Amateur historians found the mistakes in the Iwo Jima photo
Joe Rosenthal's photo of six Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima is one of the most famous photographs ever taken, and for 74 years at least one of the names under it was wrong.
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Sources
Sources
- Breanne Robertson (ed.), Investigating Iwo: The Flag Raisings in Myth, Memory & Esprit de Corps (US Marine Corps History Division, 2019), with the 1947, 2016 and 2019 board reports: https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/Investigating%20Iwo_WEB3.pdf
- US Marine Corps, "USMC statement on Iwo Jima flag raisers" (23 June 2016): https://www.marines.mil/News/News-Display/Article/810457/usmc-statement-on-iwo-jima-flag-raisers/
- US Marine Corps, "Correction to the identity of Marines in photograph of the flag raising on Mount Suribachi" (17 October 2019): https://www.marines.mil/News/Press-Releases/Press-Release-Display/Article/1991234/correction-to-the-identity-of-marines-in-photograph-of-the-flag-raising-on-moun/
- US Marine Corps History Division biographies of Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon and Harlon Block: https://www.usmcu.edu/Research/Marine-Corps-History-Division/People/Whos-Who-in-Marine-Corps-History/
- Mitchell Landsberg (AP), "Fifty Years Later, Iwo Jima Photographer Fights His Own Battle" (1995), quoting Rosenthal's 1955 Collier's article
- National Archives, The Unwritten Record, on Genaust's film: https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/?p=10151
- Smithsonian National Postal Museum, "Private First Class Harold Schultz" (2018): https://postalmuseum.si.edu/private-first-class-harold-schultz-usps-mail-sorter-and-iwo-jima%E2%80%99s-unknown-hero
- National Park Service, the US Marine Corps War Memorial: https://www.nps.gov/gwmp/learn/historyculture/usmcwarmemorial.htm
- Evening Star (Washington), 9 May 1945 and 21 January 1947, via the Library of Congress
Pictures
- Sgt Bill Genaust's film of the raising (US Marine Corps; the colour restoration and the National Archives roll 428-NPC-2429); Joe Rosenthal's photograph (Associated Press), shown as the subject of this video; photographs by SSgt Louis R. Lowery and Pvt Bob Campbell and other US Marine Corps, US Navy and National Archives photographs; official portraits of the flag raisers, Bill Genaust, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman; Harold Keller's family photograph (published by the US Marine Corps History Division, 2019); the Philadelphia Inquirer's front page of 25 February 1945 (USMC photograph); the US Treasury's Seventh War Loan poster (1945); Universal Newsreel at the Capitol (May 1945); To the Shores of Iwo Jima (US Navy and Marine Corps, 1945); the US Navy's film of the Marine Corps War Memorial's dedication (1954, National Archives); the Harry S. Truman Library; the Marine Corps War Memorial (National Park Service; Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress).
Credits
- Louis Lowery's photographs from the US Marine Corps History Division archives, posted by USMC Archives (CC BY 2.0).