Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Pop History Moment: The US Marines Recaptured Iwo Jima

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On this day in 1945 the 28th Regiment of the 5th Marines took Mount Suribachi as the battle for control of Japanese-held Iwo Jima raged on; this famous photo of the event, taken by Joe Rosenthal, won the year's Pulitzer Prize for Photography, and has been reprinted many times around the world.

Of the six men depicted in the picture, three (Franklin Sousley, Harlon Block, and Michael Strank) did not survive the battle; the three survivors (John Bradley, Rene Gagnon, and Ira Hayes) became celebrities upon the publication of the photo, which was later used by Felix de Weldon as a model for the USMC War Memorial, located adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington, DC.

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