Iwo Jima: Three of the Six Men Who Raised the Flag on Iwo Jima Died in The Next 12 Days
37m | Apr 26, 2026The Battle of Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest battles of World War II in the
Pacific, is remembered through Joe Rosenthal's Pulitzer Prize-winning
photograph of six men raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi — but
the real story is far more brutal. Taken on Day 4 of a 36-day battle in
February 1945, that iconic image captured a moment, not the reality. By the
end of the fighting, 6,821 U.S. Marines were dead, and three of the six
flag raisers in the photograph did not survive the island.
Beneath that flag, deep inside a network of volcanic tunnels dug into
Mount Suribachi and the southern plateau, Japanese commander Lieutenant
General Tadamichi Kuribayashi had spent months preparing a defensive
system designed to inflict maximum American casualties. Having lived in
the United States — studying at Harvard and serving as a military attaché
in Washington — Kuribayashi understood exactly what he was fighting, and
still prepared to hold the island to the last man. On the American side,
Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone, a Medal of Honor recipient from Guadalcanal,
had been safely back in the United States selling war bonds when he
volunteered to return to combat. He was killed within hours of landing on
Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945.
The Battle of Iwo Jima continued for 31 days after Rosenthal's photograph
was taken — a brutal Pacific War campaign of tunnel warfare, hidden
bunkers, and close-quarters fighting across volcanic terrain. By the time
the U.S. Marine Corps declared the island secured on March 26, 1945, 27
Medals of Honor had been awarded — the most for any single battle in
American military history. The flag did not end the battle. It barely
interrupted it.
--
CHAPTERS
00:00 — The Photograph You Think You Know
02:41 — Chapter 1: The Man Who Knew the Enemy (Kuribayashi in America, 1928)
05:38 — Chapter 2: "Only You Among All the Generals" (The Assignment, 1944)
09:39 — Chapter 3: The Man Who Came Back (Basilone, Guadalcanal, and the Return)
14:23 — Chapter 4: The Island That Swallowed Light (D-Day, February 19, 1945)
15:52 — Chapter 5: Manila John, Red Beach II (Basilone's Last Day)
18:32 — Chapter 6: The Flag That Isn't What You Think
22:12 — Chapter 7: The Meatgrinder (Northern Iwo Jima)
25:34 — Chapter 8: Underground (Kuribayashi's Final Weeks and His Poems)
27:38 — Chapter 9: The Last Night (March 25–26, 1945)
29:33 — Chapter 10: What It Cost
31:27 — Chapter 11: The Men They Were
33:53 — Epilogue: The Photograph, One More Time
—
If this is the kind of history you're looking for — SUBSCRIBE. There's always another story waiting.
—
No ads. No sponsors. Just research and a lot of coffee (and beer):
https://buymeacoffee.com/theww2grognard
—
For the full cinematic experience — with historical photographs and archival footage — watch this episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheWW2Grognard
—
RESEARCH SOURCES
Primary:
Kuribayashi, Tadamichi — Picture Letters from the Commander in Chief (Gyokusai sōshikikan no etegami). Compiled posthumously.
https://amzn.to/4mAFMfi
Basilone, John — Medal of Honor and Navy Cross Citations, USMC Historical Archive
Robert E. Allen — The First Battalion of the 28th Marines on Iwo Jima: A Day-by-Day History from Personal Accounts and Official Reports
https://amzn.to/4tMB7cp
Secondary:
Donald Yates — U.S. Marine Corps Remembering Iwo Jima
https://amzn.to/4tI821H
Kakehashi, Kumiko — So Sad to Fall in Battle (Presidio Press / Ballantine Books, 2007)
https://amzn.to/4mMioeZ
Bradley, James — Flags of Our Fathers (Bantam, 2000)
https://amzn.to/4elzoGt
Hammel, Eric — Two Flags over Iwo Jima (Zenith Press, 2018)
https://amzn.to/4dGapNT
Alexander, Joseph H. — Closing In: Marines in the Seizure of Iwo Jima (USMC Historical Center, 1994)
National WWII Museum — nationalww2museum.org
Wikipedia — Battle of Iwo Jima, Tadamichi Kuribayashi, John Basilone, Joe Rosenthal, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
Note: This documentary covers historical events of February–March 1945 and does not address current events.
MUSIC
Almost in F — Tranquillity by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1500002
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
American Frontiers by Aaron Kenny
Source: YouTube Audio Library
No.4 Piano Journey by Esther Abrami
Source: YouTube Audio Library
PRODUCTION TRANSPARENCY
Script & Research: Human-authored | Narration: AI-generated | Images: U.S. National Archives, USMC Historical Archive, Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons — public domain
What happened after the photograph is the real story.
