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Letters to the Editor
To the Editor:
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The recent release of Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) caused me to revisit Paul C. Rosier's article, "'They Are Ancestral Homelands,'" in the March 2006 JAH, which featured Joe Rosenthal's famous photograph of the Iwo Jima flag raising. The caption in the article declares, "Ira Hayes (a Pima) is not quite reaching the flag, his pose an unintended symbol of his inability to secure basic rights after returning home to New Mexico" (p. 1304). |
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The person Rosier identifies as Pfc. Ira Hayes is, according to an Associated Press print, Pfc. Franklin R. Sousley. Hayes is not the last person on the left, but the second figure on the left. Hayes has both hands firmly on the flag's staff. As a result, the photograph does not offer Hayes's "pose" as a "symbol of his inability to secure basic rights after returning home to New Mexico." It is also important to keep in mind that at one point all of the men in the photograph had their hands on the flag's staff and that eventually the hands of all of the men would not be "reaching the flag." The photograph may offer an opportunity to address the irony of the events depicted. Hayes's firm grasp of the flag is at odds with the difficulties he experienced after the war. However, the article does not discuss Hayes's "inability to secure basic rights...." |
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The caption states: "The presence of Hayes in this staged event also came to symbolize ethnic integration" (ibid.). The characterization of the action depicted in the photograph as a "staged event" offers an interpretation equally problematic. That it was "staged" suggests that the entire episode was mere propaganda. My research suggests the photograph was more the result of fortunate circumstances. Lou Lowery, a Marine photographer, had photographed an earlier flag raising. The opportunity for Rosenthal developed because Lt. Col. Chandler Johnson wanted a larger flag on top of Mt. Suribachi. He gave the flag to Pfc. Rene Gagnon, barely visible behind Pharmicist's Mate Second Class John Bradley, second from the right. Rosenthal took a series of photographs of this second flag raising. He sent the film to Guam for developing, and the photograph was already widely published before he ever saw it. |
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Since the article is not a specific examination of Hayes's postwar experiences, it does not explore how the presence of Hayes "came to symbolize ethnic integration." Rosier's use of the photograph to link Hayes to the larger issues he raises is faulty. The use of photographs to advance a particular point of view is acceptable only if the factual basis for the interpretation is established. |
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| Robert W. Gabrick
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| Somerset, Wisconsin |
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