenant
George Greeley Wells, who had been the Second Battalion, 28th Marines adjutant
officially in charge of the two American flags flown on Mount Suribachi, stated
in the New York Times in 1991, that Lieutenant Colonel Johnson ordered him
(Wells) to get the second flag, and that he (Wells) sent Rene Gagnon his
battalion runner, to the ships on shore for the flag, and that Gagnon returned
with a flag and gave it to him (Wells), and that Gagnon took this flag up Mt.
Suribachi with a message for Schrier to raise it and send the other flag down
with Gagnon. Wells stated that he received the first flag back from Gagnon and
secured it at the Marine headquarters command post. Wells also stated that he
had handed the first flag to Lieutenant Schrier to take up Mount Suribachi.
The Coast Guard
Historian’s Office recognizes the claims made by former U.S. Coast Guardsman
Quartermaster Robert Resnick, who served aboard the USS Duval County at Iwo
Jima. “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 a flag
from a bunting box and asked permission from his ship’s commanding officer Lt.
Felix Molenda to donate it. Resnick kept quiet about his participation until
2001.”
Rosenthal’s Photograph
Strank with his
three Marines, and Gagnon, reached the top of the mountain around noon without
being fired upon. Rosenthal, along with Marine photographers Sergeant Bill
Genaust (who was killed in action after the flag-raising) and Private First
Class Bob Campbell were climbing Suribachi at this time. On the way up, the
trio met Lowery, who had photographed the first flag-raising, coming down. They
considered turning around, but Lowery told them that the summit was an
excellent vantage point from which to take photographs. The three photographers
reached the summit as the Marines were attaching the flag to an old Japanese
water pipe.
Rosenthal put his
Speed Graphic camera on the ground (set to 1/400 sec shutter speed, with the
f-stop between 8 and 11 and Agfa film) so he could pile rocks to stand on for a
better vantage point. In doing so, he nearly missed the shot. The Marines began
raising the flag. Realizing he was about to miss the action, Rosenthal quickly
swung his camera up and snapped the photograph without using the viewfinder.
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.
Sergeant Genaust,
who was standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder with Rosenthal about three feet
away, was shooting motion-picture film during the second flag-raising. His film
captures the second event at an almost-identical angle to Rosenthal’s shot. Of
the six flag-raisers in the picture—Ira Hayes, Harold Schultz (identified in
June 2016), Michael Strank, Franklin Sousley, Harold Keller (identified in
2019), and Harlon Block—only Hayes, Keller (Marine corporal Rene Gagnon was incorrectly
identified in the Rosenthal flag-raising photo), and Schultz (Navy corpsman
John Bradley was incorrectly identified) survived the battle. Strank and Block
were killed on March 1, six days after the flag-raising, Strank by a shell,
possibly fired from an offshore American destroyer and Block a few hours later
by a mortar round. Sousley was shot and killed by a Japanese 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 to be developed and printed.
George Tjaden of Hendricks, Minnesota, was likely the technician who printed
it. Upon seeing it, Associated Press (AP) photograph editor John Bodkin exclaimed
“Here’s one for all time!” and immediately transmitted the image to the AP
headquarters in New York City at 7:00 am, Eastern War Time. The photograph was
quickly picked up off the wire 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
photograph was not without controversy. Following the second flag-raising,
Rosenthal had the Marines of Easy Company pose for a group shot, the “gung-ho”
shot. A few days after the photograph was taken, Rosenthal—back on Guam—was
asked if he had posed the photograph. Thinking the questioner was referring to
the ‘gung-ho’ photograph, he replied “Sure.” After that, Robert Sherrod, a
Time-Life correspondent, told his editors in New York that Rosenthal had staged
the flag-raising photograph. Time’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 photograph or covering up the first
flag-raising. One New York Times book reviewer even went so far as to suggest
revoking his Pulitzer Prize. In the following decades, 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.”
Incorrect Identifications
President Franklin
D. Roosevelt, upon seeing Rosenthal’s flag-raising photograph, saw its
potential to use for the upcoming Seventh War Loan Drive to help fund the war effort.
He then ordered the flag-raisers to be identified and sent to Washington, D.C.
after the fighting on the island ended (March 26, 1945).
Rosenthal did not
take the names of those in the photograph. On April 7, Rene Gagnon was the
first of the second “flag-raisers” to arrive in Washington, D.C. Using an
enlargement of the photograph that did not show the faces of the flag-raisers,
he named himself, Henry Hansen, Franklin Sousley, John Bradley, and Michael
Strank, as being in the photograph. He initially refused to name Ira Hayes, as
Hayes did not want the publicity and threatened him with physical harm.
