Flags of Our Fathers

Rating:
Summary: WOW! FURTHER ENHANCED MY RESPECT FOR VETERANS
Review: A friend recommended this book to me after reading the entire thing in less than a week. I was in the midst of reading a few other books, so I said ok when he offered to lend it to me thinking that I would read it off and on and give it back to him in a couple of months. WRONG!

Within 3 hours of starting it, I had logged on to Amazon and had ordered my own copy. Within 3 days I had finished and was re-reading the parts I couldn't remember. The writing of James Bradley is good, nothing spectacular in and of itself. The story of Iwo Jima is one of the most riveting, gut-wrenching, and reverence-evoking in the history of the United States military, but I've read a few other (much more detailed) histories of Iwo Jima that did not have as profound an impact as this one did. The idea to trace the lives of a few soldiers through their battle is not a new one either.

However, there is something special here. I can't describe it. Maybe because the author was writing about his father. I don't know, but by the end of this book, I felt like I knew the men. I cannot even begin to say that I understood the horror of the war from their perspective, discovering mutilated bodies of best friends, living with the reality that every "pop" that you hear in the never-ending background noise of gunfire could have ended your life, or maybe ended the life of a comrade. But I think that I understand now better than I ever have before. When I met a WWII vet during one of my clinical rotations in a nursing home I had a new-found respect for him after reading this book. The effect has been profound. I know that that is the effect of many war books on individuals who read them for the first time; that is why there is such a market. I, however, have read many histories and war accounts of all shapes and sizes. This one stands out. I will never forget those men. I can never look at that picture of Iwo Jima again--which, even today, seems to be everywhere--without thinking back to the lives, loves, and deaths of those men.

Thank you, James, for your hard work in writing this book.
-Jacob Hantla

Rating:
Summary: Dramatic Instant in Time
Review: This remarkable book was written by perhaps the only person that could- a son of one of the soldiers that raised the flag on Iwo Jima. This book starts with the pre-war lives of the marines in the famous photograph but then converges to the battle on Iwo Jima and to the 1/400th a second represented in the photo. It then diverges again to show how their lives were affected by the war and the image of the flag raising.

By being a son of one of the marines that refused to talk about the event, the author's passion and dedication to revealing the moment and the men involved is startling. The book reveals life in American during WWII and the horrible yet heroic battle of Iwo Jima. It is impossible to forget the images portrayed- both good and bad.

Rating:
Summary: Great background, but did I really enjoy it?
Review: When shown an image of the raising of the flag, i bet all of the people you ask would recognize the picture. But, would they capture the meaning. How many would be able to tell you when, where, and how it happened? How many would be aware of the background of this famous event?

This book gives the most detailed background on this event. James Bradley describes the merging of the ordinary men who took part in the raising. He recounts his fathers importance, and the importance of the other brave men in the picture. He reveals the hell of the event, and how this event really took place.

It was interesting to realize who raised it, when, and where. However, the documentary-like format led to many skimmed lines and skipped pages. While i caught myself ineterested, I also felt as though I was trying to stay awake through a documentary.


Rating:
Summary: A Good Book About the Men in a Great Picture
Review: Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley (with Ron Powers) is the story of six men -- Mike, Harlon, Ira, Doc, Franklin and Rene -- and the events leading up and following their inclusion in one of the most famous photographs ever taken: the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima. The author, James Bradley, is the son of one of the raisers, John "Doc" Bradley, a Navy corpsman during the war. I received the paperback edition of this book from my father; he had read it and been moved by the story. But, besides the fact that the volume was already on my shelf, I was keen to learn something more about the American war on the Pacific front. Flags of Our Fathers does not disappoint.

The telling of the story begins with each man separately, their individual lives and circumstances, and the series of events leading to their coming together atop Mount Suribachi. The actual raising of the flag took place following several days of intense fighting to take the mountain. It was followed by many, many more days of heavy, close-range combat to conquer the rest of the small island. Not until days afterward did anyone, including the photographer, Joe Rosenthal, see the image and guess the effect that it would have on people back home and those six young men still in the fray.

Three of the flag-raisers gave their lives taking the rest of Iwo Jima. The other three gave over their lives somewhat to the power of the photograph, returning to the U.S. as celebrity heroes and paraded out with the famous image to stir American support for the continuing fight in the Pacific and sell War Bonds. Each of those three young men dealt with their fame differently, and James Bradley provides an excellent and sensitive treatment of how the three survivors coped -- or failed to cope.

Of course, part of what makes this story so captivating are the controversies surrounding the photograph itself. I have no intention of blabbing them in this review, so you, gentle reader, will just have to take my word for it that the politics surrounding the photograph, both before and after it was snapped, make for an enlightening tale. Throw in some brave young men in the prime of their lives and a battle full of heroes against a deeply entrenched enemy and you've got yourself a story!