American Flag Is Raised at Iwo Jima
The raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima is a significant event in World War II history, symbolizing courage and perseverance. This event occurred during the Battle of Iwo Jima, which began on February 19, 1945, as part of the United States' island-hopping campaign against Japan. Iwo Jima, a strategically important volcanic island, served as a base for American bombing missions due to its proximity to the Japanese mainland. The battle was particularly fierce, with Japanese troops employing a strategy that led to heavy casualties on both sides.
The iconic moment of the flag-raising took place atop Mount Suribachi on February 23, when a small flag was first replaced by a larger one for visibility. This later event was captured in a famous photograph by Joe Rosenthal, which became a symbol of American valor and was later recognized with a Pulitzer Prize. The flag-raising not only boosted American morale but also became an enduring symbol of patriotism in the United States, representing the sacrifices made during the war. Despite the symbolism of the flag, the battle for Iwo Jima continued until March 26, 1945, resulting in significant loss of life. The event and its aftermath also highlight the complex emotions of the soldiers involved and the lasting impact on their lives, including issues of recognition and mental health.
American Flag Is Raised at Iwo Jima
Date February 23, 1945
The photograph taken of the raising of the American flag atop Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi by US Marines became one of World War II’s most famous images, although another month of bloody fighting would follow before Japanese defenders were completely subdued. Capture of the strategic island paved the way for more intense bombing of the Japanese mainland, and the photograph would serve as the model for the US Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. Following an investigation in 2016, the Marines announced that one of the six men had been misidentified.
Also known as Battle of Iwo Jima
Locale Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan
Key Figures
Joseph J. (Joe) Rosenthal (1911–2006), Associated Press photographerMichael Strank (1919–45), US Marine Corps sergeantFranklin Sousley (1925–45), US Marine Corps private first classIra Hamilton Hayes (1923–55), US Marine Corps corporalHarlon Block (1924–45), US Marine Corps corporalHarold Schultz (1926–95), US Marine Corps private first classRené Gagnon (1925–79), US Marine Corps private first class
Summary of Event
By 1944, the United States had recovered from its early setbacks in the war against Japan in the Pacific theater of World War II. It had effectively turned the tide against the Asian power, and the central Pacific offensive—an island-hopping campaign designed to progressively to take control of the Pacific Islands—had brought American forces within striking distance of the extreme south end of the Japanese archipelago. While the island of Okinawa was the first major Japanese target of the Pacific campaign, American planners, fresh from the recapture of the Philippines, chose first to capture the Japanese military stronghold of Iwo Jima.
Iwo Jima is a volcanic island and is considered a part of Japan’s Tokyo prefecture. It lies at approximately the midway point between the Mariana Islands and the Japanese mainland. In the last years of the Pacific war, Iwo Jima became a site of strategic importance. Saipan, the most strategically important of the Marianas and a major Japanese stronghold in the Pacific, fell to the United States in 1944. From Saipan, the Americans were able to launch long-range bombing missions against Honshū, the largest of the Japanese islands.
The capture of Saipan and the intensification of bombing raids against Japan made Iwo Jima strategically important for America. Iwo Jima was a perfect location for the construction of landing strips for American bombers that would not be able to make the return trip to the Marianas because they had been damaged during bombing runs over Japan. In addition, Iwo Jima served as an early-warning station for the Japanese forces and allowed them to forewarn their military of American aircraft on their way to Japan. This was yet another reason that American planners prioritized the capture of the island.
The invasion of Iwo Jima began on February 19, 1945. Before amphibious landings commenced, the island was subjected to the longest preliminary bombardment of the Pacific war. Once the way was prepared, a fleet of eight battleships, eight cruisers, and ten escort carriers supported the landings of more than thirty thousand Marines on the first day. More than forty thousand others were committed before the battle ended.
The Battle of Iwo Jima was a bloody one. The Japanese troops were committed to pursuing a strategy of gyokusai—literally meaning “shattered jewel” and indicating a desire to fight to the last man. Their tenacious defense resulted in large numbers of American casualties.
The island of Iwo Jima is approximately eight square miles, and Mount Suribachi, a nearly 550-foot-tall volcanic cone, was its most tactically significant feature in the battle. Capturing the mountain was an American priority. Suribachi was riddled with tunnels, caves, and bunkers, and the advance up the mountain was extremely difficult. Flamethrowers and grenades were used to knock out Japanese positions, but the American forces sustained heavy casualties. Marines reached the summit of Suribachi on February 23, and a small American flag was raised.
The first flag that was raised was not easily visible, so for morale purposes, a much larger flag was hoisted later that day by Michael Strank, Ira Hamilton Hayes, Franklin Sousley, Harold Schultz, Harlon Block, and René Gagnon. Sousley, Block, and Strank did not survive the battle. A photograph of the second flag-raising was taken by Joe Rosenthal, a photographer for the Associated Press. Bill Genaust, a Marine Corps photographer, captured the raising of the flag on film, and the image of the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi soon became symbolic of the efforts of the US Marine Corps and of the country's unwavering perseverance in World War II.