However, upon being summoned to Marine headquarters and told that refusal to
name the last flag-raiser was a serious crime, he identified the sixth flag-raiser
as Hayes.
President Roosevelt
died on April 12, 1945. On April 19, Bradley (then on crutches) and Hayes
arrived in Washington, D.C. On April 20, the three surviving second
flag-raisers, identified then as Gagnon, Bradley, and Hayes, met President Truman
in the White House. On May 9, during a ceremony at the nation's capital, the
three men raised the original second flag to initiate the bond tour which began
on May 11 in New York City. On May 24, Hayes was taken off the tour due to
problems caused by drinking alcohol and ordered back to his company and
regiment which had returned back to Hawaii. Gagnon and Bradley completed the
tour which ended on July 4 in Washington, D.C. The bond drive was a success,
raising $26.3 billion, twice the tour’s goal.
Harlon Block and Henry Hansen
Gagnon misidentified
Corporal Harlon Block as Sergeant Henry O. “Hank” Hansen in Rosenthal’s photo
(both were killed in action on March 1). Initially, Bradley concurred with all
of Gagnon’s identifications. On April 8, 1945, the Marine Corps released the
identification of five of the six flag raisers, including Hansen rather than
Block (Sousley’s identity was temporarily withheld pending notification of his
family of his death during the battle.) Block’s mother, Belle Block, refused to
accept the official identification, noting that she had “changed so many
diapers on that boy’s butt, I know it’s my boy.” When Hayes was interviewed
about the identities of the flag raisers and shown a photo of the flag raising
by a Marine public relations officer on April 19, he told the officer that it
was definitely Harlon Block and not Hansen at the base of the flagpole. The
lieutenant colonel then told Hayes that the identifications had already been
officially released, and ordered Hayes to keep silent about it (during the
investigation, the colonel denied Hayes told him about Block). Block, Sousley,
and Hayes were close friends in the same squad of Second Platoon, E Company,
while Hansen, who helped raise the first flag, was a member of Third Platoon, E
Company.
In 1946, Hayes
hitchhiked to Texas and informed Block’s parents that their son had, in fact,
been one of the six flag raisers. Block’s mother, Belle, immediately sent the
letter that Hayes had given her to her congressional representative Milton
West. West, in turn, forwarded the letter to Marine Corps Commandant Alexander
Vandegrift, who ordered an investigation. John Bradley (formerly in Third
Platoon with Hansen), upon being shown the evidence (Hansen, a former
Paramarine, wore his large parachutist boots in an exposed manner on Iwo Jima),
agreed that it was probably Block and not Hansen. In January 1947, the Marine
Corps officially announced it was Block in the photograph and not Hansen at the
base of the flagpole. Hayes also was named as being in the far left position of
the flag raisers replacing the position Sousley was determined to have had up
until then; Sousley was now in back of and to the right of Strank (in 2016,
Harold Schutz was named in this position and Sousley was named in the position
where Bradley was named).
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 [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.
Harold H. Schultz and John
Bradley
On June 23, 2016,
the Marine Corps publicly announced that Marine Corporal (then Private First
Class) Harold Schultz was one of the flag-raisers and Navy corpsman John
Bradley was not one of the flag-raisers in Rosenthal’s second flag-raising photograph.
Harold Schultz was identified as being in Franklin Sousley’s position to the
right and in front of Ira Hayes, and Sousley was identified as being in
Bradley’s position to the right and behind Rene Gagnon (identified as Harold
Keller in 2019) behind Harlon Block at the base of the flagpole. Bradley and
Schultz had been present when both flags were actually raised, while Sousley
was only on Mount Suribachi when he helped raise the second flag.
Bradley, who died in
1994, seldom did an interview about the famous second flag-raising,
occasionally deflecting questions by claiming he had forgotten. He changed his
story numerous times, saying that he raised or pitched in to raise the flag,
and also that he was on, and not on, Mount Suribachi when the first flag was
raised. Within his family, it was considered a taboo subject, and when they
received calls or invitations to speak on certain holidays, they were told to
say he was away fishing at his cottage. At the time of Bradley’s death, his son
James said that he knew almost nothing about his father’s wartime experiences.
James Bradley spent four years interviewing and researching the topic and
published a nonfiction book entitled Flags of Our Fathers (2000) about the
flag-raising and its participants. The book, which was a bestseller, was later
adapted into a 2006 film of the same name, directed by Clint Eastwood.
