Status
Call number
Collection
Publication
Description
Biography & Autobiography. History. Military. Nonfiction. HTML:#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER � This is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history, James Bradley has captured the glory, the triumph, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America. In February 1945, American Marines plunged into the surf at Iwo Jima�and into history. Through a hail of machine-gun and mortar fire that left the beaches strewn with comrades, they battled to the island's highest peak. And after climbing through a landscape of hell itself, they raised a flag. Now the son of one of the flagraisers has written a powerful account of six very different young men who came together in a moment that will live forever. To his family, John Bradley never spoke of the photograph or the war. But after his death at age seventy, his family discovered closed boxes of letters and photos. In Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley draws on those documents to retrace the lives of his father and the men of Easy Company. Following these men's paths to Iwo Jima, James Bradley has written a classic story of the heroic battle for the Pacific's most crucial island�an island riddled with Japanese tunnels and 22,000 fanatic defenders who would fight to the last man. But perhaps the most interesting part of the story is what happened after the victory. The men in the photo�three were killed during the battle�were proclaimed heroes and flown home, to become reluctant symbols. For two of them, the adulation was shattering. Only James Bradley's father truly survived, displaying no copy of the famous photograph in his home, telling his son only: �The real heroes of Iwo Jima were the guys who didn't come back. � Few books ever have captured the complexity and furor of war and its aftermath as well as Flags of Our Fathers. A penetrating, epic look at a generation at war, this is history told with keen insight, enormous honesty, and the passion of a son paying homage to his father. It is the story of the difference between truth and myth, the meaning of being a hero, and the essence of the human experience of war.… (more)
User reviews
It was an intriguing read, starting slow with the backgrounds of the flag raisers and then become downright intense during the battle
Bradley’s approach is to track the six men in the statue – his father Jack, sergeant Mike Strank, and privates Franklin Sousley, Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes and Harlon Block. You couldn’t ask for much more of an All-American team; Bradley was a middle-class Midwesterner from Wisconsin, Strank a second generation immigrant from the Pennsylvania steel country, Block a Texas farm boy, Gagnon a French-Canadien from New Hampshire, Sousley a freckle-faced boy from Kentucky, Hayes a Pima Indian. I expect you know what happened on Iwo Jima; Strank, Block and Sousley didn’t come back. Gagnon tried to parlay his role in the flag-raising to some sort of prime job – and ended up as a janitor. Hayes killed himself slowly, with alcohol. Bradley came home to Appleton, Wisconsin, never talked about the war (or told his family he’d won a Navy Cross) and when reporters called on the anniversary of the flag-raising was always “on vacation fishing in Canada” – despite the fact he didn’t fish and had never been to Canada. Bradley, of course, devotes more attention to his father than the others – solid family man, small businessman, loving father and husband – and, to be fair, he’s the only flag-raiser whose story didn’t end poorly.
Except that it’s been proven that Jack Bradley wasn’t one of the flag raisers.
So what’s up with that? Jack Bradley obviously knew he wasn’t one of the flag-raisers. Did he have some sort of arrangement with Harold Schultz, the actual man in the photo, to “take the heat”, so to speak? Just to make it clear, Bradley really was a hero – the Navy Cross wasn’t for the flag-raising but for going to aid another Marine through intense machine-gun fire. And Bradley was definitely in A flag-raising, just not THE flag-raising; he had helped in the first flag-raising on Suribachi, with a small flag; the iconic photo is of its replacement with a larger flag. You’d think maybe it was a mistake – but the research proving it was Schultz and not Bradley was convincing enough for the Marines to modify the statue and replace Bradley’s face with Schultz’s. Bradley wrote the book long before this came out; ironically in his introduction he says his father is the most recognizable person in the photograph. He also notes that Marines on Iwo Jima thought the first flag-raising was the important one and the second sort of an afterthought; perhaps that was Jack Bradley’s reason for silence; he’d done everything his comrades expected of him and more; he’d raised an American flag in victory on Mt. Suribachi; and explaining any further just wasn’t part of his character. Still, it just seems a little off-putting.
All that aside, this is a pretty good book. As Ambrose said, the story of boys growing up all over the US and men in combat in the Pacific is as good as they come and obviously a labor of love. Photographs of the participants; a decent map of the Iwo Jima campaign; endnotes.
