Flags of Our Fathers

By James Bradley

2nd flag famous shot

This picture is the most reproduced picture in history and the book Flags of Our Fathers is about this picture and the men who raised it.

Iwo jima map large scale

• The story of the flag is part of the larger story about the Battle for Iwo Jima.

• Iwo Jima is in the outer ring of islands that the Japanese consider home.

• Iwo Jima covers 8 square miles and was created by the volcano named Suribachi.

Suribochi

• This is Mount Suribachi, a 556 foot high extinct volcano that created the island of Iwo Jima.

• During the battle the Japanese had 1,500 underground fortifications on the island all connected with 16 miles of tunnels.

• During the battle the US Marines fought ON Iwo Jima but the Japanese fought IN Iwo Jima

This map show some of the 1,500 fortifications the Japanese had on Iwo Jima

This is the view of Mount Suribachi from an airplane

Crater of the volcano

The rest of the island

American landing craft

Brief about battleBeginning on February 19, 71,245 Marines land on Iwo Jima, 5,931 were killed and 17,372 were wounded by the end of the battle on March 25.

Japanese General Kuribayashi has 22,000 defenders. The Japanese called their troops “Issen Gorin”

"Issen Gorin" translates to "one yen, five rin", the cost of mailing a draft notice postcard (less than an American penny). The name Issen Gorin was the name Japanese Officers and powerful military personnel used to refer to the average Japanese soldier. Meaning that the individuals responsible for the wellbeing of the Japanese soldiers viewed the soldiers as being worth less than a penny. In their abusive training and continued treatment during World War II, the Japanese soldiers were constantly reminded by their superiors that they are nothing butworthless Issen Gorin and, therefore, they should be entirely prepared to sacrifice themselves for the emperor

216 Japanese defenders survived, all the rest died for their Emperor

Shot of landing

Photo of landings on Iwo Jima

Mount SuribachiEach of these wakes are made by landing craft with 30 Marines in them Landing Beaches

The following information comes from the book Flags of Our Fathers. It was written by James Bradley who’s father was one of the flag raisers.

Growing up James knew his father had raised the flag on Iwo Jima but what he learned about the event after his father past away did fill a book. And a very readable one at that.

Set-up for picture

There were 3 beliefs/myths about the “Flag Raising on Mount Suribachi”

#1 There was only one flag raising and Joe Rosenthal took the famous photograph of it.

#2 The flag raising marked the successful conclusion of this bloody battle. #3 The Rosenthal photograph was

posed, staged or faked.

Flag on climb up

Marine Sergeant Lou Lowery, a photographer joined the 1st Lieutenant Schrier’s

3rd platoon of Easy Companies patrol to climb the mountain. Everyone expected

the patrol to be attacked on its climb up Suribachi. There were still a substantial

number of Japanese soldiers IN the many caves and tunnels. (150 Japanese

soldiers were in the caves days later)

This picture shows the original 54”X28” flag being passed forward.

The patrol was not attacked until after it reached the summit.

February 23,1944 D+4

1st flag prepare to go up• Another

shot by Marine Sergeant Lou Lowery. This shows the original flag being prepared to be raised.

1st flag raising

• (Left) This is Marine Sergeant Lou Lowery’s photo of the original flag raising.

• This picture captured the historic moment when the American flag flew over the first piece of land EVER captured from the nation of Japan.

• Lowery was the only photographer on the mountain at this time. This is the flag that caused so much emotion for the American Marines and Sailors.

• This was the event that everyone thought was captured by the Joe Rosenthal picture (seen below).

1st flag up

• Another Lou Lowery picture. The original flag is up, secure and all the Americans on the island are yelling and hollering, the hundreds of ships around the island are blowing their horns.

• This event was a huge emotional lift to the Americans. The men who actually did it are listed on the photo. These are not the men who became the famous “Flag Raisers From Iwo Jima”.

When the flag first appeared on Mount Suribachi Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal was so taken by the sight that heturned to Marine General Holland “Howlin’ Mad” Smith and said “That flag means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years”. Forrestal also decided that he wanted the flag as a souvenir. The order to give the flag to a stranger, even if he was the Navy Secretary, didn’t sit well with Easy Companies commander Colonel Chandler Johnson who quickly found another flag to put up so he could keep the original flag for Easy Company.

