The Marine Corps have announced that they will be investigating a famous photo taken by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal during World War II. The photo is of a group of six Marines raising the US flag on Mt. Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima, where a 36-day battle with Japanese troops took place.
Rosenthal did not manage to get the names of the men when he took the photo, but after it received widespread attention in America, the Marines determined that the men in the photo were John Bradley, Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes, Harlon Block, Michael Strank and Franklin Sousley. The photo was taken on Feb. 23, 1945, and according to a report in The Washington Post, the issue of mistaken identity was first raised in 2014 by two historians Eric Krelle and Stephen Foley who published their findings in the Omaha World-Herald. The two stated that the man in the photo is Harold Henry Schultz and not John Bradley, as people had thought for decades.
Fox News reports that Krelle is adamant about his findings, saying ‘photos are the truth.’
People can hold onto what they have always known in the past. But to me, the photos are the truth.
In a statement, the Marine Corps noted how important the photo is, saying it ‘captured a single moment in the 36-day battle during which more than 6,500 US servicemen made the ultimate sacrifice’.
The Marine Corps is examining information provided by a private organization related (to) Joe Rosenthal’s Associated Press photograph of the second flag raising on Iwo Jima. Rosenthal’s photo captured a single moment in the 36-day battle during which more than 6,500 US servicemen made the ultimate sacrifice for our Nation and it is representative of the more than 70,000 US Marines, Sailors, Soldiers and Coast Guardsmen that took part in the battle. We are humbled by the service and sacrifice of all who fought on Iwo Jima.
