todayinhistory:

February 23rd 1945: Raising of the US flag on Iwo Jima

On this day in 1945, a group of United States Marines and a US Navy Corpsman reached the top of Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima. There they raised the American flag, and this moment was captured in a now iconic photograph by Joe Rosenthal. The event took place during the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War Two, which was fought between the United States and Japan. Mount Suribachi was a tactical location sought by the USA so they had the superior vantage point and on this day in 1945 they achieved that goal. The iconic photograph in fact shows the second flag-raising on the mountain that day (here is an image of the first). The photograph taken by Rosenthal became one of the most iconic images of the war, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography. Of the six men in the picture, three were killed during the battle (Franklin Sousley - second left, Harlon Block - far right, and Michael Strank - third left) and three survived (John Bradley - second right, Rene Gagnon - behind Bradley, and Ira Hayes - far left). Admiral Chester Nimitz’s praise for the Marines on Iwo Jima is inscribed on the Marine Corps War Memorial outside Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia:

“Uncommon Valor Was a Common Virtue.”

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