Flags of Our Fathers
Page 40
Only one man in the world could get my mother to Iwo Jima. I asked that man to help me. “Of course,” he replied. Marines are special people. And Charles Krulak is a special Marine.
Katie Hall of Bantam Books took a risk by acquiring this book, and edited it with professional and loving care. Her contribution will remain invisible to the reader, but I know and will always appreciate her superb efforts.
My agent Jim Hornfischer bravely took me on after I had managed to accumulate twenty-seven publishers’ rejections. It was Jim’s idea to team me with Ron Powers, whose reputation for quality was key to making this project a reality. Thanks, Jim and Ron!
To my many friends and supporters whose encouragement was never-ending—I wish I could add another chapter and list your names.
I have lived and worked in Japan and have warm friendships with a number of Japanese. Nothing I have written detracts from the deep respect I have for Japan and her people.
Easy Company member Jesse Boatwright made a remark to me once that reflects the sentiments of almost all the Marines and corpsmen who contributed to this book: “You might think we did something special there on Iwo, but we were just ordinary guys doing our duty.”
To Mr. Boatwright and his comrades, yes, I understand your feeling that you were just doing your duty. And I hope you can appreciate the profound admiration I have for you and your actions out in the Pacific. You ordinary guys. You heroes of Iwo Jima.
James Bradley
January 2000
Rye, New York
INTERIOR PHOTO LIST
AND CREDITS
Chapter Openers
1: From the collection of Joseph Bradley
2: From the collection of Geneva Price
3: © Mary Craddock Hoffman
4: © USMC
5: From the collection of Geneva Price
6: © National Archives
7: © National Archives
8: © National Archives
9: © USMC
10: © Dave Severance
11: © National Archives; Louis Lowery, USMC photographer
12: © The New York Times
13: © National Archives
14: © C. R. Toburan
15: © AP/Wide World Photos
16: © U.S. Dept. of the Treasury
17: © Edward F. Block, Jr.
18: © USMC, DOD photo
19: © The Courier Journal
20: © AP/Wide World Photos
Photo Insert I
Mike Strank, First Communion (from the collection of Mary Strank Pero)
Franklin Sousley (from the collection of Geneva Price)
Franklin Sousley’s birthplace (© Leatherneck Magazine)
Rene Gagnon (from the collection of Rene Gagnon, Jr.)
Ira Hayes and father (from the collection of Sara Bernal)
Jack Bradley (from the collection of Elizabeth Bradley)
Harlon Block and brothers (© Edward F. Block, Jr.)
Jack Bradley and family (from the collection of Jean Bradley)
Harlon Block, Marine (from the collection of Catherine Pierce Foster)
Ira Hayes, Marine (from the collection of Kenny Hayes)
Rene Gagnon, Marine (from the collection of the Wright Museum)
Jack Bradley, Navy (from the collection of Elizabeth Bradley)
Franklin Sousley, Marine (from the collection of Geneva Price)
Mike Strank in camouflage (from the collection of Mary Strank Pero)
Photo Insert 2
Harlon Block (from the collection of Edward F. Block, Jr.)
