THIS DAY IN HISTORY
U.S. FLAG ON IWO JIMA:
February 23, 1945
During the bloody Battle for Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines from the 3rd
Platoon, E
Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Division take the crest of Mount
Suribachi, the
island's highest peak and most strategic position, and raise the U.S.
flag.
Marine photographer Louis Lowery was with them and recorded the event.
American
soldiers fighting for control of Suribachi's slopes cheered the raising
of the
flag, and several hours later more Marines headed up to the crest with
a larger
flag. Joe Rosenthal, a photographer with the Associated Press, met them
along
the way and recorded the raising of the second flag along with a Marine
still
photographer and a motion-picture cameraman.
Rosenthal took three photographs atop Suribachi. The first, which
showed five Marines and one Navy corpsman struggling to hoist the heavy flag
pole, became the most reproduced photograph in history and won him a
Pulitzer Prize. The accompanying motion-picture footage attests to the
fact that the picture was not posed. Of the other two photos, the second
was similar to the first but less affecting, and the third was a group
picture of 18 soldiers smiling and waving for the camera. Many of these
men, including three of the six soldiers seen raising the flag in the
famous Rosenthal photo, were killed before the conclusion of the Battle
for Iwo Jima in late March.
In early 1945, U.S. military command sought to gain control of the
island of Iwo Jima in advance of the projected aerial campaign against
the
Japanese home islands. Iwo Jima, a tiny volcanic island located in the
Pacific
about 700 miles southeast of Japan, was to be a base for fighter
aircraft and an
emergency-landing site for bombers. On February 19, 1945, after three
days of
heavy naval and aerial bombardment, the first wave of U.S. Marines
stormed onto
Iwo Jima's inhospitable shores.
The Japanese garrison on the island numbered 22,000 heavily entrenched
men. Their commander, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, had been expecting
an Allied invasion for months and used the time wisely to construct an
intricate and deadly system of underground tunnels, fortifications, and
artillery that withstood the initial Allied bombardment. By the evening
of the first day, despite incessant mortar fire, 30,000 U.S. Marines
commanded by General Holland Smith managed to establish a solid
beachhead.
During the next few days, the Marines advanced inch by inch under heavy
fire from Japanese artillery and suffered suicidal charges from the
Japanese infantry. Many of the Japanese defenders were never seen and
remained underground manning artillery until they were blown apart by a
grenade or rocket, or incinerated by a flame thrower.
While Japanese kamikaze flyers slammed into the Allied naval fleet
around Iwo Jima, the Marines on the island continued their bloody
advance across
the island, responding to Kuribayashi's lethal defenses with remarkable
endurance. On February 23, the crest of 550-foot Mount Suribachi was
taken, and
the next day the slopes of the extinct volcano were secured.
By March 3, U.S. forces controlled all three airfields on the island,
and on March 26 the last Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima were wiped out.
Only 200 of the original 22,000 Japanese defenders were captured alive.
More than 6,000 Americans died taking Iwo Jima, and some 17,000 were
wounded.
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