Best views, weather, etc. How to test them 👓 SC, Ala. sites look back Betty Ford honored
NATION NOW
Iwo Jima

Son of Navy corpsman casts doubt on Iwo Jima photo

Meg Jones
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MILWAUKEE — By the time John "Doc" Bradley reached the summit of Mount Suribachi, he hadn't slept or eaten for three days.

The flag-raising at Iwo Jima became one of the most iconic images of World War II.

He had seen buddies cut down and saved the lives of countless Marines on the volcanic island of Iwo Jima. When he was sent on a combat patrol to capture the summit of Suribachi, someone in his platoon carried an American flag from the transport ship Missoula.

The Navy corpsman from Wisconsin helped hoist the flag as a pole was pushed into the rocky ground and secured with small boulders. A photographer snapped photos of the grungy troops as the stars and stripes fluttered overhead.

Those photos were rarely seen, though. They didn't end up in newspapers and magazines around the world or on a 3-cent postage stamp or in a larger-than-life sculpture.

Can Wisconsin son withstand Iwo Jima photo inquiry?

Because the first flag raising would be supplanted by a second flag raising immortalized by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.

Bradley helped raise both flags that day. He's one of many troops pictured next to the flags. But the Marines are investigating whether Bradley is in the famous photo and his son James, who wrote a bestselling book made into a Clint Eastwood film — Flags Of Our Fathers — now is convinced the second man from the right is not his father.

James Bradley thinks his father most likely got the first and second flag raisings mixed up when he was asked about it by Marine commanders. When Rosenthal transmitted his photo, it did not include the names of the men. In a 1945 version of going viral, the photo quickly became a nationwide symbol of heroism for a country tired of war and death. So the Marines scrambled to learn the identities of the flag raisers.

The three survivors of six men credited with raising a flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, donned their Marine uniforms again in 1949 for small parts in the film, "Sands of Iwo Jima.” Here with sound trucks in the background are, from left to right, Ira H. Hayes of Babchule, Ariz.; John Bradley of Antigo, Wis.; and Rene Gagnon of Manchester, N.H.

By then Bradley was recuperating in a military hospital from shrapnel wounds to his feet and legs from an explosion on Iwo Jima 2 1/2 weeks after the flag raising.

"It's important to realize my father didn't independently say, 'Hey, I raised the flag and I'm in the photo.' He was told months later in a hospital bed — 'here you are,'" James Bradley said in a phone interview Wednesday from his New York home.

"For 70 years, the Marines sat on photos of the first flag raising that had never been seen. Those first photos reveal my dad was hidden in the official photo of the first flag raising but in the new photos its obviously him, you can see him from head to toe."

Those photos show Bradley with cuffed pants, no helmet liner and gear issued to Navy medics assigned to Marine infantry units. The man identified as Bradley in the second flag raising photo is wearing a helmet liner, pants with no cuffs and equipment around his waist typically issued to infantrymen.

Author now doubts his dad was in iconic Iwo Jima flag-raising photo

That's what amateur historians in 2014 first noticed and what eventually led to the Smithsonian Channel researching the photo with advanced digital technology. The Smithsonian Channel's findings were provided to the Marine Corps, which launched an investigation. The Smithsonian Channel is planning to air a documentary about the photographer later this year.

James Bradley does not think his father ever realized he wasn't in the famous flag raising photo. John Bradley, an Antigo funeral home director who died in 1994 at the age of 70, refused interviews and rarely spoke about the flag raising after he and the other two survivors finished a war bond drive in 1945.

"He never wanted to be in the photo. I think if he had any inkling or evidence he wasn't in that photo, he would have been happy to say that," said James Bradley.

"I have no evidence or reason to believe that he didn't believe he was in that second flag raising. The president of the United States, the government, the Marines all told him it was him."

James Bradley is considering updating his book Flags Of Our Fathers, which he said would be minimal because "everything is accurate except the re-identification of a few figures."

James Bradley said videos and other photos taken on Mount Suribachi show his father helping secure both the first and second flags.

Marine still wonders why he survived Iwo Jima

The first flag was reportedly too small to be seen by men at nearby landing beaches. A second larger flag was ordered sent up the mountain by a battalion commander and given to Rene Gagnon to carry. Rosenthal and two Marine photographers reached the summit just as men began attaching the second flag to a water pipe. One of the Marine photographers, Staff Sgt. Bill Genaust, was standing next to Rosenthal and captured the flag raising with a movie camera as Rosenthal clicked his Speed Graphic at 1/400 of a second. Genaust's video shows the flag being secured in the ground and a man, now believed to be Franklin Sousley, in the spot attributed to Bradley.

Photos of Bradley taken at the first flag raising show him wearing suspenders and holding medical bags and a canteen but those items are missing from the photo of the man identified as Bradley at the second flag raising. Another photo shows Bradley standing next to Sousley as ropes are attached to secure the second flag.

"He's right next to the guys who raised the flag, that's why so many testified he was there. As soon as it goes up, he's right there with ropes holding the pole down. So he's involved in both events. But technically if you look at the photo of the second flag raising, he's not there," said James Bradley.

President Franklin Roosevelt knew the image could be used for an upcoming bond drive to help pay for the war and he ordered the flag raisers be sent to Washington, D.C. The problem was, no one knew who they were except for Gagnon, who carried the flag to the summit. Gagnon was asked to identify the other flag raisers in the photo and he came up with the names. But by then only Gagnon, Bradley and Ira Hayes were still alive. The other three identified in the photo had been killed on Iwo Jima. Genaust, too, had died in combat.

Bradley was found in a hospital and admitted he had helped raise the flag on Iwo Jima. And that's how, his son said, the wrong man was identified in the famous picture.

If the Marine investigation determines what James Bradley now believes, it will not diminish his father's heroism. His family didn't know James Bradley was awarded a Navy Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor, for his actions on Iwo Jima until after he died.

"It doesn't matter who's in the photo. It matters that these guys were heroic. All this photo stuff is important many, many years later. At the time it wasn't a big event," James Bradley said. "What was a big event was saving lives and trying not to get killed."

Follow Meg Jones on Twitter: @MegJonesJS


Featured Weekly Ad