Ralph Ignatowski (from the collection of Ruth Ignatowski Gaura)
Franklin Sousley and mother (from the collection of Geneva Price)
Jack Bradley, Camp Tarawa, Hawaii (© L. B. Holly)
Ira Hayes, Guadalcanal (© Robert Mueller)
Ira Hayes, paratrooper (© National Archives)
Iwo Jima, 1945 (photo by E. W. “Bill” Peck, from the collection of Carol Peck Sanders)
To the beaches (© National Archives)
Amphibious landing units (© National Archives)
U.S. Marines land (© National Archives)
Howlin’ Mad Smith (© National Archives)
Rifleman on Suribachi (© National Archives)
First flagraising (© National Archives; Louis Lowery, USMC photographer)
First flag down (© National Archives; Louis Lowery, USMC photographer)
Rosenthal photo cropped (© AP/Wide World Photos)
Rosenthal photo horizontal (© AP/Wide World Photos)
Gung Ho (© AP/Wide World Photos)
Photo Insert 3
The boys and Truman (from the collection of Mark Bradley)
A smoke in Soldier Field (from the collection of Kathleen Bradley)
The boys in Times Square (from the collection of Fred Walcsak)
The “Gold Star” mothers (from the collection of Mary Strank Pero)
Doc Bradley and Rene Gagnon with Lockheed Girls (from the collection of Marge Abrahamson)
Harlon Block funeral cortege (from the collection of Leo Ryan)
Ira Hayes and parents (from the collection of Sara Bernal)
Rene Gagnon and family (from the collection of the Wright Museum)
John Bradley wedding photo (from the collection of Elizabeth Bradley)
Pauline and Rene Gagnon (from the collection of the Wright Museum)
John Wayne and John Bradley (from the collection of Elizabeth Bradley)
John Wayne hands flag (© USMC, DOD photo)
Felix de Weldon sculpts Rene Gagnon (from the collection of Elizabeth Bradley)
De Weldon with the boys (© UPI/Corbis-Bettmann)
USMC Memorial (© James Bradley)
Nixon with the boys (© AP/Wide World Photos)
Ira Hayes in jail (© AP/Wide World Photos)
Rene Gagnon (© AP/Wide World Photos)
John Bradley Memorial Day parade (© Antigo Daily Journal)
Iwo Jima today (© Marty Block)
James Bradley and family atop Suribachi (© Joseph Bradley)
Bradley family in bunker (© Joseph Bradley)
Inside Cover Photos
Large flagraising photo (© AP/Wide World Photos)
Six frames of the flagraising (© USMC; Bill Genaust, photographer)
NOTES
Two: All-American Boys
But as he later wrote Henry Dobyns and Frank W. Porter III, gen. ed., The North American Indian Series, The Pima-Maricopa (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989), 31.
Three: America’s War
Youth magazines carried Saburo Ienaga, The Pacific War: ACritical Perspective on Japan’s Role in World War II (New York: Random House, 1978), 30.
“It was commonplace for teachers” Iris Chang, The Rape ofNanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II (New York: Basic Books, 1997), 31.
Everyone scrambled to be of help Gerald F. Linderman, The World Within War: America’s Combat Experience in World War II (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1999), 91.
In less than a month Chang, The Rape of Nanking.
“They were expendable” Ienaga, The Pacific War, 52.
“We’d give each” Holland M. Smith and Percy Finch, Coral and Brass (Nashville, TN: The Battery Press, Inc., 1989), 193. Note: This is my favorite book on the Pacific war.
Aware that the American individualistic ethic Linderman, The World Within War, 187.
When a recruit named Eugene Sledge E. B. Sledge, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981), 5. Note: Sledge’s book is generally considered the best infantryman’s account of the Pacific war.
“This is my rifle” Richard Wheeler, Iwo (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994), 45. Note: If you read one book about the battle of Iwo Jima, this is the one. Also by Wheeler, The Bloody Battle for Suribachi is, I feel, the best book on the battle for Mount Suribachi. Mr. Wheeler served in Easy Company with the flagraisers, in the same platoon as Do
c Bradley.
All militaries harden their recruits Thomas E. Ricks, Making the Corps (New York: Scribner, 1997), 19.
Four: Call of Duty
His early letters home Ira Hayes’s letters are printed here courtesy of his brother, Kenny Hayes.
“He went from brown” Albert Hemingway, Ira Hayes: Pima Marine (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, Inc., 1988), 12.
“Never had men” John C. Chapin, Cpt., USMC, Top of the Ladder, Marines in WWII Commemorative Series, Marine Corps Historical Center.
“From seven o’clock” John A. Monks Jr., A Ribbon and a Star: The Third Marines at Bougainville (New York: Holt and Co., 1945).
“the closest thing to a living hell” Eric Bergerud, Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific (New York: Penguin Books, 1997), 66. Note: I consider this to be the best book on the land war in the Pacific.
“steak and eggs” Chapin, Top of the Ladder, 3.
“Though we spent” Hemingway, Ira Hayes, 28.
That night Ira’s childhood Ibid., 32.
“As I slowly headed” James S. Vedder, Combat Surgeon: Up Front with the 27thMarines (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1984), 198.
