When most Americans think of the World War II
battle for Iwo Jima — if they think of it at all, 75 years later — they think
of one image: Marines raising the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi, the island's
highest point.
That moment, captured in black and white by
Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal and as a color film by Marine
Sergeant William Genaust, is powerful, embodying the spirit of the Marine
Corps.
But these pictures are far from the only images of
the bloodiest fight in the Marines' history. A larger library of film, and the
men captured on them, is similarly emotionally affecting. It can even bring
Americans alive today closer to a war that ended in the middle of the last
century.
Take for instance, just one scene: Two Marines
kneel with a dog before a grave marker. It is in the final frames of a film
documenting the dedication of one of the three cemeteries on the island. Those
two Marines are among hundreds present to remember the more than 6,000
Americans killed on the island in over a month of fighting. The sequence is
intentionally framed by the cinematographer, who was clearly looking for the
right image to end the roll of film in his camera.
I came across this film clip in my work as a
curator of a collection of motion picture films shot by Marine Corps
photographers from World War II through the 1970s. In a partnership between the
History Division of the Marine Corps and the University of South Carolina,
where I work, we are digitizing these films, seeking to provide direct public
access to the video and expand historical understanding of the Marine Corps'
role in society.
Over the past two years of scanning, I have come
to realize that our work also enables a more powerful relationship with the
past by fostering individual connections with videos, something that the
digitizing of the large quantity of footage makes possible.
The
campaign within the battle
Iwo Jima, an island in the western Pacific less
than 1,000 miles south of Tokyo, was considered a key potential stepping stone
toward an invasion of Japan itself.
During the battle to take the island from the
Japanese, more than 70,000 Marines and attached Army and Navy personnel set
foot on Iwo Jima. That included combat soldiers, but also medical corpsmen,
chaplains, service and supply soldiers and others. More than 6,800 Americans
were killed on the island and on ships and landing craft aiding in the attack;
more than 19,200 were wounded.
More than 50 Marine combat cameramen operated
across the eight square miles of Iwo Jima during the battle, which stretched
from Feb. 19 to March 26, 1945. Many shot still images, but at least 26 shot
motion pictures. Three of these Marine cinematographers were killed in action.
Even before the battle began, Marine Corps leaders
knew they wanted a comprehensive visual account of the battle. Beyond a
historical record, combat photography from Iwo Jima would assist in planning
and training for the invasion of the Japanese main islands. Some Marine
cameramen were assigned to the front lines of individual units, and others to
specific activities, like engineering and medical operations.
Most of the cameramen on Iwo Jima used 100-foot
film reels that could capture about two and a half minutes of film. Sgt.
Genaust, who shot the color sequence atop Suribachi, shot at least 25 reels —
just over an hour of film — before he was killed, roughly halfway through the
campaign.
Other cameramen who survived the entire battle
produced significantly more. Sgt. Francis Cockrell was assigned to document the
work of the 5th Division's medical activities. Shooting at least 89 reels, he
probably produced almost four hours of film.
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Sgt. Louis L. Louft fought with the 13th Marines,
an artillery regiment; his more than 100 film reels likely resulted in more
than four hours of content. Landing on the beach with engineers of the 4th
Division on Feb. 25, 1945, Pfc. Angelo S. Abramo compiled over three hours of
material in the month of fighting he witnessed.
Even taking a conservative average of an hour of
film from each of the 26 combat cameramen, that suggests there was at least 24
hours of unique film from the battle. Many surviving elements of this record
are now part of the film library of the Marine Corps History Division, which
we're working with. The remainder are cataloged by the National Archives and
Records Administration.
While military historians visiting the History
Division in the past have used this large library, the bulk of its films have
not been readily available to the public, something that mass digitization is
finally making possible.
For many decades, the visual records made by
Marines have been seen by the public only piecemeal, often with selected
portions used as mere stock footage in films, documentaries and news programs,
chosen because a shot has action, not because of the historical context of the
imagery.
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Even when they are used responsibly by documentary
filmmakers, the editing and selection of scenes imposes the filmmaker's
interpretation on the images. As a historian and archivist, though, I believe
it is important for people to directly engage with historical sources of all
types, including the films from Iwo Jima.
The
"highest and purest democracy"
After the battle, the Americans buried their dead
in temporary cemeteries, awaiting transportation back to the U.S. The film
segment just before the graveside scene shows a service honoring the Americans
of all backgrounds who had bled and died together.
At that service, Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn, the
Marines' first-ever Jewish chaplain, gave a eulogy that has become one of the
Marine Corps' most treasured texts. Noting the diversity of the dead,
Gittelsohn said, "Here lie officers and men, Negroes and whites, rich men
and poor … together. Here are Protestants, Catholics, and Jews together. Here
no man prefers another because of his faith or despises him because of his
color."
Gittelsohn called their collective sacrifice
"the highest and purest democracy."
Connecting to the present
After the dedication ceremonies, Marines walked
the 5th Division cemetery, looking for familiar names. The photographers were
there, and one recorded the footage of the two Marines — names not known — and
the dog, at a grave with only the number 322 as a visible marking.
The image stood out. The two Marines looking
directly at the camera seemed to reach across the decades to compel a response.
Researchers at the History Division identified the Marine beneath marker 322 as
Pfc. Ernest Langbeen from Chicago. It felt appropriate and important to add his
name to the online description for that film, so I did.
I then located members of the Langbeen family, and
told them that this part of their family's history existed in the History
Division's collections and was now preserved and available online after more
than seven decades.
Speaking with the family, I learned more about the
Marine in grave 322. One of the two Marines in the picture may well be his best
friend from before the war, a friend who joined the Corps with him. They asked
to serve together and were assigned to the same unit, the 13th Regiment.
Now, family members who never knew this Marine
have a new connection to their history and the country's history. More
connections will come for others. The digital archive we're building will make
it easier for researchers and the public at large to explore the military and
personal history in each frame of every film.
The visual library of more than 80 online videos
from Iwo Jima carries in it countless Pfc. Langbeens, ordinary Americans whose
lives were disrupted by a global war. Each film holds traces of lives cut short
or otherwise irrevocably altered.
The films are a reminder that, 75 years after
World War II, all Americans remain tied to Iwo Jima, as well as battlegrounds
across the world like Monte Cassino, Peleliu, Bataan and Colleville-sur-mer.
Americans may find their relatives in this footage, or they may not. But what
they will find is evidence of the sacrifices made by those fighting on their
behalf, sacrifices that connect each and every American to the battle of Iwo
Jima.
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