The History and Controversy Behind The Flag On Iwo Jima

When the picture of the American flag being raised on top of Mt. Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima it was one of the single greatest moral boosters to the American people. The strange thing about this is the battle on Iwo Jima had not yet been won when the picture was taken. Also the battle itself was not the biggest and also did not have the most cost of life compared to other battles in the Pacific. So, why did this picture become such an important part of the American victory in the Pacific?

The famous flag raised above Iwo Jima was actually not the first flag raised. The first flag that was raised was much smaller than the second flag that was raised and it was for this reason that the second flag was put there. The flag could be seen all over the island and gave a huge morale increase to the U.S. soldiers and dealt a huge blow to the morale of the Japanese soldiers. The picture of the flag being raised was taken by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945. This photo had been taken while six U.S. Marines were raising the flag but three of the men in the picture never left Iwo Jima. Of the soldiers that raised the flag only one of the men was successful in putting his live back together after the war. The men that made it back could not understand why they were so successful. The image of the soldiers raising the flag was such an important image because it not only gave a boost in morale to the soldiers but also the citizens back on the home front. The image was the largest part of the seventh bond tour in the U.S. The seventh bond tour raised more money than any other bond tour during WWII. But the controversy behind the flag was that one of the men, Harlon Block, was misidentified as Henry o. Hansen. This stirred up controversy with the Block family and one of the flag raisers Ira Hayes. The Block family refused to accept that it was not their son in the picture because they said that they would recognize their son anywhere. Ira Hayes brought up the misidentification to his public relations officer who tolled Hayes to keep quiet or it would jeopardize the bond tour. A different kind of controversy also surrounded the picture. When Rosenthal was asked if the picture was staged he responded “yes” but Rosenthal thought that they were referring to a second picture that was taken of all the men on top of the mountain in front of the flag. For the rest of his career Rosenthal was constantly accused of staging the picture and trying to cover up the first flag raising. The lie that was told to the American people about the mistaken identity was necessary because if the people had known that the government was lying to them when the bond tour was going on the tour would not have made nearly the money it did. If the money was not made it would have been a devastating blow the U.S. war effort. It was wrong that Block was not properly viewed as the sixth soldier until some time after the bond drive but it was necessary not to mess with the story the government had already given the American people. All that the government did to protect their bond drive was justified because the money that the gained from the drive helped to save countless U.S. lives because of the supplies it was able to buy.

604

Italian Invasion of Ethiopia

My topic today is going to be the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. In 1935 Benito Mussolini, Italy’s Fascist leader, adopted Adolf Hitler’s plans to expand his countries borders. Mussolini’s aim of invading Ethiopia was to Boost Italy’s national prestige, which had been wounded by the Italian defeat by Ethiopian forces in 1896 when Italy tried to get a late start on the scramble for Africa. After the attack on Ethiopia by Italy the League of Nations officially declared Italy an aggressor but did nothing about it. The war between Italy and Ethiopia lasted seven months when the Ethiopians were eventually outgunned by the Italians. The Italians made widespread use of chemical weapons and air power. On March 31,1936 the Ethiopians counterattacked the main Italian forces at Maychew but were defeated. As the Italians continued there advance into Ethiopia the Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie, left for French Somaliland and was exiled. On May Fifth 1936 Italian forces entered Addis Ababa and four days later the Italians announced the annexation of Ethiopia. After about a year of violence the Italians declared the whole country to be pacified and under complete Italian control. Ethiopian resistance still continued. After the failed assassination attempt on Italian marshal Rodolfo Graziani the colonial authorities executed 30,000 Ethiopians, including about half of the younger, educated Ethiopian population.



Despite the boosts in moral that the Italian people got from the annexation of Ethiopia it does not justify what Mussolini did to the people of that country. He murdered them and stole from them all because the ego of his country was hurt from losing their original colony. The Italians massacred thousands of Ethiopians for the attempted assassination of one man. 30,000 lives will never stack up to the value of one life. It is also ridiculous that the League of Nations did not step in to stop the obvious killings that were going on in Ethiopia. They officially stated that Italy was an aggressor refused to step in because they were trying to avoid war even though what they were doing in ignoring the aggression was promoting further aggression from Italy. The League of Nations was also promoting violence because when Italy declared Ethiopia as an annexed part of Italy Britain and France just accepted it when they should have stepped in and removed the Italian threat from Ethiopia. At the same time Russia and the U.S. did not accept Ethiopia as part of Italy. The only action that the League of Nations did, which most countries ignored, was an oil embargo that was placed on Italy which had very little effect and did not even put a dent in the thousands of people being killed. It could be argued that it was only done so that Italy would be recognized as a major world power but it does not justify what they did. It is not solely the fault of the Italian Fascists but it is just as much the fault of the League of Nations for there inaction during the Italian aggression.


5o5