The second flag came from LST 779 and was from the salvage yard in Pearl Harbor and likely survived the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941 that started this war.

famous2

• Hours later, AP photographer Joe Rosenthal stood on a few rocks, turned to talk with another photographer and almost missed this shot of a replacement flag bring raised. Joe didn’t aim and didn’t know until several days later that the picture even came out.

• When the world saw this picture they assumed it was of the original flag raising. They didn’t know there were two flags put up that day.

1st down 2nd up

• This picture would have explained what really happened that day on Suribachi. In the background is the SECOND flag that went up that Joe Rosenthal took the famous picture of. In the front is the original flag being taken down.

• Everyone involved with the Joe Rosenthal picture was very surprised about its importance. They knew it was just a replacement of the REAL flag.

• The replacement flag raising was looked on with all the importance of replacing a football during a game…no one paid any attention to it when it happened. James Bradley

This is the original flagBeing lowered.

This is the replacement flag going up that became famous

2nd flag

• This is a color still shot from Bill Genaust who was the only movie photographer on the mountain that morning. This larger replacement flag actually came from LST #779

• On the extreme lower right is the back of a Marine who is helping to take down the original or “REAL” Iwo Jima flag.

• Bill Genaust was killed on Iwo Jima.

2nd flag staged shot

(Right) After the second flag was raised and the “soon to be famous” picture was already taken, Joe Rosenthal had all the Marines in the area pose with the replacement flag. This shot with the whole island of Iwo Jima behind them was the picture that everyone thought would be famous.

(Left) This is a photo of Joe Rosenthal taking the “posed picture shown above.

Joe RosenthalThis is Joe Rosenthal the AP photographer who captured 1/400th of a second on film, the most famous photo ever taken.

He didn’t even look through the viewfinder on his Kodak camera when he took the picture.

He remembers that moment “I swung my camera around and held it until I could guess that this was the peak of the action and shot.”

2nd flag with view of beachA shot of the replacement flag on Suribachi. From this height you can clearly see the landing beachesTo the right of the Marine and the rest of the island behind him.

This replacement flag flew on Suribachi for three weeks before it was so shredded by the wind that it to had to be replaced.

Fam 2When this photo was released to the public on February 25, 1944 (3 days after it was taken) it immediately became popular. Every newspaper in the US ran it on the front page and many newspapers reprinted it on cardboard so people could frame it.

The President, FDR, realized how important this photo was and wanted these Marines to return to the US as hero’s and help sell war bonds. By that time three of the six Marines in this photo were dead and a fourth badly wounded.

The Picture

The following slides give a short history of each of

these men.

Who Were these Flag Raisers?

Mike StrankMichael Strank was the son of Czech immigrants who lived and worked in the coal fields of Pennsylvania. The rugged sergeant had enlisted in 1939 after Nazi Germany had swallowed his parents' homeland and fought on Bougainville with the Marine Raider Battalion (an elite force).

He was a considered an ideal Marine

Mike Strank was the first flag raiser killed, just 6 days later. He was leading his platoon across an open area when some Japanese snipers started shooting. He and several other Marines hid behind a rock when a shell exploded next to them.

Mike Strank merited a posthumous Bronze Star. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

The explosion tore his chest open and ripped out his heart. Harlon Block took over the platoon.

Harlon BlockHarlon H. Block joined the Marines after graduating high school with his entire championship Weslaco High School football team (He was an All-State receiver).

He volunteered for parachute duty and served in the same battalion as Hayes on Bougainville.

Harlon took over the platoon when Mike Strank got killed, 6 days after the flag raising. Harlon only lived a few more hours. He was also killed by an explosion.

Harlon was miss-identified in the photo as Henry Hanson but Harlon’s mother was convinced that was her son’s butt in the photo, “I don’t care what the papers say, I know my boy”. Since both Harlon and Henry were killed(on the same day) No one believed her. Many years later she learned she was correct. Ira Hayes walked across Arizona and New Mexico into Texas to the Block farm to tell the family thatIt was Harlon in the picture not Henry Hanson.

Franklin Sousley Franklin R. Sousley, his father died when he was 9 and Franklin assumed “Man of the House” responsibilities on the small Kentucky farm they lived on. Friends said that he was always happy but had to spend all free time working on the farm.

Franklin was shot and died on March 21, 27 days after raising the flag.When Franklin’s mother, Goldie, learned of his death the neighbors heard her scream and cry all night and into the next morning. They lived a quarter mile from Goldie’s house

Rene Gagnon Rene A. Gagnon, born in New Hampshire from French-Canadian parents. Worked in a mill with his mother and girl friend. Wanted to be a marine because he thought he could pick up more girls wearing a Marine uniform.