After being
honorably discharged, Schultz moved to California and made his career with the
United States Postal Service. He was part of the group of Marines and corpsmen
who posed for Rosenthal’s second “gung ho” photo. He died in 1995.
The possibility that
any flag-raiser had been misidentified was publicly raised for the first time
in November 2014 by Eric Krelle an amateur historian and collector of World War
II-era Marine Corps memorabilia, and an Irish citizen and amateur historian
named Stephen Foley. Studying other photographs taken that day and video
footage, Krelle and Foley argued that Franklin Sousley was in the fourth
position (left to right) instead of Bradley and Harold Schultz of Los Angeles
(originally from Detroit) was in the second position, previously identified as
Sousley. Initially, Marine Corps historians and officials did not accept those
findings, but began their own investigation. On June 23, 2016, they confirmed
Krelle’s and Foley’s findings, stating that Schultz was in Sousley’s place,
Sousley was standing next to Block, and that Bradley was not in the photo at
all. James Bradley has also changed his mind, stating that he no longer
believes his father is depicted in the famous photograph.
Harold Keller and Rene Gagnon
On October 16, 2019,
the Marine Corps announced that Marine Corporal Harold Keller was the
flag-raiser previously identified as Rene Gagnon in the Rosenthal’s photograph.
Stephen Foley, filmmaker Dustin Spence, and Brent Westemeyer were key to this
revised identification. Photos and video footage showed that the man (originally
identified as Gagnon) had a wedding ring, which matched Keller, who had married
in 1944 (Gagnon was not married at the time). The man also did not have a
facial mole, as Gagnon did. Finally, a photo which captured the lowering of the
first flag verified what Gagnon had looked like that day, which did not match
the second man in the Rosenthal photo.
Legacy
Rosenthal’s
photograph won the 1945 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 greatly impressed by the photo. Navy Captain T.B. Clark was on
duty at Patuxent Air Station in Maryland that Saturday when it came humming off
the wire in 1945. He studied it for a minute, and then thrust it under the gaze
of Navy Petty Officer Felix de Weldon. 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.
Within 72 hours of the photo’s release, he had replicated the six boys pushing
a pole, raising a flag. Upon seeing the finished model, the Marine Corps
commandant had de Weldon assigned to the Marine Corps until de Weldon was
discharged from the navy after the war was over.
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. Hayes, Gagnon,
and Bradley, posed for de Weldon, who used their faces as a model. The three
Marine flag raisers who did not survive the battle were sculpted from
photographs.
The flag-raising
Rosenthal (and Genaust) photographed was the replacement flag/flagstaff for the
first flag/flagstaff that was raised on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945.
There was some resentment from former Marines of the original 40-man patrol
that went up Mount Suribachi including by those involved with the first
flag-raising, that they did not receive the recognition they deserved. These
included Staff Sgt. Lou Lowery, who took the first photos of the first flag
flying over Mt. Suribachi; Charles W. Lindberg, who helped tie the first
American flag to the first flagpole on Mount Suribachi (and who was, until his
death in June 2007, one of the last living persons depicted in either flag-flying
scene), who complained for several years that he helped to raise the flag and
“was called a liar and everything else. It was terrible” (because of all the
recognition and publicity over and directed to the replacement flag-raisers and
that flag-raising); and Raymond Jacobs, photographed with the patrol commander
around the base of the first flag flying over Mt. Suribachi, who complained
until he died in 2008 that he was still not recognized by the Marine Corps by
name as being the radioman in the photo.
The original
Rosenthal 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, 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 in Quantico, Virginia.
Ira Hayes, following
the war, was plagued with depression brought on by survivor guilt and became an
alcoholic. His tragic life, and death in 1955 at the age of 32, were
memorialized in the 1961 motion picture The Outsider, starring Tony Curtis as
Hayes, and the folk song “The Ballad of Ira Hayes”, written by Peter LaFarge
and recorded by Johnny Cash in 1964. Bob Dylan later covered the song, as did
Kinky Friedman. 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.
Rene Gagnon, his
wife, and his son visited Tokyo and Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima during the 20th
anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima in 1965. After the war, he worked at
Delta Air Lines as a ticket agent, opened his own travel agency, and was a
maintenance director of an apartment complex in Manchester, New Hampshire. He
died while at work in 1979, age 54.
In Other Media
Rosenthal’s
photograph has been reproduced in a number of other formats. It appeared on 3.5
million posters for the Seventh War Bond drive. It has also been reproduced
with many unconventional media such as Lego bricks, butter, ice, Etch A Sketch
and corn mazes.
