PDA

View Full Version : Rosenthal, flag-raisers autographed Iwo pic



thedrifter
04-09-07, 09:30 AM
Rosenthal, flag-raisers autographed Iwo pic
By Tom Nugent - Special to the Times
Posted : April 16, 2007

Ask former Pfc. David Karr to show you his “buried treasure” from World War II, and the former infantryman won’t hesitate to unveil what may be the most famous single image in the history of war photography.

Karr, 65, owns what he says is the only original print of the famous second flag raising on top of Mount Suribachi signed by the photographer, Joe Rosenthal, and all three of the surviving service members in the photo.

Slightly yellowed in a few spots, Karr’s copy of the photo — one of only five or six prints that were developed from the original negative shot by Rosenthal, who later won the Pulitzer Prize for it — opens a window on one of history’s great military battles.

But the Karr photograph also contains another unique feature, according to military historians, who note that this is the only known print to have been signed by Rosenthal, who died last August at age 94, and by the three flag-raisers who survived the battle: John Bradley, Rene Gagnon and Ira Hayes.

“The story of how the Rosenthal photo came about and was later transformed into the giant bronze Iwo Jima memorial is fascinating,” said Karr, a retired bar and restaurant operator in Buffalo, N.Y., who has spent more than a decade researching the photograph — including spending a day with Rosenthal in 2000 — that he received as a gift from a Marine friend in the mid-1980s.

Rosenthal was assigned to take photographs of the battle for Iwo Jima in February 1945, a major stepping-stone in the Allied advance toward the Japanese mainland. After shooting the famous picture of the six American warriors lifting their flagpole, Rosenthal sent it back to a Navy ship to be developed. Eventually, one of the prints reached the eyes of famed sculptor Felix W. de Weldon, who modeled his bronze Marine Corps War Memorial in Rosslyn, Va., on the image. After de Weldon awarded the photo to one of the sculpture models, it passed through several hands before reaching Karr.

Only three of the six men who hoisted the flag that day survived the battle. Soon after the Japanese surrender, they met briefly so the sculptor could draw their faces for his project and all three signed the print, Karr said.

It took de Weldon nine years to complete the 32-foot-tall sculpture, which was dedicated on Veterans Day in 1954.

Karr said Rosenthal told him he had never signed any other copy of the photo that had also been signed by the three survivors.

The son of one of the other three signers, James Bradley, in 2000 published a best-selling book about Iwo Jima, “Flags Of Our Fathers,” and a Hollywood version of the book drew huge audiences last fall.

“It’s an amazing artifact, that’s for sure,” said Karr, who served in the Marine Corps from 1964 to 1970. “As a Marine, myself, I get goose bumps each time I look at the photo � and at the signatures.

“Those three names really jump off the paper at you. When you read their signatures, you get a feeling for what history is really all about.”


The writer is a freelance journalist who lives in Hastings, Mich. He can be reached at tomnugent@sbcglobal.net.

Ellie