Flags Of Our Fathers

Article posted May 10, 2007 at 10:57 PM GMT0 • Reads 49

I’ve seen the picture, I’ve seen the statue, but I had no idea, none at all, about what it was all about. The photo is so familiar, the most reproduced image in the history of photography. This book is not about the photograph, it is about the story of six boys who were normal everyday people. Then they enlisted, one in the Navy and five in the Marine Corps, none of them had any idea that the world would see them as heroes when ,as John Bradley said “ the real heroes of Iwo Jima were the ones who didn’t come back.”

I really enjoyed this book because it gives me a new perspective of what really happened on Iwo Jima, and a different view of the photograph. The author of the book, James Bradley, is the son of John Bradley, a famous figure in the photograph. Growing up, John Bradley forbid his children and wife to say anything about Iwo Jima, and so James was always curious and never knew much about Iwo until after his dad’s death in 1994. As you can imagine, James presented some pretty interesting information in this book, Flags of Our Fathers. In the first chapter he talks about a trek he made to Iwo Jima. On the island they climbed mount Surabachi and laid a memorial plaque with John Bradley’s name.

My favorite parts of the book are during the battle because James Bradley’s description is so vivid that it is terrifying, but, it gives you nothing less than the pure truth. From the moment that the first marine set foot on that dark black ash of Iwo Jima they were entering one of the worst battles in history, on the most fortified island in the history of the world. Bradley’s book captures the horror and confusion that these soldiers, boys, must have felt when they saw their friends killed and tortured right in front of them and knowing that their own death was not far away.

The book begins with some background on the six flag raisers:

John Bradley was born in 1923 in Antigo, Wisconsin. He came from a very religious Catholic family and he had a lifelong dream to open a funeral home. When he was five years old, his sister passed away after a terrible accident. At the age of nineteen, he knew he was about to be drafted so he concocted a plan to enlist in the Navy and hopefully stay far from bullets. Little did he know that this decision would put him in the middle of one of history’s bloodiest battles.

Franklin Sousley was born on September 19, 1925 in Hilltop, Kentucky. He was a red-haired, daredevil as a child and later, in the military, he was quite the comedian. He joined the Marines in 1944.

Harlon Block spent his childhood in the Valley of Rio Grande, Texas. He was a big football star in his hometown and had amazing stamina from working on a family farm. After making the All-South Texas football team in 1942, he decided to go off to war.

Ira Hayes was a Pima Indian who spent most of his life in the desert of Arizona. He was a very solitary child and, like his father, never spoke much. He enlisted in the Marines shortly after the Japanese invaded Pearl Harbor. He was nineteen years old.

Rene Gagnon entered this world on March 7, 1925 and he grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire. Rene was conscious of the war but he was not particularly interested in supporting it. He felt that the war was out of his control. He received a draft notice in May of 1945.

The final flag raiser, Mike Strank was born in Czechoslovakia in 1919. His comrades said that he was “the finest man they ever knew.” He enlisted in the marines on October 6, 1939.

These 6 boys were soon en route to California, more specifically the enormous Camp Pendleton. The military camp used to be a big farm until the military bought the property and turned it into, what resembled an enormous tent city. It was here that the six boys met for the first time. At about the same time the Japanese were making the dark, black, smelly scab of land in the ocean called Iwo Jima into the most defended, fortified, armed and ingenious island ever. The Japanese general, Tadamichi Kuribayashi would sit out the battle in the safety of a bombproof capsule buried 75 feet beneath the ground. He had told his army of 22,000 to “kill ten Americans before you die.” He knew that when the marines stepped ashore, no matter how strong his defenses were the Americans would be here to stay. The Japanese had almost every type of weapon available in 1945. The island contained 16 miles of underground tunnels. The mountain itself contained seven floors and electrical and sewage systems. Kuribayashi also had a private opinion unknown to any of his men… “America is the last country in the world that Japan should fight.”

Meanwhile, the six boys were soon on an enormous armada of ships that formed a line 70 miles long! On the morning of February 19, 1945 the planes began bombing and the ships began shelling the surface of Iwo Jima. This was a tactic used to “soften up” the enemies before the marines went in. Later that morning the marines invaded Iwo Jima. They were sitting ducks on the beach for the Japanese who had hidden guns on the island and atop Mount Surabachi. Hundreds of marines were gunned down in the first minutes. The three days between the beach landing and the flag raising were horrible. The average number of deaths every day was in the double and sometimes even triple digits. On the morning of February 22, a small group of marines scouted out the mountain and put up a relatively small flag. Later the group with Harlon, Mike, Doc, Ira, Rene, and Franklin (formerly known as “Easy Company”) made the ascent up the 500 foot mount Surabachi. The men were sent up to replace the flag with a bigger one. It was now that a photographer by the name of Rosenthal got his famous photograph.

After the flag raising, the Battle of Iwo Jima lasted about a month. During this month, the marines moved to the northeasterly direction of the island. It was here that most of the small-town American boys who were laying their life on the line for one another died. A few days after the flag raising, Mike Strank was shot numerous times by an automatic weapon and died almost instantly. Harlon was now the new leader of the squad. Just a few days after Mike’s death a Japanese shell fell directly on top of Harlon, completely obliterating his body. Near the end of the battle, Franklin couldn’t live with the horrors of war and walked out into a road with known snipers and was shot in the head.

The three surviving flag raisers returned to the United States as heroes because of the photograph. John Bradley did not consider himself, Rene or Ira heroes. They simply were at the right place at the right time. They helped to raise funds for the troops still fighting in the Pacific by going on tour and giving speeches. This raised money for the Seventh War Bond. They went to Times Square in New York City for the unveiling of a statue in their honor.

A few years after Iwo Jima, Ira Hayes was found dead in his home town, as a result of alcoholism. Not long after that, Rene Gagnon was discovered dead from a heart attack at a young age. The final surviving flag raiser, John Bradley, never spoke much of Iwo Jima after the war because he was haunted of the memories. He passed away in 1994 due to a stroke at the age of 71.

After John Bradley’s death, a door opened to his son James that had been closed for his entire life; Iwo Jima. He and his siblings were soon researching all they could about the bloody and historic battle. As I mentioned earlier, he soon went on a trip to Iwo Jima and laid a memorial plaque in his father’s honor atop mount Surabachi. This research and experience led him to write this book.