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Joe Rosenthal and WWII vets
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RMLCF-@aol.com
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Aug 21, 2006 11:51 PDT
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Thanks, Jeff, for the news about the passing of Joe Rosenthal.
In "Flags of Our Fathers", James Bradley in his excellent book about the
Iwo Jima flag raisers, tells the story of Joe Rosenthal (which has been told by
many others, of course) and once again, we are reminded of the passing of WWII
personalities. David Douglas Duncan, another WWII photographer took superb
photos of Okinawans at the end of the
battle. I think he is still alive and lives in France. His total gallery is
in the U. of Texas in a special collection.
Two of the flag raisers, Ira Hayes and Rene Gagnon, were sent to our unit
(29th Battalion of the 6th Division) in China
shortly after the end of the war. We wondered why they weren't sent to their
Marine division from the Iwo campaign.
I remember Ira was still reacting to the publicity while Rene was talking
constantly about it...even hoping he would get
more attention upon his return to the States.
The V.A. says that of the 16 million in the service of the U.S. in WWII, the
number now is close to 3 1/2 still alive.
Incidentally, our Okinawan Association of America hosted three veterans of
the famous 442nd (the most decorated unit
from the war!) and we learned that about one quarter to a half of their
division were of Okinawan descent...and mostly
from Hawaii. When they showed us their book with all of the names
highlighted with their Okinawan roots, we asked
why their being Uchinanchu was so little known. They just smiled and said it
hadn't seemed all important to make it known.
Our Okinawan "kenjinkai" is preparing a book of the story of our association
and its history....Okinawans came to
Southern California in 1906...so this year, there is a 100 year anniversary.
Nuchi du takara................................................from Bob
senshi
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