The Iwo Jima
flag-raising has been depicted in other films including 1949’s Sands of Iwo
Jima (in which the three surviving flag raisers make a cameo appearance at the
end of the film) and 1961’s The Outsider, a biography of Ira Hayes starring
Tony Curtis.
In July 1945, the
United States Postal Service released a postage stamp bearing the image. The
U.S. 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 released a commemorative silver dollar bearing the image.
A similar photograph
was taken by Thomas E. Franklin of the Bergen 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, and
shows three firefighters raising a U.S. flag in the ruins of the World Trade
Center shortly after 5 pm. Painter Jamie Wyeth also painted a related image
entitled September 11th based on this scene. It illustrates rescue workers
raising a flag at Ground Zero. Other iconic photographs frequently compared
include V–J day in Times Square, Into the Jaws of Death, Raising a flag over
the Reichstag, and the Raising of the Ink Flag.
The highly
recognizable image is one of the most parodied photographs in history. Anti-war
activists in the 1960s altered the flag to bear a peace symbol, as well as
several anti-establishment artworks. Edward Kienholz’s Portable War Memorial in
1968 depicted faceless Marines raising the flag on an outdoor picnic table in a
typical American consumerist environment of the 1960s. It was parodied again
during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979 to depict the flag being planted into
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s behind. In the early 2000s, to represent gay
pride, photographer Ed Freeman shot a photograph for the cover of an issue of
Frontiers magazine, reenacting the scene with a rainbow flag instead of an
American flag. Time magazine 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. The British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses
Association likewise came under criticism in 2010 for a poster depicting
employees raising a flag marked “BASSA” at the edge of a runway.
Bibliography
Alexander, Joseph H. (1994). Closing In:
Marines in the Seizure of Iwo Jima. Marines in World War II Commemorative
Series. Washington, D.C.: History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S.
Marine Corps.
Bradley, James (2006) [2000]. Flags of Our
Fathers. New York: Bantam.
Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World at Arms: A
Global History of World War II. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Further Reading
Buell, Hal, ed. (2006). Uncommon Valor,
Common Virtue: Iwo Jima and the Photograph that Captured America. Berkeley, CA:
Penguin.
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| Marines await orders, February 1945. |
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| Patrol preparing to depart, February 1945. |
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| Patrol moves out, February 1945. |
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| Marine patrol, February 1945. |
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| Patrol moves out, February 1945. |
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| Marines with litters, February 1945. |
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| Marines with litters move up Mt. Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Marine patrol, February 1945. |
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| Skirting a bunker, February 1945. |
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| Climbing Suribachi with a flag, February 1945. |
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| Climbing Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Nearing the top, February 1945. |
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| Along the ridge line, February 1945. |
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| Patrol moving up Mt. Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Patrol moves out, February 1945. |
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| Advancing to the top of Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Trekking to the top of Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Marines with flamethrowers, February 1945. |
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| The patrol atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| The patrol atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Staying vigilant atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Advancing on Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Marines atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Staying vigilant atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Marines atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Moving up Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| In position to raise the flag, February 1945. |
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| Preparing the flag atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Preparing to raise the first flag. Men of the 3rd Platoon tie the first flag to a piece of Japanese pipe near the crest of Suribachi. Left to right: 1st Lt. Harold G. Schrier, Platoon Sgt. Ernest I. Thomas, Jr., Sgt. Henry O. Hansen, and Charles W. Lindberg. Photograph taken by Marine combat photographer Louis R. Lowery. |
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| Marines use a Japanese drainpipe as a flagpole, February 1945. |
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| Prepping the flag, February 1945. |
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| Preparing the flagpole atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| 1st Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier (holding receiver, lower left) reports back that the flag has been raised, February 1945. |
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| Marine Staff Sergeant Lou Lowery’s photo of the first U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi. Life magazine in its 26 March 1945 issue was the first to publish this photograph by Lowery and to identify this flag as the first flag raised. Left to right: 1st Lt. Harold Schrier (left side of radioman), Pfc. Raymond Jacobs (radioman), Sgt. Henry Hansen (soft cap, holding flagstaff), Pvt. Phil Ward (holding lower flagstaff), Platoon Sgt. Ernest Thomas (seated), PhM2c. Bradley, USN (holding flagstaff above Ward), Pfc. James Michels (holding M1 carbine), and Cpl. Charles W. Lindberg (standing above Michels). |
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| PFC James Michels (foreground with M1 carbine) after flag raising, February 1945. |
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| After raising the first flag, February 1945. |
