Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley, Ron Powers
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Book Reviews of Flags of Our Fathers
Book Review: Brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars
James Bradley uncovers his father's story of horror, honor, compassion, and uncommon grace. The perspective and lessons learned are to be treasured.Book Review: Flags of Our Fathers
Summary: 5 Stars
I appreciate Clint Eastwood's notes and comments in this edition of a desrving Best Seller Award.Book Review: Awe Inspiring
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is sacred. The story is so well written. I am left speechless.Book Review: Outstanding!
Summary: 5 Stars
My Dad was on Iwo Jima and this book is a tribute to them all!Book Review: The story of Mt. Suribachi
Summary: 4 Stars
It is one of the most iconic photographs ever taken. It has become the symbol for the valor and the attitude of the Marine Corps. IT is the photograph of six Marines raising a flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. All of us have probably seen this photograph and I know that I was always struck by it - it is a classic pattern in art and it also captures a moment in wartime. There are six soldiers raising a flag. you see the taut bodies, the focus and concentration. And, you see the debris all around them. The detritus of war.
This book tells the story of that photograph but also - and more importantly - the story of the men who were captured in the image and the photographer both before, during, and after the war. The story is pieced together and told by a son of one of the men in the photograph - "Doc" Bradley, the only Navy guy in the tale. The book follows the lives of all six men who are pictured from their hardscrabble beginnings, their decision to join the Marine Corps, and then their role in the Iwo Jima battle and beyond. Three of the men died on Iwo Jima; three survived. Of the three that survived, only two had children. One of those is "Doc" Bradley, and his son tells the tale of them all.
This book is not really about how glorious war is and what kinds of heroes these six men were. No, it portrays war in the ugly, brutal, tormenting fashion that it has without skimping on the details of how many ways men can be killed. Nor does it skimp on descriptions of the atrocities that the Japanese committed both before, during, and after this campaign. There is a lot of apologia given by the author for the Japanese behavior during the war. He describes it as a non-typical Japanese time period repeatedly. Towards the end of the book we find out that he spent several years in Japan and at one point in his life believed that the Japanese were forced to start the war by what Roosevelt supposedly did.
By focusing almost exclusively on the life of these six men, the author manages to paint a picture of World War II America and how "the whole country was one" which is an interesting contrast to today's situation.
The yearlong preparations for the battle are described. The battle itself is described in detail with every one of the six men's participation chronicled in exhaustive detail including the way three of them died. Many other stories are interwoven but only briefly touched upon. One of them, that could have been better served by being described more fully was the story of Bradley's "special buddy" Iggy who is also killed on Iwo Jima. Only in the latter parts of the book do we discover how he died.
Doc Bradley himself wins the Navy Cross on Iwo Jima. However, he never displays it and his eight children are astonished to find out about it after his death in the early 1990's. This launches his son to research the group, the photograph, and the lives of all six men.
The story covers the way they were treated after the photograph was published; how they became the main draw in a bond raising tour; how they behaved during the tour; and how they handled the rest of their lives. There is a strong pathos there and a lot of tragic awareness of how these shell-shocked young men were basically told to grin and bear it and how some of them did, and some of them did not. The story of Ira Hayes and his rapid deterioration into drink is a sad one while the story of Rene Gagnon is no better. Only Bradley lives out a normal middle class life but the author is careful to portray even his own father as suffering from the horrors of what he experienced.
This is a good book to read to find out how war affected young Americans during WW2. It is a good introduction to the horrors, atrocities, and pain of war. It is a good book to help you in understanding how America handled and survived WW2. And, it is also a good book to understand why people called it "the good war" and why we can probably never have that kind of feeling again. When I closed the book, I wiped a tear from my eye, laid it down beside me, and thought like Doc Bradley: the only heroes on Iwo Jima were those who did not come back.