For all the Americans to watch..

Now if only you had the capacity to actually affect a change.

Yeah, but their was only ONE witness. :-]

You sure don't know much about world history then.

Yep, that's a pretty picture...

But let's put it in context. We didn't appreciate the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor, or invading our territories (the Philippine Territory at the time was an American possession). Thousands of Americans had given their lives fighting the Japanese enemy, and thousands more were expected to. (I don't believe the atomic bomb had been developed yet, during the Battle of Iwo Jima, but correct me if I'm wrong.)

Raising the American flag meant that the Americans had wrested control of Iwo Jima from the Japanese, and there were no able-bodied Japanese left to challenge the raising of the American flag there.

One thousand years from now, when our history will have faded into legend, people may find the picture, and wonder, "gee, a bunch of guys putting a flag on a hill... what's the big deal?"

The context is critical.

Michael

"...no able-bodied Japanese left to challenge..."?

Of the 6 flag raisers in the famous photograph, 3 were later illed on Iwo Jima, presumably by Japanese challenging their presence there.

Ah... hadn't realized. I'd thought the American army would have decimated the remaining Japanese prior to raising the flag, or taken them all captive.

Never mind... carry on

And a fourth, Ira Hayes, survived the war but died drunk in a ditch a few years later.

From _The Ballad of Ira Hayes_, near the bottom of the page:

"Well, they battled up Iwo Jima hill -- two hundred and fifty men, But only twenty-seven lived -- to walk back down again; When the fight was over -- and Old Glory raised Among the men who held it high was the Indian -- Ira Hayes"

I wonder if a similar flag was raised in Attu...

"On May 29, the last of the Japanese forces suddenly attacked near Massacre Bay in one of the largest banzai charges of the Pacific campaign. The charge, led by Colonel Yamasaki, penetrated U.S. lines far enough to encounter shocked rear-echelon units of the American force. After furious, brutal, close-quarter, and often hand-to-hand combat, the Japanese force was killed almost to the last man: only 28 prisoners were taken, none of them an officer. U.S. burial teams counted 2,351 Japanese dead, but it was presumed that hundreds more had been buried by bombardments over the course of the battle.

On August 7, 1943, an invasion force of 34,426 Allied troops, mainly from 7th Infantry Division, including 5,300 Canadians (primarily from the 13th Canadian Infantry Brigade of the 6th Canadian Infantry Division, but also including the Canadian component of the First Special Service Force), landed on Kiska, only to find the island abandoned. Under the cover of fog, the Japanese had successfully removed their troops on July 28 without the Allies noticing. The Army Air Force had been bombing abandoned positions for more than a week. Allied casualties during the invasion nevertheless numbered 313, all from friendly fire, booby traps set out by the Japanese, disease, or frostbite."

You know, I kinda wonder what would have happened if the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima hadn't exploded... and what would have happened if Japanese scientists got a hold of it.

(in Japanese) "What's this?" (snip) BOOM

Michael

Actually, it was US Marines who raised both flags on Iwo Jima. They were raised to inspire the troops, who were still fighting the Japanese soldiers.

Not at all. Heavy fighting was still going on.

As one of the most used photos ever taken, the chances of losing any record of its significance is very slim, even in 1000 years.

Go see (or rent) the recent movie, "Flag of Our Fathers", a film by Clint Eastwood.

...Jim Thompson

Seems like you have enough work to do without doodiddling away your time on idiotic threads like this...hmmmm?

LOL.

Where can I get a network analyzer that has REAL microsecond time-stamp accuracy? Ethereal/Wireshark doesn't seem to do it.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

They're witness was alone? Perhaps there looking for more witnesses, now Dimmie?

HELL

their

Wow. Twice in one sentence.

"Their" is correct both times, idiot.

Does that make you twice as wrong as I was? Or does that make my choice of beers good (Sam Addams), and you still as stupid as ever... as usual.

HELL

their

Death?

You really are a dim bulb, Dimbulb.

wrote in

to

THE HELL

kissing their

Death?

Wow, indeed.

Wow again.

(According to a vaguely remembered article in New Scientist about 10 year back), The Japanese atomic physisists knew about the atomic bomb and proposed building one to the Navy. The country just couldn't afford the equipment to seperate the isotopes.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

Of course I'd realize that such an act was meant to be offensive, but since I'm pretty sure of what I am and who I am it'd fail to feel offended. After all, it's him who waves his mnaked ass in public, not me.

Naturally. It's still the potential offendee's choice to feel offended or not. I'd actually be interested to know what the storeowner was thinking when he flew the Mexican flag above the US one. Maybe flags mean as little to him as they do to me, so possibly he just thought he was flying them "together", in a neighborhoodly way. If I'd see a Turkish flag flown above a German one on a Turkish store, I'd just think: Look, that fellow likes Germany and Turkey. That's nice. Of course Germany doesn't have a "flag code".

robert