Flags Of Our Fathers [Paperback]

I always feel bad when I give books like this an unfavourable review. Who am I to even judge, let alone denigrate the achievements and sacrifices described in the pages of this book with a smart*ss review? Of course I give the Marines unqualified respect for what they achieved in the Pacific campaign in WWII. The flagraising on Iwo Jima was my laptop wallpaper long before Clint Eastwood brought this book to the big screen, but I have to call it as I see it and I am critiquing not the events of this story, rather how they are described.

There are three major strands to this book: one is an account of the battle for Iwo Jima, another is the personal stories of each of the six participants captured in Rosenthal's iconic photograph of the (2nd) flagraising on Suribachi, and the third is James Bradley - son of one of the flagraisers - and his tale of how he he pieced the story together. I'll try and address each in order.

As an account of the battle for Iwo Jima it is limited but OK - setting the scene of the battle well, outlining its strategic importance and the formidable forces and defensive positions and tactics arrayed before the Marines. However, it really just focuses on the taking of Mount Suribachi which only accounted for the first 10% of the entire battle for the island. It did look at some issues which I had not seen covered in other books, specifically the cynical state bastardisation of the Bushido code which reduced Japan's human populace to an entirely expendable resource, individually worth nothing more than the cost of the stamp on their call-up papers. However if you want an account of the battle for Iwo Jima then there are superior books available. I am puzzled, and not for the first time, by Stephen 'Rent-a-quote' Ambrose's claim on the book's cover that it is, "the best battle book I ever read." If this is the best 'battle book' (whatever that is) Ambrose has read then I refer him to the work of E.B.Sledge, who is actually mentioned on page 70 of Flags of our Fathers. 'With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa' is, in my opinion, the definitive first hand account of battles on the 'Road to Tokyo'.

Actually Bradley's (or is it Ron Powers, whose name appears beneath Bradley's on the cover...a major bugbear of mine) writing style reminded me a lot of Ambrose, particularly when he wrote about the human interest aspects of the book: the backgrounds of the main characters before and after the war - what Ambrose calls the 'citizen soldiers' - boys from all kinds of backgrounds who had grown up poor and hungry in the Great Depression. These individual vignettes were moving in themselves of course, filled with pathos, but Bradley, like Ambrose, renders them at times with such treacle that it kind of detracted from my sympathy. Similarly, though their esprit de corps is something I admire the most about the US Marines, it is paraded in front of the reader far too much and so mawkishly that it becomes tiresome. Perhaps it's just me being contrary, but I hate to feel that authors are trying to lead readers by the nose and Bradley just tries too hard at times to point out what he thinks you, the reader, should be feeling about what he's describing. And sometimes those descriptions are pretty clumsy. Some analogies are redundantly explained:

"A Unit 3 was a Corpman's pouch...much like the newspaper bags my father used on his paper route back in Appleton. But this pouch was not meant to bring in dollar bills for young Jack Bradley to put on his parents' mantel. This pouch was meant to save human life"...presumably just in case the reader thought that Corpsmen might actually be delivering newspapers on Iwo Jima.

others are pursued into a horrible cul-de-sac:

"It [Suribachi] hulked above them still, before daybreak on the fifth morning, this primitive serpent's head that had struck them down in swaths. Amputated from the body, bombed, blasted, bayoneted and burnt, Suribachi at last lay silent after four days of being killed. But was it dead? Was the grotesque head finally a carcass, or was there venom still inside, and strength to lash yet again? There was only one way for the Marines to find out. Thery would tread on the head, and see whether it writhed."). Hmmmm.

Finally, Bradley/Powers really flog what I suppose is the real, unique facet of this book which is what happened to the six flagraisers after, and as a consequence of, the famous Photograph. Three of them were to die before Iwo Jima was secured in the solid month of fighting which followed. The remaining three were brought back to the States, held up as heroes and used for a war bond drive to help finance the continuing military effort. Of those, one died embittered that his idol status had not provided him with effortless fame and riches for the rest of his life, and another drank himself to death to escape the horrors which haunted him. Only the author's father lived a really successful and fulfilled life after Iwo Jima, but he was always uncomfortable with the hero status and fame which serendipity had dubiously conferred upon him. He could not equate what was in isolation as mundane an act as simply helping erect a piece of piping with a flag tied to it, with the adulation of an entire nation. He felt very uneasy that, here he was being worshipped, having giant statues of him struck, meeting the President, whilst thousands of his buddies had died performing acts of courage, often to save his own life.

