Interesting Historical Artifact: Iwo Jima Flagraising on Film
July 5th, 2008
Here’s something I never even knew existed: live color film footage of the famous (second) flag-raising on Iwo Jima - the one that was captured in the legendary Joe Rosenthal photo and became the basis for the Iwo Jima memorial statue.
Apparently a film camera operator went up the mountain with Rosenthal and shot the flagraising while standing right next to him - so the film footage shows almost exactly the same image as Rosenthal’s famous photo. (Very little color film stock was used in WWII, but it did exist. This is the only color movie footage from the war that I’ve ever seen.) It’s been digitized and is now available on the Web (requires Ogg Vorbis media plugin).
Appropriate, perhaps, on the July 4 holiday.
Categories: General, Holiday | 3 Comments
