Controversy Over "Flag Raising over Iwo Jima" Photograph by Joe Rosenthal

Overview
On February 23, 1945 Joe Rosenthal slung his Speed Graphic camera into position for a quick snap of marines raising a flag on top of a hill on Iwo Jima after the bloodiest battle in Marine Corps history. Nearly 6,000 marines lost their lives during the battle for Iwo Jima, almost one third of the total number of marines lost in WWII.

At the time photographers usually shipped their film to central locations for developing so photographers rarely knew the results of their shooting until much later. It is because of this and the lack of quick communications that the controversy surrounding the photograph began.

Controversy Starts
One of the photos Rosenthal made that day was a group photo of a couple dozen marines around the base of the raised flag and titled it "Gung Ho." When Rosenthal sent his film off to be developed at Guam, the closest processing center, he had also told the reporter who would supply words for the story that the flag photos were of the second flag raising. When the reporter wrote the story he even mentioned the two flags. Proving the adage that a "picture is worth a thousand words" the photo of the flag being raised by 4 marines and Navy corpsman on a shell-littered hill took the country by storm. When Rosenthal arrived in Guam after a few days he still had no idea which photo would have been used in stories. When he got to Guam someone asked him if he had staged "the photo". Assuming that the photo referred to was the group shot (the only staged shot in the batch), Rosenthal said "yes." It was a quick answer that would haunt Rosenthal for half a century, until his death in 2006.

Rumours of Cheating
Over the years, the rumors of the flag raising photo being staged have been repeated, exaggerated, and repeated again in various media outlets. The first to publicize the supposed "staging" was Sherrod, a Time-Life correspondent. Sherrod wired his editors back in the states that Rosenthal had staged the flag raising image. Without any further fact-checking, Time magazine's radio show, "Time Views the News," broadcast that "Rosenthal climbed Suribachi after the flag had already been planted. ... Like most photographers (he) could not resist reposing his characters in historic fashion." Within a few days Time had apologized to Rosenthal and retracted the story but the idea was already planted widely.

The rumours jumped back into the spotlight in 1991 when a New York Times book reviewer, misquoted a questionable paper about the flag-raising called "Iwo Jima: Monuments, Memories and the American Hero," and suggested that the Pulitzer Prize committee should think about taking back Rosenthal's 1945 award for photography. Then in 1994 Jack Anderson told readers he would tell them "the real story" about the flag raising and that Rosenthal had "accompanied a handpicked group of men for a staged flag raising hours after the original event." As with the original Time broadcast, Anderson withdrew his story later but the rumor was once again circulating as fact.

A Few Marines Felt Overlooked
Oddly enough, some of the most heated vitriol surrounding the photograph comes from Marines themselves. There were two flag raisings on Iwo Jima, the first was quick and the second was done to replace the flag with a larger flag. Some of the Marines involved with the first flag raising (only a few survived the battles) feel like they have been wrongly written out of history and the Marines involved in the second raising have taken their place. However, while neither group of Marines in the "Gung Ho" photo or the "Flag Raising over Iwo Jima" photo encountered resistance topping the hill at that time of the second flag raising (at least one Marine in the "Gung Ho" portrait was involved in the first assault on the mountain) the flag raising did not mark the end of hostilities on Iwo Jima. The battle for Iwo Jima actually continued another month.

What Really Happened
So what really happened? According to accounts by Rosenthal, which are backed up by movie footage of the event - Joe Rosenthal hiked up the dormant volcano Mount Suribachi with Pfc. Bob Campbell and Staff Sgt. Bill Genaust (both photographers for the Marine Corps). Part of the way up the mountain the group met Sgt. Lou Lowery, a photographer for Leatherneck magazine and a few more Marines. Lowery told them that the flag was already raised but they should go on up for the view. When Rosenthal and the others got to the top of the mountain, Rosenthal tried to find the men who originally raised the flag for a group shot with the already raised flag. When he was unsuccessful in finding them he moved on to focus his attention on a group that was getting ready to put up a second flag. Although the exact details aren't know, the Marine command had decided to replace the first flag with a larger one. Rosenthal originally tried to capture both flags in motion (one going up and the other down) but didn't have any luck getting the angle he wanted. At that point Rosenthal moved about 35 feet away for a wider view of the scene. Because of the slope of the ground and Rosenthal's short stature the ground blocked some of his view so he piled up rocks and a discarded Japanese sandbag to stand on. Other photographers were gathered in the same general area, including Staff Sgt. Bill Genaust who was shooting movie footage. Rosenthal snapped his photo as other photographers shot as well.

It is Staff Sgt. Genaust's video footage that shows how events unfolded and that Rosenthal was not staging the flag raising, but the obviously posed "Gung Ho" group shot.


References
Joe Rosenthal Bio at Newsmakers
Newseum Section on Joe Rosenthal
"Fifty Years Later" by the AP Brooklyn's Keller was a Part of an Historical Moment