Iwo Jima – 60 Years Ago
Posted By: 'Okie' | 12:12 pm — 2/20/2005 | 
1 Comment See comments below:
Sixty years ago yesterday, photographer Joe Rosenthal and until recently, an unnamed filmmaker captured the second raising of Old Glory on the Japanese occupied island of Iwo Jima. They had missed the first one, but this flag was the big one, going up on the highest peak, so that every GI on the island could see it from wherever they might be.
This event, and the two men who documented it, make up the cover story in Parade Magazine this week. It will be available to view online as of 2/28 if you don’t get Parade in your Sunday newspaper. I missed getting to blog about the anniversary yesterday but upon seeing this story I just had to pass it along. [All information here is gleaned from the Parade article.]
The filmmaker was Bill Genaust. He had been standing alongside Rosenthal and captured on 198 frames of 16mm Kodachrome the flag raising sequence. Rosenthal’s still image was circulated around the world in days and won him the Pulitzer Prize. Genaust’s film footage would take weeks to be processed, and then was shown in newsreels across America and later on TV, but Genaust’s name was never linked to the film due to military regulations that decreed still photographer credits, but no credits allowed for film images.
Nine days later Genaust was killed in action during a clean-up operation involving one of the many caves where the last Japanese holdouts were hiding. After he and his buddy were killed, the Marines burnt out the cave with flamethrowers and sealed it with a bulldozer. Having been deemed to be too dangerous to open for recovering the bodies in the ’50s, the cave remains sealed even today. As the article concludes:
He was one Marine who immortalized on film his nation’s fight for freedom and his Corp’s honor – though he remains behind, entombed forever on Hill 362A in a forgotten cave without a marker”
I guess it must be the mental/emotional state I’m in over my blog series, “Dad’s WWII Letters to Mom”, ’cause stories like this one keep tearing me up! Genaust was very much “The Forgotten Hero”!
Michelle Malkin has a repository of links to other bloggers’ posts on this anniversary. Give ‘em a good long look. (db)
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23 February 2005 | Q. Siemer Said:
His cousin Billy Genaust is a good friend and
has a lot of biographical information on him. This will
thrill him.