The Picture That Moved a Nation
By: Hal Buell; Source: AARP Bulletin Today Date Posted: 2006-11-16 17:02:00-05:00
Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, who died this summer at 94, made one of the great pictures of all time—the raising of the American flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima in 1945. It was an image that captured the heart of a nation in the waning days of World War II. But he spent the rest of his life defending that picture.
The day the photograph was first published, Feb. 25, 1945, newspapers were reporting a chaotic war that straddled the globe, carrying stories of fighting west of Cologne, Russians advancing through Poland, Nazi soldiers surrendering, Manila falling to U.S. troops, and bombs raining on Tokyo. Americans were weary of the war, and Rosenthal's photo became a sensation, boosting American morale. Said U.S. Camera magazine: "In that moment, Rosenthal's camera recorded the soul of a nation."
But criticism about how the photo was taken soon began. It's true that the flag in his picture was not the first raised on Mount Suribachi that day; it was the second. But it is not true that the second picture was made because the first flag was blown up, or the first flag went up at night and a second one was needed for a daylight photo, or that Rosenthal missed the first picture and connived with Marines to set up a second photo, or that he dragged a flag and a flagstaff up the mountain for the picture. Although Rosenthal was vindicated quickly and his reputation restored, rumors persisted for years.
Actually, what happened was simple. After the first flag was raised, a Marine officer on the beach ordered a second, larger flag to be put up so that everyone on the island could see it. And that was the flag that Rosenthal photographed. Six men raised the flag. Three died before the end of the battle—the bloodiest in Marine Corps history. A fourth was seriously wounded.
"What I see beyond the photo is what it took to get up to those heights," Rosenthal said, "the kind of devotion to their country that those young men had, and the sacrifices they made."
Rosenthal's critics missed that point. His picture transcended Iwo Jima, the Pacific, Europe and World War II itself. Immortalized in bronze as the Marine Memorial in Arlington, Va., just outside Washington, the photo survived its critics. It spoke of all warriors; it told of valor, teamwork and, most of all, victory.
Rosenthal was of the greatest generation, but he didn't show it. He was painfully modest and unassuming, a man of small stature, a black beret his single concession to dash. I once asked him whether it was worth spending a lifetime defending his credibility, listening to one rumor after another, hearing himself described as a manipulator and telling and retelling the story of the flag raising at Iwo Jima. "I tried not to complain," he said. "It has taken over half my life ... but I know I did my job."
And about the picture: "There's a certain kind of inner happiness being able to say I had something to do with that."
Hal Buell was a friend of Joe Rosenthal's for 30 years and ran the Associated Press photo service for 25 years. He is the author of Uncommon Valor, Common Virtue: Iwo Jima and the Photograph That Captured America (Berkley, 2006).
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