The book follows the guys, told about what they were like and how they entered, the new approach to war and their personal history, what it was like for them and their response to the notoriety of the actual picture/event, the errors in publicity about it, and the horror of war and what was seen while there, the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder consequences, the death of many of our men, and how some of them tried to get back into normal life but had difficulty in various ways. I’m thankful they were able to put down a plaque for their father and write about what it was like, and how these people were real people that risked and gave their lives and some of the lucky ones that were able to make it through. Ira Hayes was one of the men that was among those men that helped raise our flag, how he drank a lot, was arrested a ton of time, how others wanted the fame and how others wanted it to be known for the heroes of all the men that were there not just the little group that put up that flag, how they just did what anybody would have done-“If somebody needed help you would help them” and how the whole situation was great because of their willingness to risk their lives and give their lives. I appreciated that about the book, was sorry about a lot of it, and it grew on me as I read it. I’d have to give it a 2 out of 5 stars though. I’m glad I got through it but I don’t think I’ll read it again. I will continue to teach my children to respect our military men and women and to understand what they gave up for us. I hope this little thread is not offensive to anybody. I know there was more to write about this book but I’ll just leave it where it is. I’d be happy to talk to you all more about it if you have any questions.
Awards and honors
William E. Colby Award (2001)
Alex Award (2001)
New York Times bestseller (Nonfiction, 2000)
ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults (2004.04 | If It Weren’t For Them: Heroes, 2004)
Amazon.com Best Books
Of course the survivors are also dealing with their memories of battle; the best part of the book is the description of the fighting, which was as brutal as any in the history of warfare. The Japanese defending the island knew they had no chance of holding it against such superior numbers. Their plan was to make the Americans pay such a high price that they would shrink from future campaigns and give up on invading the home islands. The defenders thus had no exit plan, and were all expected to die gloriously in battle. They had constructed a series of caves and pillboxes, and basically were "inside the island" rather than on it, so the US marines found themselves being shot at by an enemy they could not see.
Three of the flag raisers never made it off the island, dying in subsequent combat, but the author follows the tribulations of their families too. He focuses most on his father, a naval corpsman attached to the marines for the battle, both because he has the most information and interest in him and because he lived the longest and had the most consequential post-war life.
Of course the photo was of an event of little significance- Mount Suribachi had been captured and was secure, and this was in fact the raising of a second flag to replace the first one that had been raised a few hours earlier. While this point is made over and over in the book, one is struck by why there is thus so much focus on the event in the writing- it might have been more interesting to focus on the rest of the battle. On the other hand, the six soldiers are a wonderfully diverse group of classic American GI stereotypes- Kentucky farmboy, Wisconsin Catholic future undertaker, Texas 7th Day Adventist football player, Manchester NH mill worker, reservation-living Native American, and Czech immigrant son of a blue collar worker.
The book can be repetitive, and it's not as well-written as the European theater books of Stephen Ambrose. But well worth a read.
I read it again in 2014 and it still is one of the best ever.
The protagonist, the author's father, john or "Jack" Bradley was one of six that were in the iconic picture of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima. As it happens the flag raising was one of the few relatively mellow interludes at Iwo Jima. Thus Jack Bradley did not regard himself as a hero. Nor did all but one of the flag raisers.
The military aspect is important; if not for the soldiers who fought, died and faced indescribable brutality we might not be blessed with the freedoms we take too much for granted. Freedom isn't free. The next time anyone tells you that America is not a great country, though with blemishes, or you think that yourself, do yourself a favor; read this book or, as applicable, hand someone a copy.
The subtext of the book consists of the core American values it describes; the simple decency that helps make our nation great. After the war ended he avoided publicity, shunned the inevitable hero worship, and spent his time concentrating on running a business and raising a family based on integrity and kindness.
Back in what must have been late 2006 I took my stepfather of more than 30 years out to see the movie "Flags of Our Father." He had fought in WW II, in North Africa and I believe Europe. That was a major part in our almost lifelong bond. I believe, but am not certain, that I got the book from his shelf. I may have purchased it as a holiday or birthday gift. His life in many respects echoed that mantra of decency, integrity and kindness that I have cherished while he was alive and for the more than six years since his passing.
A lucky photograph captured the imagination of the American people and helped raise the spirits of a nation (and LOTS of money in war bonds). This is the background story of the famous shot of the flag being raised on Iwo Jima.
Author James Bradley’s father was one
Though he spends a good part of the book giving us background on the six young men whose destinies would converge on Mount Suribachi during one of the bloodiest battles of the war in the Pacific, Bradley manages to keep the story moving forward. He walks a fine line between personal anecdote and the tension of a battlefield report.
Stephen Hoye is best when reading the battle scenes. When he slows down to give importance to a phrase or section his voice takes on an irritating quality that detracts from the message. Trust the listener, Mr Hoye. We will figure out what is important without your “acting” it for us. Despite this irritation, I still give the book 5 stars because Bradley’s work is gripping, emotional, dramatic, touching and inspirational.