Iwo Jima photo: the Marines correct a second error
On 17 October 2019, the Marines acknowledged a second error in the identity of the soldiers raising the American flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima.
It is one of the most famous photos of the Second World War, taken by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press. It shows six American soldiers hoisting at arm's length a pole flying the victors' flag.
Credit: Joe Rosenthal / Associated Press
2016: a first correction
The photographer had not been able to note the soldiers' names at the time the photo was taken, and identification was carried out some time later, at the request of the Roosevelt administration, which then used the soldiers — who had become stars — to sell a war loan.
In June 2016, historians established that one of the men in the photograph was not Private Second Class John Bradley, but Private First Class Harold Schultz.
The error seems linked to the fact that an earlier, smaller flag had been raised on the same mountain earlier that day.
2019: a second correction
"Thanks to historians, new evidence and new technologies, it has been determined that Private First Class Rene Gagnon helped raise the flag but does not appear in the photo," the Marine Corps said in a statement.
"It is in fact Corporal Harold Keller who has been identified as the Marine on the other side of the flag pole" — of whom only the helmet is visible in the photo.
The error was corrected thanks to the work of three historians who used photos of other soldiers present on the scene, with the help of specialised FBI investigators.