“‘leap off the deep end’” Joseph H. Alexander, Storm Landings: Epic Amphibious Battles in the Central Pacific (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1997), 45. Note: Retired Marine Col. Alexander is the acknowledged expert on amphibious assaults.
“toughest of all military operations” Robert Sherrod, Tarawa: The Story of a Battle (Fredericksburg, TX: Admiral Nimitz Foundation, 1986), 67. Note: This is one of the finest books written about the Pacific war by one of the bravest correspondents in that war.
It would be forty-four years Alexander, Storm Landings, 53.
“The pillbox is forty feet long” Sherrod, Tarawa, 133.
Looking at these Japanese defenses Smith and Finch, Coral and Brass, 8–9.
A grief-stricken General Smith Sherrod, Tarawa, 139.
Five: Forging the Spearhead
“a huge hunk of green jade” Charles W. Tatum, Iwo Jima:Red Blood, Black Sand: Pacific Apocalypse (Stockton, CA: Charles W. Tatum Publishing, 1995), 79.
A local woman, a cook “Camp Tarawa, 1998,” LeatherneckMagazine, July 1998.
“There were no saddles” Hemingway, Ira Hayes, 47.
Harlon wrote his mother a letter Harlon Block’s letters are printed here courtesy of his sister Maurine Block Mitchell.
Six: Armada
“The Seventh Air Force dropped” Smith and Finch, Coral and Brass, 243.
“We thought it would blast” Ibid.
“The prolonged aerial bombardment” Ibid.
These tactics would capitalize Alexander, Storm Landings, 110.
“Fukkaku positions” Ibid.
“due to limitations on the availability of ships” Smith and Finch, Coral and Brass, 244.
“I regret this confusion” Ibid., 248.
“The cost in Marines killed” Ibid.
“Though weather has” Bill D. Ross, Iwo Jima—Legacy of Valor (New York: The Vanguard Press, 1985), 54.
“If the Marines” Smith and Finch, Coral and Brass, 245.
“Even though you” Ross, Iwo Jima, 33.
As Easy Company Ibid., 44–47.
“But no man who saw Tarawa” Sherrod, Tarawa, 149.
Nine: D-Day Plus Two
Lieutenant Keith Wells would later John Keith Wells, GiveMe Fifty Marines Not Afraid to Die (Abilene, KS: Ka-Well Enterprises, 1995), 207.
“I just thought” Ibid., 213.
Wheeler dived into a crater Richard Wheeler, The BloodyBattle for Suribachi (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994), 112–113.
Ten: D-Day Plus Three
“Suribachi’s fallen,” he moaned Wheeler, Iwo, 168.
Eleven: “So Every Son of a Bitch…”
Rosenthal, covering the invasion All Joe Rosenthal information about the flagraising is taken from “The Picture That Will Live Forever,” Collier’s Magazine, February 18, 1955.
“Colonel Johnson wants this” Wheeler, Iwo, 161.
Twelve: Myths
“My twenty-first birthday” Wheeler, Iwo, 186.
Thirteen: “Like Hell with the Fire Out”
By this point in the campaign Wheeler, Iwo, 220.
“The Marines were now being required” Ibid., 203.
“Who does the admiral” Tedd Thomey, Immortal Images: APersonal History of Two Photographers and the Flag Raising onIwo Jima (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1996), 18.
Fourteen: Antigo
Indeed, in his only interview Interview transcript courtesy of Arnold Shapiro Productions, Inc.
Seventeen: A Conflict of Honor
In the dim predawn light Paul W. Tibbets, Flight of the EnolaGay (Columbus, OH: Mid-Coast Marketing, 1989), 216–219.
Twenty: Common Virtue
My father answers the interviewer’s Interview transcript courtesy of Arnold Shapiro Productions, Inc.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alexander, Joseph H. Storm Landings: Epic Amphibious Battles in the Central Pacific. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1997.
Bartley, Whitman. Iwo Jima: Amphibious Epic, A Marine Corps Monograph. Nashville, TN: The Battery Press, 1988.
Bergerud, Eric. Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific. New York: Penguin Books, 1997.
Chang, Iris. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of WorldWar II. New York: Basic Books, 1997.
Chapin, John C., Cpt., USMC. Top of the Ladder. Marines in WWII Commemorative Series, Marine Corps Historical Center.
