We viewed the battle of Iwo Jima and the famous ‘Flag-Raising’, but what about the men immortalized by ‘Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima’ by photographer Joe Rosenthal. Being a momentary hero seldom leads to a contented and happy life. They were famous for a second, but who were they before and what happened after that famous second?
Remember the flag raisers in the famed picture were originally listed as: Cpl. Harlon Block, Navy Pharmacist’s Mate John Bradley, Cpl. Rene Gagnon, PFC Franklin Sousley, Sgt. Michael Strank, and Cpl. Ira Hayes.
Private first-class Gagnon had returned to Camp Tarawa in Hawaii when he was ordered to report to Marine Corps headquarters at Washington, D.C. He arrived on April 7, and was questioned by a lieutenant colonel at the Marine Corps public information office concerning the identities of those in the photo. On April 8, the Marine Corps gave a press release of the names of the six flag raisers in the Rosenthal photograph given by Gagnon: Marines Michael Strank (KIA), Henry Hansen (KIA), Franklin Sousley (KIA), Ira Hayes, Navy corpsman John Bradley, and himself. After Gagnon gave the names of the flag raisers, Bradley and Hayes were ordered to report to Marine Corps headquarters.
Bradley was recovering from his wounds at Oakland Naval Hospital in Oakland, California and was transferred to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, where he was shown Rosenthal’s flag-raising photograph and was told he was in it.
Hayes also arrived from Hawaii on April 19. Both men were questioned separately by the same Marine officer that Gagnon met with concerning the identities of the six flag-raisers in the Rosenthal photograph. Bradley agreed with all six names of the flag raisers in the photo given by Gagnon including his own.
Hayes agreed with all the names too including his own except he said the man identified as Sergeant Hansen at the base of the flagstaff in the photo was really Corporal Harlon Block. “The Marine interviewer then told Hayes that a list of the names of the six flag-raisers in the photo were already released publicly and besides Block and Hansen were both killed in action (during the Marine Corps investigation in 1946, the lieutenant colonel denied Hayes ever mentioned Block’s name to him).”
After the interview, it was requested that Private First-Class Gagnon, Private First-Class Hayes, and Bradley participate in the Seventh War Loan drive. On April 20, Gagnon, Hayes, and Bradley met President Truman at the White House and each showed him their positions in the flag-raising poster that was on display there for the coming bond tour that they would participate in.
Bradley was medically discharged from the Navy in November 1945. Bradley married, settled in Antigo, had eight children, and was active in numerous civic clubs, rarely taking part in ceremonies celebrating the flag-raising — and by the 1960s avoiding them altogether. He subsequently purchased and managed a funeral parlor.
Bradley’s wife later said he was tormented by memories of the war, wept in his sleep for the first four years of their marriage and kept a large knife in a dresser drawer for “protection”. He had flashbacks of his best friend Iggy, Ralph Ignatowski, who was captured and tortured by Japanese soldiers. Bradley could not forgive himself for not being there to try and save his friend’s life.
The Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) in Arlington, Virginia, was dedicated on November 10, 1954. The monument was sculptured by Felix de Weldon from the image of the second flag raising on Mount Suribachi. Until June 23, 2016, John Bradley was incorrectly depicted on the memorial as the third bronze figure from the base of the flagstaff with the 32-foot bronze figures of the other five flag-raisers depicted on the monument; Franklin Sousley is now depicted instead of Bradley as the third bronze figure from the base of the flagstaff, and Harold Schultz in place of Sousley is now depicted as the fifth figure.
Inscribed on the memorial are the following words “In Honor And Memory Of The Men of The United States Marine Corps Who Have Given Their Lives To Their Country Since 10 November 1775”
On January 11, 1994, Bradley died at the age of 70 at a hospital in Antigo, Wisconsin, having suffered a heart attack and subsequently a stroke. He is buried at Queen of Peace Cemetery in Antigo.
“Bradley wrote his parents a letter three days after the flag raising(s) that said he had a little to do with raising the American flag and it was the “happiest moment of my life”. Sergeant Henry Hansen, Private Phil Ward, and he had worked on making the first flagstaff stay vertical in the ground.”
On May 9, 1945, Bradley did an oral interview by a Navy captain about the famous second flag-raising on Mount Suribachi, and said he was in the second flag-raising picture, and when questioned about the first flag-raising, he said “Platoon Sgt. Ernest Thomas raised that flag.”
Bradley was reluctant to talk about the flag-raising. He rarely did an interview about the flag-raising for the newspapers and avoided reporters as much as possible.
In 1985, he did another interview about the flag-raising at the urging of his wife, who had told him to do it for the sake of their grandchildren. “During that interview, Bradley said that he would not have raised the flag if he had known how famous the photo would become. He stated that he did not want to live with the pressures of the media and desired to live a normal life. He also stated during the interview, that anyone on the island could have raised the flag and that he was just there at the right time.”
“Bradley saw the flag-raising as an insignificant event in a devastating battle. He rarely talked to people about it and spent most of his life trying to escape the attention he drew from allegedly raising it. He stated once that he “just happened to be there”. He spoke to his wife only once about the flag raising during their 47-year marriage. That was on their first date, and he seemed very uninterested with it during the conversation.”
His daughter said, that “Reading a book on Iwo Jima at home would have been like reading a playgirl magazine … it would have been something I had to hide.” “He told his children more than once that the only real heroes on Iwo Jima were those who did not survive.”
His son speculated that his father’s determined silence and discomfort on the subject of his role in the Battle of Iwo Jima was “largely due to his sad memories of his close friend on Iwo Jima who was killed by the Japanese, Marine Ralph “Iggy” Ignatowski. In his own words, and only once, he briefly told his son what happened with “Iggy”:
“I have tried so hard to block this out. To forget it. We could choose a buddy to go in with. My buddy was a guy from Milwaukee. We were pinned down in one area. Someone elsewhere fell injured and I ran to help out, and when I came back my buddy was gone. I couldn’t figure out where he was. I could see all around, but he wasn’t there. And nobody knew where he was. A few days later someone yelled that they’d found his body. They called me over because I was a corpsman. The Japanese had pulled him underground and tortured him. His fingernails … his tongue … it was absolutely terrible. I’ve tried hard to forget all this.”
“Official reports revealed Ignatowski was captured, dragged into a tunnel by Japanese soldiers during the battle, and later found with his eyes, ears, fingernails, and tongue removed, his teeth smashed, the back of his head caved in, multiple bayonet wounds to the abdomen, and his arms broken. Bradley’s recollections of discovering and taking care of Ignatowski’s remains haunted him until his death, and he suffered for many years from post-traumatic stress disorder.”