Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima

On February 23, 1945, four days into the assault on Iwo Jima, a patrol of U.S. Marines fought its way to the summit of Mount Suribachi and raised the Stars and Stripes over the island. When a larger flag went up a few hours later, photographer Joe Rosenthal caught six men heaving the pole skyward in a single frozen instant.

That photograph became the most reproduced image in history — a Pulitzer Prize, a war-bond poster that raised billions, and finally the bronze Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington. Three of the six men in it would not leave the island alive.

The flag flew, but the fight was far from won: the battle for Iwo Jima ground on for another month and cost nearly 7,000 American lives. The image endures as the purest emblem of courage and sacrifice in the Pacific War.