Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
Photographer: Joe Rosenthal
Date: February 23, 1945
Location: Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan
Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press photographed six United States Marines raising an American flag atop Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945, during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The flag-raising was actually the second of the day — a smaller flag had been raised earlier, and commanders ordered it replaced with a larger one. Rosenthal almost missed the shot; he raised his camera just as the men hoisted the pole. The photograph won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in 1945 and is the only photograph to win the Pulitzer in the same year it was taken. It became the basis for the Marine Corps War Memorial (also known as the Iwo Jima Memorial) in Arlington, Virginia. Three of the six men in the photograph — Michael Strank, Harlon Block, and Franklin Sousley — were killed in action on Iwo Jima within weeks of the photo being taken. The identities of the six Marines were disputed for decades, with a correction announced by the Marine Corps in 2016.
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