Conner, Howard. The Spearhead. Nashville, TN: The Battery Press, 1987.
Dobyns, Henry, and Frank W. Porter III, gen. ed. The Pima-Maricopa. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989.
Hemingway, Albert. Ira Hayes: Pima Marine. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, Inc., 1988.
Ienaga, Saburo. The Pacific War: A Critical Perspective on Japan’s Role in World War II. New York: Random House, 1978.
Linderman, Gerald F. The World Within War: America’s Combat Experience in World War II. Boston: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Monks, John A., Jr. A Ribbon and a Star: The Third Marines at Bougainville. New York: Holt and Co., 1945.
Newcomb, Richard. Iwo Jima. New York: Bantam Books, 1995.
Ricks, Thomas E. Making the Corps. New York: Scribner, 1997.
Ross, Bill D. Iwo Jima—Legacy of Valor. New York: The Vanguard Press, 1985.
Shay, Jonathan. Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and theUndoing of Character. New York: Touchstone Books, 1995.
Sherrod, Robert. Tarawa: The Story of a Battle. Fredericksburg, TX: Admiral Nimitz Foundation, 1986.
Sledge, E. B. With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Smith, Holland M., and Percy Finch. Coral and Brass. Nashville, TN: The Battery Press, Inc., 1989.
Tatum, Charles W. Iwo Jima: Red Blood, Black Sand: PacificApocalypse. Stockton, CA: Charles W. Tatum Publishing, 1995.
Thomey, Tedd. Immortal Images: A Personal History of TwoPhotographers and the Flag Raising on Iwo Jima. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1996.
Tibbets, Paul W. Flight of the Enola Gay. Columbus, OH: Mid-Coast Marketing, 1989.
Vedder, James S. Combat Surgeon: Up Front with the 27thMarines. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1984.
Wheeler, Richard. The Bloody Battle for Suribachi. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994.———.
Iwo. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS JAMES BRADLEY is the son of John “Doc” Bradley, one of the six flagraisers. A speaker and a writer, he lives in Rye, New York, and is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Flyboys.
RON POWERS is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist. He is the author of Mark Twain: A Life, among other books. He lives in Vermont.
FOOTNOTES
To return to the corresponding text, click on the reference number or "Ret
urn to text."
*1 Chapter opener: James Bradley on the beach of Iwo Jima, April 1998. Return to text.
*2 Chapter opener: Franklin Sousley with his dog. Return to text.
*3 Chapter opener: Map of the Pacific Theater. It appears in its entirety on page 91. Return to text.
*4 Chapter opener: WWII-era U.S. Marine Corps recruiting poster. Return to text.
*5 Chapter opener: Franklin Sousley (on the right) and a buddy at Camp Pendleton. Return to text.
*6 Chapter opener: An onboard briefing held en route to Iwo Jima. Return to text.
*7 Chapter opener: Marines on the beach at Iwo. Return to text.
*8 Chapter opener: Two Marines on the beach of Iwo Jima. Return to text.
*9 Chapter opener: Official U.S. Marine Corps emblem. Return to text.
*10 Chapter opener: Mike Strank (far left) giving instructions to his men. Return to text.
*11 Chapter opener: The first U.S. flag being carried up Mount Suribachi. Return to text.
*12 Chapter opener: Papers across the country ran The Photograph on February 25, 1945. This shot is from The New York Times. Return to text.
*13 Chapter opener: A Marine on the beach of Iwo Jima. Return to text.
*14 Chapter opener: James Bradley seated on the lap of his father, John Bradley. Return to text.
*15Chapter opener: Rene Gagnon, his fiancée, Pauline Harnois, and Rene’s mother, Irene Gagnon. Return to text.
*16 Chapter opener: The Seventh Bond Tour poster. Return to text.
*17 Chapter opener: Harlon Block and his mother, Belle, taken while Harlon was on furlough. Return to text.
*18 Chapter opener: The Marine Corps Memorial being assembled. Return to text.
*19 Chapter opener: Goldie Price, the mother of Franklin Sousley, holding a copy of The Photograph. Return to text.
*20 Chapter opener: The original, horizontal version of the Rosenthal photograph. Return to text.
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS