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Remember the glory ;
uthor James Bradley writes about the men who fought and died at lwo Jima 56 years ago i
y Eric Atkin
he Battalion
| In February 1945, 80,000 men launched an assault
on an 8-square-mile island in the Pacific Ocean. More
than 36 days before the battle of Iwo Jima, nearly
7,000 American soldiers died. Five days into that bat
tle, the United States captured the highest point on the
island. Mount Suribachi. Atop the hill, 56 years ago
today. Marine Corps troops raised the American flag
|s a sign of victory. Two hours later, that Hag was tak-
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PHOTO COURTESY BANTAM DELL PUBLISHING GROUP
en down for a souvenir, and a second flag was raised.
Joe Rosenthal captured the second flag raising in what
author James Bradley called the most reproduced pho
to in the history of the camera.
Bradley spoke in a a conference room in Reed Arena
Sunday to an audience of more than 100 people as part
of a tour for his book Flags of Our Fathers. Bradley’s fa
ther, John “Doc” Bradley, was one of the men in the pho
tograph. Flags of Our Fathers is the story of the flag rais
ers and what happened before and after the photograph.
The circumstances of the photo were a non-event,
Bradley said. “A (military) officer wanted the first flag
as a souvenir, so he said, ‘Put up a replacement flag,
and bring that first one down.’
“You can go into the archives and see hundreds of
other flag raisings during World War II,” Bradley said.
“It was very common; this was just another flag rais
ing. What happened was the photo got back to the
United States (and public reaction was) ‘That’s a pret
ty good photo.’ The key to this photo is not what hap
pened at Iwo Jima. The key to this photo is what hap
pened in civilians’ minds when they saw the photo.
This hit the home front like Marilyn Monroe. The
photo itself became a star.”
Nine years later, the photo became the inspiration
for the Marine Corps memorial in Arlington, Va. When
Bradley mentioned the memorial, he noted the names
of the flag raisers are not on the monument.
“That symbolized my challenge,” he said. “The en
tire world knew the image, but nobody knew the men.”
Harlon Block, John Bradley, Rene Gagnon, Ira
Hayes, Franklin Sousy and Mike Strank were “ordi
nary Americans just doing their jobs,” Bradley said.
“Heroism is a matter of perception,” he said. “My
dad was doing his job. We see it as heroism, but the
participants didn't.”
John Bradley thought so little of the event he rarely
mentioned it to his family. The famous photograph did
not hang in their house. Even Bradley’s mother did
not know much more about the flag raising than the
rest of the family.
CCDYS
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After John “Doc” Bradley’s death in 1994, James
Bradley found three boxes of his father’s personal be
longings. Among them was memorabilia of the Bag
raising. Most memorable to James Bradley was a let
ter from his father to his parents. In the letter he men
tions raising the flag, writing, “It was the happiest mo
ment of my life.”
James Bradley did not understand why his father
never shared his “happiest moment.” The search for
that understanding led him to contact family members
of the other flag raisers.
“I didn't set out to write a book,” he said. “I called
the other relatives of the flag raisers just to see what
they knew about the whole deal. They told me such
fascinating stories, I thought I ought to write a book.”
James Bradley’s book not only tells those stories
but also presents a more accurate image of the men
who fought and died at Iwo Jima.
“It’s good to see (James Bradley) pursue the real
legacy about the people, rather than the John Wayne
image," said John Guido, a staff member at the Texas
Engineering Extension Service at Texas A&M. John
Wayne portrayed a heroic Marine in the movie The
Sands of Iwo Jima.
Flags of Our Fathers chronicles the six men and
how they came together for this “non-event.”
The book also tells the aftermath of the flag raising.
Three of the men. Block, Sousy and Strank, were killed
in action on Iwo Jima. Gagnon and Hayes suffered im
mense personal problems dealing with the war and the
fame from the photograph. Hayes died in 1955, and
Gagnon in 1979. John Bradley survived, dying a nat
ural death at age 71, rarely mentioning Iwo Jima.
“It wasn’t something you brought up at cocktail par
ties,” James Bradley said.
When his father finally granted an interview in
1985, he told the interviewer, “People refer to us as he
roes. We certainly weren’t heroes.”
Before his speech, James Bradley said, “I think
there were 80,000 heroes on that island,” referring to
all the soldiers who took part in the invasion. He point
ed out Neil Berry, an Iwo Jima veteran in attendance
at Reed Arena and said, “There’s,one right there.”
Berry, originally from Lubbock, Texas, was on Iwo
Jima the entire 36 days. “Pure hell” is how he de
scribed it.
“I’ll never forget that experience,” he said. “War is
bad. We’ve got to find a way to keep that from hap
pening again.”
When asked if he would ever visit the island, as
James Bradley did during research for Flags of Our
Fathers, Berry said, “Maybe. I’m not sure. I got off
it once.”
FLAGS
OF
OUR
FAT H E RS
JAMES BRADLEY
with Ron Powers
PHOTO COURTESY BANTAM DELL PUBLISHING GROUP