The flag raising on Iwo Jima was not staged; this is a myth that won't seem
to go away.  Read James Bradley's recent and moving book "Flags of Our
Fathers," about the six (I think) men in that famous photo.  Bradley's
father was one of them.  The book also explains the source of the myth.
There were two flag raisings.  The first went unrecorded on film, although
a couple of staged photos were taken of that flag after the fact.  The
second flag raising occurred to replace the original flag with a larger
one, so it could be better seen from a distance.  That flag raising was
recorded by both a motion picture camera and a still camera.  The still
photo that became famous was one of those amazingly lucky
taken-at-just-the-right-second shots.  It was most definitely not staged.
There was a native American in the group; he just happened to be among the
group that was there at the time.  Half of the men who raised the flag
never walked off the island.  The irony of the flag raisings was that the
first flag raising raised cheers all over the island and on the ships
offshore, while the second flag raising went virtually unnoticed until the
photograph of it was published.

David Romanowski
Exhibits Writer-Editor
National Air and Space Museum

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