That is all interesting and brings a new perspective and personal insight to the subject of Iwo Jima. That there was an unprecedented outpouring of public interest following the publication of the Joe Rosenthal photo, which overwhelmed the three servicemen involved, is not in question. But I really doubt any of the public attention was really specifically aimed at Ira Hayes, John Bradley or Rene Gagnon; they just represented, to the public, all that the US Marines and Navy Corpsmen had achieved at Iwo. They were the personification of an ideal and so, naturally, they were the focus of attention. But I doubt that at any point that attention and adulation was genuinely exclusive...it didn't imply that those three were any more deserving or more courageous than the thousands of others who did or didn't make it back.

They were just luckier. Simple as that.

Indeed the public attention noticably dried up once the flagraising statue was unveiled in New York...the public had a new totem, a new focal point and the three individuals were superceded because it was never really about them. But John Bradley never came to terms with this, and speculation about his father's inner turmoil is a big part of the latter section of James Bradley's account. It is interesting and worth exploring, in a single chapter perhaps, but Bradley labours the point again and again and again. The book is concluded with a letter that James Bradley's daughter wrote to her, then, long-deceased grandfather as part of a school project. This is of course very moving, but it's also very personal and struck me as being inappopriate to include in the book...it was a dose of schmaltz too far.

Though I seem to have found much to dislike, I did actually enjoy the book. It graphically described the almost impossible and suicidal scale of the task ahead of the young Marines on Iwo Jima. Bradley does a decent job of conveying the chaos and courage of the battle scenes evocatively. The story is an interesting one, and Bradley's research gives us a new view behind an image that we maybe take at face value. But I suspect somebody not so personally close to the subject matter might have rendered a better account.

Seriously, five stars are just too few for a monumental book like this one. This book is an instant classic that should live for all time! If you are like me, you have a whole story built up in your mind around one of the most famous photographs in American history -- the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima. If you are also like me, there is little reality behind that story in your mind.

Written by the son of one flag-raising Marine, this amazing story should be read by everyone. It tells a tale of heroism, horrible circumstances, and the lasting consequences of an unexpected event in a compelling, unforgettable way. This book rivals All Quiet on the Western Front for its revealing insights into the nature of war, comradeship, and courage.

To set the stage, Iwo Jima was the first Japanese soil the Marines invaded. The Emperor had issued orders that the ground was to be defended to the last man. Iwo Jima was filled with tunnels that harbored over 20,000 Japanese troops who could shoot from relative safety while Americans were out in the open. The tunnel system was so extensive that Marines would literally be kidnapped while standing next to their buddies, and no one would know where they had gone. Rocks would suddenly open up to reveal mortars.

Tough fighting went on for days. The Marines lost 7,000 dead and had another 15,000 or more wounded out of 70,000 men. Ironically, the worst of the fighting came after the flag photograph, and three of the six Marines in the photograph died in this later action.

As tough as Iwo Jima was, living with the aftermath of the photograph was even harder in many ways. Two of the three survivors had their lives deeply affected in negative ways. The story of all three riveted me more than anything I have read in years.

I read fairly few books about war, but I cannot recommend this book enough to you. As Americans we owe it to those who fought in this battle to remember what actually happened and what the repercussions are. You will be moved at a deeper level than you can possibly imagine by this outstanding book.

Remember Iwo Jima!

James Bradley is the son of Navy Corpsman Jack "Doc" Bradley. On February 19, 1945 Doc stormed the beach of Iwo Jima with the U.S. Marines amphibious landing units. Shortly thereafter, Doc Bradley was frozen in time by "The Photograph" taken by John Rosenthal of the Associated Press. "The Photograph," of course is of the six gung ho men who raised the replacement flag on Mount Suribachi.

"Flags of Our Fathers," is about the Marines bloody battle for Iwo Jima where uncommon valor was common. This book is also about the six men who raised the flag...how only three survived the battle...and how the others survived after the war was won. All in all, the American victory at Iwo Jima hastened the end of the war in the Pacific. But the price was horrific. American soldiers killed about 21,000 Japanese on Iwo Jima but suffered more than 26,000 casualties doing so. Making it the only battle in the Pacific where the invaders suffered higher casualties than the defenders.

The author does extensive research and interviews. To this end, this book captures the tremendous bravery of the young men who fought in the battle for Iwo Jima. In the process, the author discovers after his father's death that "Doc" was awarded the "Navy Cross" but modestly never mentioned it to his family.

The six flagraisers: Mike Strank, Marlon Block, Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon, Jack Bradley and Franklin Sousley are given special attention. Author James Bradley retraces the lives of his father and the other five flagraisers in great detail. The result is a sensitive and fascinating narrative. This is a special book that properly documents that the generation of men and women who united to win the war in the Pacific were indeed the best we have ever seen. The author also eloquently documents the legendary glory of the U.S. Marine Corps. Recommended.

Bert Ruiz