Robert Edsel's Blog

"Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" photographed by Joe Rosenthal. (Photo Courtesy of The Associated Press)

Today marks the 65th anniversary of the Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.  The photograph depicts five United States Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. It is the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as publication and is possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.

The image represents the United States Marine Corps hoisting the flag on Mount Suribachi, the highest point on Iwo Jima island which was the first Japanese homeland soil to be captured. There were two flags raised at this point, but the first one was replaced because the flag was too small, 54 x 28 inches, and it was hard to see from the beach below. The second flag measured 96 x 56 inches thus making it more visible from the beaches and this time, it was able to be filmed and photographed properly. The photographer, Joe Rosenthal, almost missed taking the photograph because he was trying to get a better vantage point. He later remarked:

“Out of the corner of my eye, I had seen the men start the flag up. I swung my camera and shot the scene. That is how the picture was taken, and when you take a picture like that, you don’t come away saying you got a great shot. You don’t know.” [1]

A diagram of the photo indicating the six men who raised the flag: Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley (†), Michael Strank (†), John Bradley, Rene Gagnon and Harlon Block (†). (†) = Killed on Iwo Jima. (Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

When President Roosevelt saw the image, he immediately ordered the surviving marines back to the United States to help in the war bond drive.  The power of this image was the symbol for the 7th war bond that raised $26.3 billion, twice the tour’s goal and help seal the victory of World War II for the Allies.

Few images have captured the imagination as the Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.

Click This Link to Read More

[1] Bradley, James. Flags of Our Fathers, p. 209–211.

Click Image to Enlarge

On December 21, 1941, directors from the great museums in America joined at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City for a historic meeting. In the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, these cultural leaders realized that it was time to take action. Their initial concerns focused on the safety of American museums – would they be prepared for an attack on their own cities? Other logistical problems were a concern as well. In Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts had closed the Japanese galleries out of fear of angry mobs. The Met was closing at dusk to prevent visitors from running into things in the event of a blackout.

At the meeting, Paul Sachs issued a resolution, stating:

“If, in time of peace, our museums and art galleries are important to the community, in time of war they are doubly valuable. For then, when the petty and the trivial fall way and we are face to face with final and lasting values, we… must summon to our defense all our intellectual and spiritual resources. We must guard jealously all we have inherited from a long past, all we are capable of creating in a trying present, and all we are determined to preserve in a foreseeable future. Art is the imperishable and dynamic expression of these aims. It is, and always has been, the visible evidence of the activity of free minds.”

In hindsight, we know that a further attack on American soil never occurred. However, this meeting had lasting effects: it served as the birthplace of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section. After the Met meeting, Monuments Man George Stout and Harvard Professor Paul Sachs continued to reach out to museum leaders to develop a plan of action for when the Allies would inevitably arrive in Europe, for it had become obvious that it was the cultural treasures of Europe, not America, that would need protection. The Monuments Men were the embodiment the eloquent words Sachs spoke in December 1941.

We set aside two days a year to honor our Veterans:  Memorial Day and Veterans Day.  But other days of the year border on such importance…today is one of them.  More than 2,400 men and women were killed on this date 68 years ago as they innocently went about their duty and lives that Sunday morning.  It was a dastardly act by Japan and it’s warlords as they sought to knock out the Pacific fleet of the United States in one swift blow.  Within days the United States was at war with Japan and its allies, Nazi Germany and Italy.  World War II  had begun in earnest.

Less than three weeks later a meeting would take place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City that would have far reaching implications.  Visionary leaders such as George Stout, Paul Sachs, and Francis Henry Taylor, expressed concern about protecting this country’s cultural treasures from concerns about a Japanese invasion of the west coast and Nazi bombings on the east coast.  In time these specific fears subsided but were replaced with an even greater concern:  how to protect the cultural treasures of the western world from the path of war that inevitably would lead to the doors of the Reichschancellery in Berlin.

Fortunately we live in a world today that was spared the “what if” consequences of the Monuments Men never having been created. We can visit the world’s great museums and see the vast majority of the greatest accomplishments of man’s creative genius because of their vision and sacrifices.  Pearl Harbor set them into motion.

So on this day, let us remember the brave men and women who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor. May we also acknowledge those who acted and set in motion one of the most benevolent efforts in the history of mankind, an effort that preserved much of the accumulated art, music, and culture produced by thousands of years of civilization, from the path of war:  the Monuments Men and women.

Waterloo Daily Courier, August 14, 1945. (Photo Courtesy of Robert M. Edsel Collection.)

Sixty-four years ago this was but one of the newspaper headlines as the world awoke to read about the end of World War II. Victory in Japan, “V-J” Day, August 15, 1945.

Japan’s acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration calling for their unconditional surrender on August 15, 1945 (August 14 in the United States) marked the end of World War II, three years, eight months, and seven days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. While the official signing of the surrender took place on September 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, victory was celebrated in the United States, Britain, and Australia with a two day holiday beginning on August 15. Soldiers and civilians alike rejoiced in the streets of cities across the United States and Europe. When the announcement came at 3 a.m. in Hawaii, every ship in Pearl Harbor set off its store of rockets.

President Truman informs reporters of Japan's surrender at a press conference in the Oval Office. August 14, 1945. (Photo Courtesy of Time Life)

Amidst the celebrations, the gravity of the situation was not to be forgotten. King George VI addressed the British people from Buckingham Palace, saying:

“Our hearts are full to overflowing, as are your own. Yet there is not one of us who has experienced this terrible war who does not realize that we shall feel its inevitable consequences long after we have all forgotten our rejoicing today.”

These consequences are still felt today. Of the almost 300,000 American combat deaths during World War II, more than one-third occurred in the Asia-Pacific Theater. This “Victory in Japan” Day should serve not only as a day to remember the final Allied victory, but also as a day to remember those who so nobly lost their lives fighting and winning the war in the Pacific Theater.