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| First flag raising, February 1945. |
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| First flag raising, February 1945. |
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| First flag raising, February 1945. |
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| First flag raising, February 1945. |
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| Marines from the patrol rest below the first American flag raised atop Mt. Suribachi. |
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| This photograph by Lowery, taken after the first flag was raised, was used as the basis for a bas-relief on a monument to Platoon Sergeant Ernest I. Thomas in Monticello, Florida. Sergeant Thomas, standing in front of the flagpole and facing the camera, was killed in action eight days later. |
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| The first flag was raised on Mt. Suribachi Feb. 23, 1945, at around 10:20 a.m., but the fighting wasn’t over on Suribachi, and even after the mountain was secured, the battle on other parts of the island would continue for a month. In the foreground, facing the camera, is Pfc. Louis Charlo, who was part of the earlier morning patrol that found Suribachi nearly undefended, and was present for both flag raisings. He was killed in action a week later while attempting to rescue a wounded Marine. |
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| Standing guard atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Radioman PFC Raymond Jacobs looks down from atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Standing guard atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Marine with pistol drawn, February 1945. |
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| Marines and flamethrower, February 1945. |
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| Alert atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| View from atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| This black-and-white photo provided by the National Archives which shows Marines raising Old Glory on the summit of Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi, is an enlargement from a sixteen-millimeter movie frame exposed by Marine Combat Photographer Sgt. William H. Genaust on February 23, 1945. Sgt. Genaust was attached to the Fifth Marine Division and worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Associated Press cameraman Joe Rosenthal at the time of the historic incident. |
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| Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, by Joe Rosenthal. 23 February 1945. |
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| Marine Corps photo of the two flags on Mount Suribachi (Pfc. Gagnon in forefront, helping to lower the first flag). |
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| Steadying the second flag after its raising. |
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| Second flag raised. |
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| Rosenthal taking the “Gung Ho” photo. Genaust with movie camera is to Rosenthal’s left. With both photographers having almost exactly the same vantage point for the scene of the flag raising, helped prove that Rosenthal’s photo was not staged. |
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| Eighteen young Marines stand atop Mt. Suribachi, February 23, 1945, for a photo taken by Joe Rosenthal. The picture became known as the “Gung Ho” photo. Note Genaust to the left of Rosenthal with a movie camera. |
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| Eighteen young Marines stand atop Mt. Suribachi, February 23, 1945, for a photo taken by Joe Rosenthal. The picture became known as the “Gung Ho” photo. |
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| The men in the “Gung Ho” photo identified. Thurman is standing on the far left with his helmet in the air behind Cpl. Ira Hayes. Block (center, behind Sgt. Henry Hansen, soft cap). |
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| A Marine relieves himself as he stands on a hilltop overlooking the devastation wreaked during the battle of Iwo Jima. |
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| Cpl. Harold “Pie” Keller, right, shakes hands with Sgt. Howard Snyder, left, as they stand on the rim of Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima between the first and second flag raisings on February 23, 1945. |
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| “From the crest of Mount Suribachi, the Stars and Stripes wave in triumph over Iwo Jima after U.S. Marines had fought their way inch by inch up its steep lava-encrusted slopes, February 1945”. |
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| Joe Rosenthal atop Mt. Suribachi. |
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| Joe Rosenthal, 1945. |
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| View from atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Atop Suribachi, February 1945. |
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| Looking down on Green Beach, February 1945. |
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| Thomas, right, is congratulated by Gen. Holland M. Smith aboard the flagship Eldorado. On the left is Marine combat correspondent Keyes Beech; Beech would later accompany the surviving raisers of the second flag on the nationwide Mighty Seventh bond tour. |
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| U.S. postage stamp, 1945 issue, commemorating the battle of Iwo Jima. |
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| Excerpt from letter of Admiral Raymond Ames Spruance, U.S. Navy, to his wife, Margaret Spruance, March 13, 1945. Admiral Spruance wrote this letter during World War II regarding the historic “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” photograph by Joe Rosenthal. This framed excerpt is located at the model of the Marine Corps War Memorial at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. The text of the letter is: “A couple of days ago ? I sent you rolled up in a mailing tube the finest photograph this war has given us up-to-date. It is the Marines raising the U.S. flag on top of Suribachi. When we settle down, I want [to] have this picture framed. Some first class sculptor should do this in bronze, it is so perfect.” |
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| The flags from the first and second flag-raisings are preserved in the National Museum of the Marine Corps; the second flag, pictured here, was damaged by the high winds at the peak of Suribachi. |
