Tale tells of Iwo Jima's two flag-raisings

• Hawai'i ties to bloody Pacific battle recalled

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Staff Writer

Lou Lowery's photo of the first time a U.S. flag was planted on Japanese soil was not the image most Americans would one day equate with Iwo Jima. Photo courtesy A&E "Heroes of Iwo Jima" Documentary 6 p.m. Sunday, A&E Also: www.iwojima.com

That's because they weren't in the picture. Literally.

Their heroism also was captured on film, but not in the striking light of the Associated Press photojournalist's camera.

As historians know, Rosenthal photographed the second flag-raising of Feb. 23, 1945 at the Battle of Iwo Jima. A few hours earlier, the first team erected a flag that sent ripples of patriotic fervor across the beach of this strategically important island 600 miles off Japan and reinvigorated the troops for the rest of a horrific battle that would claim the lives of 20,000 Japanese and 7,000 Americans.

The second team of flag-raisers was sent up Mount Suribachi to retrieve the first flag for posterity and replace it with a bigger one. Of the band of six men – five Marines, one Navy corpsman – who raised it a second time, only half came back. The casualty rate had been the same for the first team.

Former Marine Gene Hackman is host of a Sunday night documentary that explores the real story behind the two flag-raisings and two photographs, including the tale of Marine Corps photographer Lou Lowery, who made his image first.

While Lauren Lexton, co-writer, co-producer and director of the documentary, knew the photo all her life, "I never knew the story behind it."

Executive producer Arnold Shapiro first saw the second flag-raising photo when he was 12. Walk into his office and you'll find a signed photo from Rosenthal.

In 1985, Shapiro created the documentary, "Return to Iwo Jima," and later took his colleague with him when he returned again to Iwo Jima.

"The rooms are still there," Lexton said in a phone interview. "The hospital cave is still there. The further you go in, the more suffocatingly hot and humid it is. It makes you wonder how anybody survived in there at all."

But the Japanese did, for many more than the projected 72 hours of battle the Americans were expecting. The siege would last 36 days.

Burrowed into 16 miles of tunnels and caves, the Japanese were prepared for a suicide mission, planning to take out up to 10 U.S. soldiers each.

The documentary also touches on Hawai'i's connection to this famous battle. Alice Clark, chairwoman of the Pacific War Memorial Association, also returned to Iwo Jima with Shapiro and Lexton.

"Honestly, I didn't know much about the war in the Pacific at the time," Lexton said. "To me, for up until this documentary, I thought of WWII as Europe, D-Day, Normandy, 'Saving Private Ryan.' I knew about Pearl Harbor, but it's always been overshadowed."

When Lexton began researching the story, she found herself emotionally involved with the famous flag-raisers, both first and second go-round.

"All of these boys had mothers," she said. " ... They were boys."

She remembers going to Kentucky to talk to Franklin Sousley's relatives. One of the second set of flag-raisers, he died in that battle, at age 19. Word was sent to his mother on her tobacco farm.

"They talked about how, houses away, they could hear her screaming," she said.

Lexton found a soft spot in her heart for Ernest "Boots" Thomas, one of the first flag-raisers. In her oral history gathering, she came across a letter his mother mailed to her son, which came back undeliverable.

That's how she knew her son had died.

Before he left, Thomas had written his mother from Camp Tarawa, Hawai'i:

"We're on a beautiful island with our camp situated practically in the clouds," he wrote. "So we have nice warm weather during the day and use three blankets at night. All in all, I'm not displeased with my new 'home.' Later, I'll write you more about it, that is, as much as censorship permits."

On the Big Island, Tsugi Kayama, a noted feather lei maker, was among those who befriended the Marines. Ironically, another member of that family, Utaka, had immigrated from Hiroshima, Japan.

Tsugi opened a hotdog stand, and she made hamburgers for Ira Hayes, another flag-raiser.

One person who remembers Camp Tarawa is Maj. Gen. Fred Haynes, "USMC retired," he says with practically a salute in his voice. The captain in the 28th Regiment that took the mountain recalls more about the camp where he trained for the Battle of Iwo Jima than he does about the second flag-raising.

"I saw the first flag being raised," the 81-year-old said from his Virginia home. "The second, quite frankly, we didn't pay a heck of a lot of attention to. We just went on and did our business."

They had trained beforehand at Camp Tarawa, and after the battle, returned there.

"We had some very interesting times, very fun," Haynes said. "People opened their houses to us. We had a great deal of pleasantries and friendships."

Several stick in his mind, but the one he recalls with jocularity is the story of an officer who learned to play the bagpipes before they left for Iwo Jima.

"He was absolutely determined to play us ashore," Haynes recalled.

But the unfortunate officer dropped his pipes in the sand.

"A young private found the remains of those pipes, and thought he ought to go to the intelligence officer. The intelligence people thought for a little while it was a Japanese device, but that didn't last too long."

When they returned to Tarawa, the piper started practicing again.

"We had a lion as a mascot, Roscoe," Haynes remembered. "When we came back from Iwo, he had grown to be a very large lion. Good thing we were on Parker Ranch, I doubt we would be able to feed him.

"Roscoe would be at one end of the camp, he would be at the other end, with his new set of bagpipes.

"He'd toot his bagpipes and Roscoe would howl at the top of his lungs."