Marines: Man in Iwo Jima flag raising photo misidentified

DES MOINES, Iowa – One of the six men long identified in an iconic World War II photograph showing the raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima was actually not in the image, the Marine Corps announced Thursday after conducting an investigation prompted by the claims of two amateur historians.

The Marines formed a review panel earlier this year after the two history buffs studied a number of photos shot during two flag-raisings atop Mount Suribachi during an intense battle between American and Japanese forces in 1945. They claimed the identifications made by the Marines of the six men in the famous photo by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal included mistakes, and after the review, the Marine Corps agreed.

“Our history is important to us, and we have a responsibility to ensure it’s right,” Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller said in a statement.

A panel found that Pfc. Harold Schultz, of Detroit, was in the photo and that Navy Pharmacist’s Mate 2nd Class John Bradley wasn’t. Bradley had participated in an earlier flag-raising on Mount Suribachi, and his role took on a central role after his son, James Bradley, wrote a best-selling book about the flag raisers, “Flags of Our Fathers,” which was later made into a movie directed by Clint Eastwood.

James Bradley declined to comment Thursday when reached by phone. However, he told the AP in May that the Marines’ decision to investigate the matter led him to believe his father confused the first and second raisings of the flag.

“My father raised a flag on Iwo Jima,” Bradley said. “The Marines told him way after the fact, ‘Here’s a picture of you raising the flag.’ He had a memory of him raising a flag, and the two events came together.”

Random House, the publisher of “Flags of Our Fathers,” said Thursday that James Bradley had already concluded his father wasn’t in the famed photo.