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Iwo Jima Flag Raising: 65th Anniversary

by Sudha Krishna | February 23, 2010 at 08:51 am

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The Iwo Jima Flag Raising celebrates its 65th Anniversary on February 23rd 1945. On the small Japanese Pacific Island of Iwo Jima in 1945 during the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945 five US Marines and Navy corpsmen raised the flag of the United States on the top of Mt. Suribachi - an iconic moment in U.S. military history.

The Battle of Iwo Jima was a tough, hard fought battle, part of the United States Island hoping strategy after the fall of the Phillipines. Mt. Suchibari was a key strategic point on Iwo Jima.

The famous photograph that captures the Iwo Jima Flag raising is actually the second flag raising on top of Mt. Suchibari. The first flag raising occurred earlier in the day but it was too small to been seen. A second crew was sent so along with Joe Rosenthal the photographer (who went on to win a pulitzer prize for the image).

Rosenthal, along with Marine photographers Bob Campbell and Bill Genaust (who was killed in action nine days after the flag raising)[17] 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.[12]

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 amera (which was set to 1/400th of a second shutter speed, 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.[18]

The battle of Iwo Jima was by no means over after the raising of the flag. In fact of the six men depicted in the raising of the flag three were killed in battle.

The three remaining soldiers returned to the United States and became instant celebrities. The image and accompanying film footage became so of the most reproduced images of all time.

The Iwo Jima flag raising photograph went on went on to become the model for the US War Memorial.

List of Iwo Jima Flag Raisers