Rosenthal’s photograph was quickly sent to Guam, where Associated Press photo editor John Bodkin, recognized the power of the flag-raising image and wired it to New York. Within twenty-four hours of the flag-raising, the Associated Press began to circulate the Suribachi photograph, which ran in hundreds of newspapers across the United States and the world. The picture immediately gained iconic status, and Rosenthal was awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize in photography.
The capture of Mount Suribachi and the raising of the American flag on the summit was an important event, but it by no means signaled the end of the Battle of Iwo Jima. The island was not declared secure by the American commanders until March 26, 1945, and even then, resistance continued. Nearly 2,500 Japanese soldiers were killed in sporadic engagements that lasted until June, 1945. Overall, of the more than 20,000 Japanese troops on the island, only 200 were captured. The rest were killed in the fighting. The US side suffered 6,821 casualties and nearly 20,000 were wounded.
The capture of Iwo Jima was costly, but the construction of airstrips on the island allowed for more than two thousand B-29 emergency landings, which in turn saved thousands of lives. The fall of Iwo Jima allowed the US Army Air Corps to intensify its bombing of the Japanese mainland, and as a result, Japanese production of aircraft and other war matériel declined dramatically, hastening the ultimate end of the war.
Significance
The photograph was printed in newspapers nationwide and became a symbol of patriotism, honor, and courage. The men in the photo, however, were not officially identified until two months after the event, and it was later determined that two of those men were misidentified at the time. Harlon Block was originally believed to be Henry Hansen, a mistake that was rectified eighteen months later in 1947 after the combined efforts of the Block family and flag-raiser Ira Hayes prompted a congressional inquiry. Another soldier, John Bradley, who participated in the first flag raising at Mount Suribachi, was until 2016 mistaken as a flag raiser in the iconic photograph. His son, James Bradley, wrote the 2000 New York Times best-seller Flags of Our Fathers, which was made into the 2006 Oscar-nominated, Clint Eastwood–directed film by the same name. In 2015, producers of a documentary "The Unknown Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima" approached Marine historians with forensic evidence that Bradley had in fact been misidentified and was actually Marine Private First Class Harold Schultz. The following year, a Marine panel voted unanimously to endorse the documentary's findings and declare Schultz, not Bradley, the flag raiser in the photo. The Marines announced in June 2016 that any mention of Bradley in any depiction of the photographed event would be amended and Harold Schultz's name would be listed instead. Bradley died in 1994, and Schultz, who disliked reminiscing about the war and only spoke once and in passing about his role in the flag raising, died in 1995.
Following the Battle of Iwo Jima, the three soldiers who were then believed to be the sole survivors of the photographed flag raising—Hayes, Bradley, and Gagnon—were brought back to the United States to participate in a war-bond drive and other functions to boost morale on the home front. Hayes especially disliked the attention and glorification of the battle, and experts now believe he was suffering what many term "survivor's guild" and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Hays often commented that it felt wrong to be celebrated and called a hero when only five men in his platoon and twenty-seven in his company survived the battle without injury or death. Hayes later became an alcoholic and died in 1955 at the age of thirty-two after a night of drinking. His story was popularized by the 1962 song, “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” by Peter La Farge, which has been performed by artists such as Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan in 1973. The song details Hayes’s service to his country and the alienation he felt upon his return, highlighting the issue of discrimination against Native Americans. Gagnon attempted to parlay his fame into a movie career with little success, and he died in 1979. Like Hayes, Bradley did not like to speak of the Battle of Iwo Jima. He died of a stroke at age seventy and was heralded at the time as the last of the flag-raisers to pass away.
Rosenthal’s photograph is the basis for the US Marine Corps War Memorial sculpture in Arlington, Virginia. The flag that was raised at Iwo Jima is currently located in the US Marine Corps Museum. It has been continuously resurrected as a symbol of American history, as when the image was used on a postage stamp in 1995 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima and the subsequent end of the war.
Bibliography
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Duckler, Ray. "René Gagnon Jr., Son of a Famous Marine, Says He Can Handle the Truth About the Flag Raisers at Iwo Jima. Can You?" Concord Monitor. Concord Monitor, 22 May 2016. Web. 19 July 2016.
Leckie, Robert. The Battle for Iwo Jima. New York: I Books, 2004. Print.
Renn, Melissa. "The Famous Iwo Flag-Raising: Iwo Jima Revisited." History of Photography 39.3 (2015): 253–62. Print.
Rosenberg, Emily. A Date Which Will Live: Pearl Harbor in American Memory. Durham: Duke UP, 2003. Print.
Schmidt, Michael S. "Man in Iwo Jima Flag Photo Was Misidentified, Marine Corps Says." New York Times. New York Times, 23 June 2016. Web. 18 July 2016.
Willmott, H. P. The Second World War in the Far East. London: Cassell, 1999. Print.