1 of 2

Write now Article Tools

FIRST I WANT YOU TO LOOK AT THE PICTURE

http://www.iwojima.com/ raising/lflage.gif

Look at the photograph by Joe Rosenthal of the six marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi you would never guess that this picture is the most reproduced image in the history of photography, you would probably never know anything about the six marines who rose it, you would never know how it had such a great impact on WW2. Flags of our Fathers, a #1 New York Times best seller. answered all the questions above. The book was written by the son of one of the flag raisers. James Bradley is the son of Jack Bradley, a corpsman during the war. The book gives you an insight into the lives of the six marines, stories of greatness that occurred there, and the aftermath of the three, out of six flag raising marines, who survived Iwo Jima. Those lucky three were used to promote War bonds and even appeared in a movie, over Iwo Jima. The U.S. postal service even made a stamp of Iwo Jima, 150 million were sold. One of the three survivors even dedicated a hotel to Iwo Jima.

Iwo Jima is only a tiny island, about 1/3 the size of Manhattan, yet between Feb 19, 1945 and March 26 it would be one of the bloodiest and symbolic battles of WW2 (Morris 9). The U.S. wanted Iwo Jima for its location. It was right in the middle of a U.S. bomber base and Japan (Premier Image 7). The U.S. Air force bombed Iwo Jima many days prior to the sending of the fleet. Admiral Nimitz said "No other island received as much preliminary pounding as did Iwo Jima" (Premier Image 3). The Japanese had built 1,500 rooms into Iwo Jima. It was connected by 16 miles of tunnels (Premier Images 10). There were 22,000 Japanese troops fighting in Iwo Jima (Salomen 4). Iwo Jima was very important to Japan since it was Japans last defense (Vandiver 3), it was also the first one to be invaded (Morris 5). After all the bombing of the island the U.S. troops thought there would ne no enemy to fight (Salomen 2). It would take them 36 days for the Marines to secure the island (Salomen 3). Mount Suribachi, a 550-foot mountain on Iwo Jima, was there first target (Salomen 10). 2nd Lt. Earl Speechley said "Iwo Jima was the defining moment of the marine corps" (Morris 3). The battle was won inch by inch each day (Salomen 8). "the battle of Iwo Jima stands out as an exceptionally hard-fought battle in world history" said Kiyoshi Endo(Morris 6). The Japanese had slits in their caves where they could see the Americans perfectly, while the U.S. troops

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima and the nation?
We want to hear your view. Write now!