![]() ![]() ![]() During the battle, a photograph was taken of a group of men hoisting the American flag atop a Japanese mountain. 'Flags of Our Fathers' (based on the book of the same title by Ron Powers and James Bradley) focuses on the aftermath of the Battle of Iwo Jima. 'Flags of Our Fathers' is based on the bestselling book by James Bradley with Ron Powers, which chronicled the battle of Iwo Jima and the fates of the flag raisers and some of their brothers in Easy Company. But the surviving flag raisers had no interest in being held up as symbols and did not consider themselves heroes they wanted only to stay on the front with their brothers in arms who were fighting and dying without fanfare or glory. The inspiring photo capturing that moment became a symbol of victory to a nation that had grown weary of war and made instant heroes of the six American soldiers at the base of the flag, some of whom would die soon after, never knowing that they had been immortalized. One of the most crucial and bloodiest battles of the war was the struggle for the island of Iwo Jima, which culminated with what would become one of the most iconic images in history: five Marines and a Navy corpsman raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi. Even as victory in Europe was finally within reach, the war in the Pacific raged on. It is the story of the difference between truth and myth, the meaning of being a hero, and the essence of the human experience of war.Overview - February 1945. A penetrating, epic look at a generation at war, this is history told with keen insight, enormous honesty, and the passion of a son paying homage to his father. Only James Bradley’s father truly survived, displaying no copy of the famous photograph in his home, telling his son only: "The real heroes of Iwo Jima were the guys who didn’t come back."įew books ever have captured the complexity and furor of war and its aftermath as well as Flags of Our Fathers. For two of them, the adulation was shattering. The men in the photo - three were killed during the battle - were proclaimed heroes and flown home, to become reluctant symbols. Following these men’s paths to Iwo Jima, James Bradley has written a classic story of the heroic battle for the Pacific’s most crucial island - an island riddled with Japanese tunnels and 22,000 fanatic defenders who would fight to the last man.īut perhaps the most interesting part of the story is what happened after the victory. ![]() In Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley draws on those documents to retrace the lives of his father and the men of Easy Company. But after his death at age seventy, his family discovered closed boxes of letters and photos. To his family, John Bradley never spoke of the photograph or the war. Now the son of one of the flagraisers has written a powerful account of six very different young men who came together in a moment that will live forever. And after climbing through a landscape of hell itself, they raised a flag. ![]() Through a hail of machine-gun and mortar fire that left the beaches strewn with comrades, they battled to the island’s highest peak. In February 1945, American Marines plunged into the surf at Iwo Jima - and into history. The true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America. ![]()
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