Joseph John Rosenthal (October 9, 1911 – August 20, 2006) was an American photographer who received the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...
for his iconic
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
photograph ''
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima'', taken during the 1945
Battle of Iwo Jima.
[
] His picture became one of the best-known photographs of the war, and was replicated as the
United States Marine Corps War Memorial in
Arlington, Virginia.
Early life
Joseph Rosenthal was born on October 9, 1911, in Washington, D.C. His parents were
Russian-Jewish
The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...
immigrants; he converted to Catholicism during his youth. He had four brothers. His interest in photography started as a hobby during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. He graduated from
McKinley High School in 1929, and after working as an office boy, he moved to San Francisco where he became a reporter-photographer for ''
The San Francisco News'' in 1932.
World War II
Rosenthal was rejected by the
U.S. Army as a photographer because of poor eyesight.
[ In 1941, he attended the University of San Francisco and joined the staff of the ]Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...
(AP). In 1943, he joined the United States Maritime Service
The United States Maritime Service (USMS) was established in 1938 under the provisions of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 as voluntary training organization to train individuals to become officers and crewmembers on merchant ships that form the ...
as a photographer and served as a warrant officer documenting life aboard ship in the British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isl ...
and North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
. In 1944, he rejoined the Associated Press and followed the United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...
and U.S. Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through co ...
in the Pacific Theater of Operations as a war correspondent at Hollandia, New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...
, Guam
Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...
, Peleliu, Angaur, and Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima (, also ), known in Japan as , is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands and lies south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at high.
...
.
Flag-raising photo
On Friday morning, February 23, 1945, four days after the Marines landed at Iwo Jima, Rosenthal was making his daily visit to the island on a Marine landing craft when he heard that an American flag was being raised atop Mount Suribachi
is a -high mountain on the southwest end of Iwo Jima in the northwest Pacific Ocean under the administration of Ogasawara Subprefecture, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan.
The mountain's name derives from its shape, resembling a ''suribachi'' or grindin ...
, a volcano at the southern tip of the island. Upon landing, Rosenthal hurried toward Suribachi, lugging along his bulky Speed Graphic camera, the standard for press photographers at the time. Together with Marine combat still photographer Pvt. Bob Campbell and Marine color movie photographer Sgt. Bill Genaust, he began the climb up to the summit of Mount Suribachi. When they got about halfway up, they met Staff Sgt. Louis Lowery, a photographer with the Marine publication "Leatherneck
Leatherneck is a military slang term in the USA for a member of the United States Marine Corps. It is generally believed to originate in the wearing of a "leather stock" that went around the neck. Its original purpose was to protect the neck fro ...
" who was coming down the volcano after an enemy grenade explosion on top had knocked him off his feet and broke his camera. Lowery told them that the flag had already been raised at 10:40 am, and he had gotten photos of the flag on the summit. Lowery told them the view was good from the summit, and Rosenthal convinced Genaust and Campbell to continue to take him to the top with them since they were armed.
On the high and windy summit of Mount Suribachi, Rosenthal discovered a group of Marines attaching a large flag to a length of steel pipe. Nearby, he saw the smaller flag flying and managed to get himself photoed by Campbell under the flag with Sgt. Genaust and Army Pfc. George Burn, a photographer for Yank Magazine
''Yank, the Army Weekly'' was a weekly magazine published by the United States military during World War II.
History
The idea for the magazine came from Egbert White, who had worked on the newspaper Stars and Stripes during World War I. H ...
. Another group of Marines was getting ready to lower the smaller flag at the same instant the larger flag was raised under an officer's orders. Rosenthal briefly contemplated attempting to photograph both of the flags at once, but was not in a position to get both flags in the photograph (Pvt. Campbell did capture an image of the first flag coming down while the second flag was going up), so he focused his attention on the group of men preparing to raise the second flag.
Rosenthal piled stones and a sandbag so he had something on which to stand, as he was only 5 feet and 5 inches (1.65 m) tall. He set his camera for a lens setting between f/8 and f/11 and the shutter speed at 1/400th second. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw six Marines start to raise the second flag. He swung his camera around toward the action and pushed the shutter. Three feet to his right, Sgt. Genaust captured the flag-raising from nearly the same angle using color motion picture film. To make sure he had a worthwhile photo to send to the AP, Rosenthal took another black and white photograph showing four of the second flag-raisers steadying the flagstaff and waiting for the bottom of the pipe to be more secured with rocks; and afterwards a rope. When that was done, Rosenthal gathered a group of sixteen Marines and two Navy corpsmen around the base of the flagstaff for a posed shot (called the "Gung Ho" photo) which included First Lieutenant Harold Schrier, the only officer on the summit, who had volunteered to take the 40-man patrol up Mount Suribachi that morning to seize and occupy the crest and raise the battalion's flag.
