Flash of history

Press, 28 March 1981, Page 15

Flash of history

Joe Rosenthal, who captured the whole Pacific theatre of the Second World War with the photograph (left) of battle-weary marines wrestling aloft a windwhipped American flag on Iwo Jima in February, 1945, is finally retiring.

The picture electrified a country weary of war. It won Rosenthal a Pulitzer Prize and became a symbol for the Marine Corps. The photograph .has been widely reproduced, including a bronze monument' of it at Arlington, Virginia. Rosenthal, aged 69, ended his career with the San Francisco “Chronicle.” It was while working for the Associated Press that he was aboard a landing craft that stormed Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945.

“I preferred going with the marines because of the types of pictures that were available,” Rosenthal said . later. "Assault landings appealed to me. All you had to do was screw up your courage and go with them.”

The 60,000 marines at Iwo Jima met savage opposition from the Japanese but 26 days after the

assault, Iwo Jima fell. The marines and navy killed more than 20.000 enemy troops at a cost of about 6000 American lives. “No man who survived that beach can tell you how he did it,” Rosenthal said. “It was like walking through rain and not getting wet. There is no way you can explain it.” Four days later, a small United States flag was planted on the smoky slopes of Mount Suribachi. Because the flag was so hard to see, a bigger flag was taken up by a patrol, Rosenthal not far behind it.

“As I got closer, I saw a group of our men hauling a long iron pipe and then I discovered still another marine holding a neatly folded American flag,” he said. Rosenthal levelled his bulky speed graphic, then the prime news camera, and caught the dramatic moment. He did not know what he had. Days later messages l of congratulations poured in for him.

He returned to the United States a hero. A short time later, he joined the San Francisco “Chronicle,” where he worked for the next 35 years.—N.Z.P.A.-A.P.