It was a powerful image that may have helped counteract the effects of the horror the men had seen. The flag was more an act of defiance and determination than of triumph.

In fact, the men on the top of the volcano who actually placed the first flag were attacked by Japanese shortly after they finished photographing the first flag.

The actual flag in the photo was saved from a ship that was sinking during the Pearl Harbor attack and was much larger than the first one used. The photographer of the famous picture was Joe Rosenthal, who saw men raising the second, larger flag.

The men on Iwo Jima did not know that this was the first battle covered by the media in real time, but the American public knew that the battle had been horrific / The photograph Joe Rosenthal took (whout even looking through the viewfinder) must...
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