He was not considered good enough to be a combat Marine and was a “runner”. He delivered radio batteries and the replacement flag up Suribachi.

He only shot his gun once during the battle.

Rene believed that this event would make him set for life. It didn’t. He had great trouble finding work after the war.He was the only surviving flag raiser who liked the attention the event brought him.

The end of his life was unhappy. A newspaper printed an unflattering Memorial Day interview in 1978 that got him fired from his job as a motel desk clerk. A year later he died of a heart attack while working as a maintenance man for an apartment complex. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery

John BradleyJohn H. Bradley, "a solid guy with a sense of humor," had completed his apprenticeship to a Wisconsin funeral director when he enlisted in the Navy to become a corpsman. wounded

The Corps conferred a Navy Cross on Bradley for aiding Marines under fire. He was, in fact, treating Sergeant Henry O. Hansen, a member of the original patrol, when a sniper's bullet killed the sergeant.

Bradley returned to his hometown and his former business, setting up his own funeral home. He died in 1994, the last of the flag-raisers.

Ira Hayes

Ira A. Hayes , a Pima Indian from a reservation in Arizona and a former Marine paratrooper with combat experience at Bougainville. PFC Hayes received a letter of Commendation.

Hayes fared worst in postwar life. The quiet young man had grown up in a close-knit tribal community of two hundred and was troubled by the unwanted limelight of the bond tour and subsequent publicity. He became a problem drinker, unable to hold a job, and died of alcohol and exposure near his home in 1955, barely two months after the unveiling of the Marine Corps War Memorial. Buried at Arlington National Cemetery

7th Bond drive In WW2 the money needed to pay for the war came from regular peopleDonating money

The goal of the7th Bond Drive was $14,000,000,000(14 billion)Which is nearly$100 from every Single person in the USA

Flag Raisers On Tour“The Photograph” became the symbol for FDR's "7th Bond Drive."

For the next two months everyone in America would see this picture over and over. And the 3 living flag raisers toured America to help sell more war bonds

You couldn't avoid it. It hung in: ***One million Retail Store windows.***16,000 Movie Theaters.***15,000 Banks.***200,000 Factories.***30,000 Railroad Stations.***5,000 Large Billboards.

At the beginning of the tour the war had already cost the US 88 billion dollars that year.The government only had 99 billion in the treasury. The Flag Raisers had to convince millions of Americans to spend billions of their own money to pay for the war.

John Bradley would speak these words into hundreds of microphones around the US…

“Men of the fighting fronts cannot understand the need for Rallies to sell bonds for purchase of seriously needed supplies. The bond buyer is asked only to lend his money at a profit. The fighting man is asked to give his life.”

The “Mighty” 7th Bond Tour broke all records and collected 26.3billion dollars in 8 weeks, almost twice the goal of 14 billion.

The Flag Raisers became hero’s but not for raising a replacement flag, they raised a record amount of money to pay For the war.

In July of 1949 Republic Studio made a movie about Iwo JimaAnd told the flag raisers they needed them to help with the film.

This was a lie, they wanted them to appear in the picture for freeAdvertising.

The scene from “Sands ofIwo Jima” with the 3 Flag Raisers. The actor JohnWayne (Center) hands Rene theflag to be raised as Ira and John look on.

US Marine Corp Memorial Washington DC

This memorial, based on “The Photograph” is 110 feet tall.Each of the 6 figures is about 32 feet highIt was presented on November 10, 1954This was the last time the 3 living flag raisers would be together

John Bradley, Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon

This memorial is very close to ArlingtonNational Cemetery where several of the Flag raisers are buried.

Name____________________________________________________Class #____

Questions: Print this page out and answer the following questions then hand it in for extra credit.How long (in days) did the battle for Iwo Jima last?

What percentage of Marines became casualties (killed and wounded) during the battle?

What percentage of Japanese became casualties (killed and wounded) during the battle and how did the term Issen Gorin explain the high percentage of Japanese casualties?

List the 3 belief/myths about “The Picture” of the flag raising and explain how they were shown to be incorrect in the book Flags of Our Fathers.

#1

#2

#3

The 3 flag raisers that survived the battle always said that they were not hero’s because of “The Picture”.

In what way could you consider them hero’s?