On this day, during the battle for Iwo Jima,
U.S. Marines raise the American flag atop Mt. Suribachi, the highest point
on the island of Iwo Jima and a key strategic point. An Associated Press
photographer captured a restaging of the flag raising, and the resulting
photograph became a defining image of the war.
The amphibious landings of Marines, after
severe and relentless bombing of the island, began the morning of February
19, 1945, as the secretary of the navy, James Forrestal, accompanied by
journalists, surveyed the scene from a command ship offshore. As the Marines
made their way onto the island, seven Japanese battalions opened fire on the
9,000 Marines headed for them. By that evening, more than 550 Marines were
dead and more than 1,800 were wounded.
In the face of such fierce counterattack, the
Americans reconciled themselves to the fact that Iwo Jima could be taken
only one yard at a time. A key position on the island was Mt. Suribachi, the
center of the Japanese defense. The 28th Marine Regiment closed in and
around the base of the volcanic mountain at the rate of 400 yards per day,
employing flamethrowers, grenades, and demolition charges against the
Japanese hidden in caves and pillboxes (low concrete emplacements for
machine-gun nests). Approximately 40 Marines finally began a climb up the
volcanic ash mountain, which was smoking from the constant bombardment, and
at 10 a.m. on February 23, a half-dozen Marines raised an American flag on
the peak--but not before disposing of a Japanese officer who attempted to
prevent them. A pipe was used as a flag post. With Mt. Suribachi claimed,
one-third of Iwo Jima was under American control.
Two photographers caught the flag raising on
film: Marine photographer Sgt. Louis R. Lowery, and AP photographer Joe
Rosenthal. Lowery's film was sent back to military headquarters for
processing via ordinary army post--and took a month to arrive. Rosenthal's
snapshot was of a restaged flag raising, with a much bigger and more
photogenic Stars and Stripes, enacted four hours after the original event.
His film was sent by seaplane to Guam, and sent from there via radio-photo
to the United States. The photograph so impressed President Roosevelt that
he ordered the men pictured in it to return home for a publicity tour.
"The raising of the flag on Suribachi means a
Marine Corps for the next 500 years," predicted Secretary Forrestal.
http://www.nps.gov/gwmp/usmc.htm
http://www.iwojima.com/
http://www.nps.gov/gwmp/usmc.htm