Impact of flag-raising photo
The American people saw Rosenthal's photo as a potent symbol of victory. Wire services flashed what would become a Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...
–winning photograph around the world in time to appear in the Sunday newspapers on February 25, 1945 (Lowery's photos weren't released until late 1947). Many magazines ran the photo on their covers. After the battle for Iwo Jima was over and won, the photo was used for posters in war bond drives through over 30 cities from May 11 through July 4, 1945, which raised $26.3 billion.[
Rosenthal's photograph became an enduring icon. Artists used the photo as a model for the United States Marine Corps War Memorial (1954) — commonly referred to as "The Iwo Jima Memorial" — at ]Arlington, Virginia
Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county ...
, and the U.S. Postal Service commemorated the photo on a U.S. postage stamp. A version of the Marine Corps memorial also stands on the parade ground at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island
Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island (often abbreviated as MCRD PI) is an military installation located within Port Royal, South Carolina, approximately south of Beaufort, the community that is typically associated with the installation. ...
, South Carolina.
The International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
, displays the camera used by Rosenthal to take the photograph.
Later years and death
In later years, when asked about the photo, he would say "I took the picture; the Marines took Iwo Jima."[
Rosenthal left the AP later in 1945 and became the chief photographer and manager of Times Wide World Photos. He later joined the '']San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...
''. He worked there as a photographer for 35 years, before retiring in 1981.[ His name was inscribed (across from the memorial sculptor Felix de Weldon's name) on the bottom right side of the front (west side) of the Marine Corps War Memorial in 1982. On April 13, 1996, Rosenthal was named an honorary Marine by then ]Commandant of the Marine Corps
The commandant of the Marine Corps (CMC) is normally the highest-ranking officer in the United States Marine Corps and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Joint Chiefs of Staff: composition; functions. The CMC reports directly to the secr ...
General Charles C. Krulak.[
On August 20, 2006, at age 94, Rosenthal died of natural causes in his sleep at a center for assisted living in Novato, California, located in the North Bay region of the ]San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...
, in northern Marin County. Rosenthal was cremated. A Marine Corps ceremony that was open to the public was held for him at the Marines' Memorial Club on September 15 and a Catholic funeral mass was held for him on September 16, 2006, at St. Emydius Catholic Church, both located in San Francisco, California.
Awards and honors
* Pulitzer Prize – Rosenthal received the Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...
in 1945 for the iconic photo. The committee noted that photo as "depicting one of the war's great moments," a "frozen flash of history."[
]
* International Photography Hall of Fame, St. Louis, Missouri
* Navy Distinguished Public Service Award
The Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, established in 1951, is an award presented by the U.S. Secretary of the Navy to civilians for specific courageous or heroic acts or exceptionally outstanding service of substantial and long-term benefi ...
– The United States Marine Corps posthumously awarded Rosenthal the Distinguished Public Service Award (medal) on September 15, 2006:[
]
Citation:[
]
Legacy
The 2006 Hollywood film ''Flags of Our Fathers
''Flags of Our Fathers'' (2000) is a book by James Bradley with Ron Powers about his father, Navy corpsman John Bradley, and five United States Marines, who were made famous by Joe Rosenthal’s '' Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima'' photograph. ...
'', directed by Clint Eastwood
Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the " Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "'' Do ...
, tells the stories of the American flag raisers who raised the famous flag on Mount Suribachi and depicts Rosenthal's involvement in the events that led up to his taking the iconic flag raising photograph. Rosenthal was portrayed by actor Ned Eisenberg in the film.
Reporters extensively interviewed Rosenthal after September 11, 2001, when Thomas E. Franklin
Thomas E. Franklin (born 1966) is an American photographer for ''The Bergen Record'', best known for his photograph ''Raising the Flag at Ground Zero'', which depicts firefighters raising the American flag at the World Trade Center after the Sep ...
shot a similar iconic photograph, '' Ground Zero Spirit'', depicting the raising of the flag by three firefighters at the World Trade Center. Rosenthal and Franklin met several times after the event.
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Flag Raising Photo Not Posed
1-400th of a second shot – story highlighted in numbers
Joe Rosenthal: 1911–2006
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenthal, Joe
1911 births
2006 deaths
Artists from Washington, D.C.
20th-century American photographers
American Roman Catholics
War photographers
Battle of Iwo Jima
Photography in Japan
Pulitzer Prize for Photography winners
University of San Francisco alumni
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism
Recipients of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award
Associated Press photographers
Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres