Best-selling author James Bradley decided last year that if he was going write about history in the Pacific, he might as well live there. It seemed a better choice than New York in the winter.

So the 53-year-old author of "Flags of Our Fathers" (2000) and "Flyboys: A True Story of Courage" (2003) moved to Waikiki and now divides his time between Hawai'i and New York.

A motivational speaker who often jets to the Mainland for a talk, Bradley gets up each morning at 5 to work on his latest book, "The Imperial Cruise."

Bradley's father was one of the men who raised a U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi in 1945, and the bloody fight for Iwo Jima became the soul of "Flags of Our Fathers." Hollywood director Clint Eastwood turned the book into an unflinching look at the battle. The film was released last fall.

Q. What do Americans today remember or even know about the World War II battle for Iwo Jima, which you describe in great detail in your 2000 book, "Flags of Our Fathers?"

A. The flag-raising. Iwo Jima would not be well known if not for that photo. It is the most reproduced photo in history. It is the tallest bronze monument in the world. It's been on three U.S. stamps and on the back of a silver dollar. That's what people remember about Iwo Jima, but if they dig a little more, they learn it is the most medaled battle in American history. The Japanese were underground, and it was American boys flinging themselves at concrete bunkers and running into bullets.

Q. Are there any enduring truths they should understand about that bitter fight?

A. It was the best on both sides. It is all these superlatives and honors for U.S. valor, but on the Japanese side, their job was to give their lives for their country. For them, it wasn't could they win this. They knew they were going to lose. They wrote final letters home. If Iwo Jima was held by the French or the Germans or the British or the U.S., and someone had invaded it with that overwhelming power, there would have been no battle. There would have been a surrender.

Q. If your father had been alive at the time "Flags of Our Fathers" was published or when the film version was released, would he have read the book or watched the Clint Eastwood version on film?

A. He couldn't watch anything like that. When your friend gets shot next to you, you see him get shot, and you have to keep moving. But if I am the corpsman, I have to go to the injured guy. There is no other reality to me except foxholes that look like soup tureens of blood and entrails. As a corpsman, you are seeing the most horrific things you can see. I interviewed a corpsman who served with my dad and he said, "James, I am 80 years old and on Prozac, and I am just trying to get a good night's sleep." It was all from Iwo Jima. It was a massacre.

Q. What did your family learn about your father while you wrote "Flags of Our Fathers"?

A. Everything my mother knows about my father's military service, she learned from me in this book. She was just amazed that there was all this activity. She was a civilian and didn't know all this about war. When she saw the magnitude of Iwo Jima, she was amazed.

Q. In what ways did the battle for Iwo Jima affect your father during the rest of his life?

A. My dad was a happy guy with a happy family. He had eight kids, and he liked to watch them water ski. It wasn't like there were demons and he cried in his sleep all the time. In terms of the nightmare haunting him, no one will ever know. I have no evidence. He just didn't talk about it. I started out this project wondering why he didn't talk about it. When I realized what war was all about, and what Iwo Jima was about, I thought: What a foolish question, calling all these old guys and asking them why they didn't talk about it.

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.