At 03:14 12/12/02, John Hudson wrote:
As I said originally the "famous" photo is a staged event! The admiral
didn't like what he saw first so he arranged for another photo shoot and the
second time around he got what he liked.
Not true. You misinterpreted what I wrote and I don't believe you have an
understanding of military combat operations. The first flag was raised on
orders from a ground commmander on the island. The fighting was quite
intense and the U.S. invasion force had by no means gained the upper hand
yet. Indeed, it was very early on in the battle for the island. Its sole
purpose was to inspire the U.S. ground forces and demoralize the Japanese
defenders.
When the admiral was informed by his staff a U.S. flag had been raised, he
went to look for himself from the watch post on his flagship. The flag was
a small "storm" or "battle" flag. It was then that he ordered a larger
flag raised, and it was done within a matter of hours. The ***sole***
purpose of raising a larger one was _so_it_could_be_seen_better_ by ground
forces on the island, and by those aboard ship offshore providing fire support.
Those that raised the second flag were exposed to fire nearly the entire
time they went up to replace the first one. IIRC, there was one quick shot
of the men who raised the second flag standing around the base of the pole
after it was raised. Then everyone got the hell off the top of the
mountain. They were out in the open and most certainly a target of very
easy opportunity. The battle for the island was still, by no means,
decided and raged on for days after the flags were raised.
The second flag raising had absolutely ***nothing*** to do with making
photographs or film footage. At that point in the battle, it would have
outraged those sent to do it. It had ***everything*** to do with a very
legitimate goal directed at winning the battle for the island: inspiring
one's men and demoralizing the enemy. Those that raised both flags
understood this fully and the effect it would have, not for the war effort
in general, but there, that day, at that time, and on that island. Battles
can be decided by very simple things that have deep meaning.
-- John
This in contrast to those famous
photos from a later era which were taken at the spur of the moment and were
not re-run to satisfy the whims of the local admiral; coming to mind are
the shots of the south Vietnamese policeman shooting the vietcong person in
the head with a pistol at point blank range, the young girl running naked
down the road after a naphalm bomb attack, and the one of the girl haunched
over an injured person after the National Guard turkey shoot at Kent State
University. In contrast to these three images, the Iwo Jimo flag raising
photo is most certainly a re-run on the original. If it is not, perhaps that
terrified young girl could have been asked to do a second run down the road
or for the policemen to have rounded up another miscreant for another pot
shot to improve the composition of the photo.
jh
The motion picture film
> > and other stills show clearly that it was not staged or faked. The
> > photographer's positioning and timing were impeccable. The Navy
> > released the now famous photograph after reviewing the stills done of
> > both flag raisings. One look through the Navy's archive leaves little
> > doubt as to why this particular photograph was chosen for release. It
> > stands out among all of them. All the others look bland by
> > comparison. BTW, the photographer of the second raising ended up
> > working for the photographer of the first flag raising after the war.
>
>
>
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