Oh can't wait to see this one. Watched the trailer and went to the site this morning. Thanks for the heads up Papa Art.

http://www.flagsofourfathers.net/

Flags of Our Fathers is based on a New York Times Bestseller book (year 2000) of the same name and is about a man's quest to learn more about his father, a medical corpsman in WWII at the Battle of Iwo Jima. More than 22,000 Japanese soldiers would die defending a patch of ground a third the size of Manhattan, while nearly 26,000 Americans fell taking it from them. The battle, the largest sea armada invasion ever assembled and the costliest war ever fought by the US Marines, was also a turning point in the war because control of the island of Iwo Jima (Japanese territory) allowed Allied forces to launch B-29 bomber raids into the heart of Japan with the eventual dropping of the Atomic Bomb that would end WWII.

The battle would produce one of World War II's most enduring images: a photograph of six soldiers raising an American flag on the top of Mount Suribachi, the island's commanding high point.

The heart of the book centers around the tragic life stories of the six men who raised the flag that February day--one an Arizona Indian who would die following an alcohol-soaked brawl, another a Kentucky hillbilly, still another a Pennsylvania steel-mill worker--and who became reluctant heroes in the bargain.

Like the book, the movie is expected to focus on what happened to the men after the famous battle. The men in the photo--three were killed during the battle--were proclaimed heroes and flown home, to become reluctant symbols. For two of them, the adulation was shattering. Only John Bradley truly survived, displaying no copy of the famous photograph in his home, telling his son only: "The real heroes of Iwo Jima were the guys who didn't come back."

The movie script for Flags of Our Fathers will try to show the difference between truth and myth, the meaning of being a hero, and the essence of the human experience of war.

Thanks Russ for this great link:

http://www.hhbrandy.addr.com/swing.html

This Day in History

I thought I would post this here as a reminder of how different some cultures can be. I know it was and is hard for most Americans to imagine.

August 15

1945 The Japanese emperor speaks

On this day in 1945, Emperor Hirohito broadcasts the news of Japan's surrender to the Japanese people.

Although Tokyo had already communicated to the Allies its acceptance of the surrender terms of the Potsdam Conference several days earlier, and a Japanese news service announcement had been made to that effect, the Japanese people were still waiting to hear an authoritative voice speak the unspeakable: that Japan had been defeated.

That voice was the emperor's. In Japan's Shinto religious tradition, the emperor was also divine; his voice was the voice of a god. And on August 15, that voice-heard over the radio airwaves for the very first time--confessed that Japan's enemy "has begun to employ a most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is indeed incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives." This was the reason given for Japan's surrender. Hirohito's oral memoirs, published and translated after the war, evidence the emperor's fear at the time that "the Japanese race will be destroyed if the war continues."

A sticking point in the Japanese surrender terms had been Hirohito's status as emperor. Tokyo wanted the emperor's status protected; the Allies wanted no preconditions. There was a compromise. The emperor retained his title; Gen. Douglas MacArthur believed his at least ceremonial presence would be a stabilizing influence in postwar Japan. But Hirohito was forced to disclaim his divine status. Japan lost more than a war-it lost a god.

Hello to everyone! What a wonderful find this site is.

I have had so many questions about what my dad did. As a kid I would ask him and all I got was I rebuilt bridges that got blown up and played with water buffaloes. I only have one picture of him sitting on a log with a water buffalo behind him. I never got any more info until just recently from my ex-father in law who was in the Coast Guard at that time. He ask me where my dad was and when I told him Burma/India, his head snapped up, looked me straight in the eye and said.. "Girl, you have no idea what he went through. He was in the worst of the worst. He has my undying respect." That is all he would say. It put my father in a whole new light and I would love to more about this man I thought I knew as a hard working, quiet business man who loved to watch sports in his arm chair and never raised his voice. He was a loving father and devoted husband. I just wish I knew more.

I have put in a call to the ACE chief historian to return my call to see if I might be able to find out what group he was attached to. If anyone out there knows anything about James Marvin Woolf, Army Corp of Engineers in Burma/India, I think around 1940-44 I would love to hear from you.

Thanks to Marion for such a wonderful site and all the work you have done to keep the memories alive.

My love and heartfelt respect to out to all of you who kept this a safe world to grow up in.

Hi to all. I am new here. My Dad was a WWII veteran. From all of the reunions he attended and memories he shared he always referred to the 87th Engineers Heavy Ponton Battalion. His discharge papers reference Company C 280th Engineers Battalion. He was from Michigan. I was referred to this site from the Wild Bill Guarnere site. Sadly, my Dad died in December. He saved everything -- every piece of paper from that time, letters and some pictures. He shared a few stories over the years, but not much. Anyone out there know anything about the 87th? His service record states the following battles and campaigns: Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe. Thanks! I can post the photos he saved if anyone is interested.