James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers

Though it began as an investigation into his own father’s role in Joe Rosenthal’s famous flag-raising photo at the battle Iwo Jima, James Bradley’s Flags of Our Fathers lives up to the universal relevance implied by its title.  As the story traces the lives of the six men involved in the flag-raising into the battle of Iwo Jima and beyond, it also addresses the universal and timeless themes of war’s impact on humans, and what it means to be a hero. 

Co-written with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ron Powers, Flags of Our Fathers follows the lives of the six men immortalized in the WWII photograph through their childhoods, their military training, their involvement in the flag-raising, and—for the three who survived—their lives after the war.  Bradley and Powers give a detailed account of the 36 day battle of Iwo Jima which left 22,000 Japanese and 26,000 American soldiers dead, including three of the men involved in the flag-raising.

Flags of Our Fathers, which Stephen Ambrose has lauded as “the best battle book I ever read,” has been acclaimed as an insightful and haunting look at war, as well as a fitting homage to the men who fought and lost their lives at Iwo Jima.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, Bradley and Powers have certainly done Rosenthal’s photo justice.