WASHINGTON — It is an iconic photograph of American patriotism, depicting the heroism of service members raising the flag over Iwo Jima during World War II, which inspired the book and movie "Flags of Our Fathers."
But while the image has become a symbol of the sacrifices of U.S. troops, the Marines have also had to defend it for 70 years against accusations that it was staged and that some of the men were misidentified.
Now, the man who wrote the best-selling book, which chronicled how his father and five Marines came together to lift the flag in the famous photograph, has raised new doubts about the image, saying that he now believes his father is not actually in it.
The author, James Bradley, revealed his conclusion in an interview Tuesday, just days after the Marine Corps said that it had opened an inquiry into whether the identifications in the photographs were correct.
He said that his father, John, a Navy corpsman, had participated in raising a flag on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945, but had not taken part in another flag-raising the same day, which became the famous photograph.
His father, he said, probably thought that the first flag-raising was the one that was captured in the famous picture taken by Joe Rosenthal, a photographer for The Associated Press. Bradley's doubts tell a story about the fog of war, the efforts of a son to memorialize his father and the apparent willingness of the Marines to at first brush aside questions about one of their most historic moments.
Bradley said he had become convinced that his father was not in the photograph after studying evidence that was published in a 2014 article in The Omaha World-Herald, which described doubts raised by amateur historians who compared that photograph to images of the first flag-raising. They found that the pants, headgear and cartridge belt on the Navy corpsman identified as John Bradley were different from the gear he wore that day.
Bradley said he had waited a year to examine the evidence in the newspaper article because he was working on a new book in Vietnam, and then became ill. He did not come forward with his belief that his father was not in the photograph, he said, because there was little interest from the news media and the Marines.
"It wasn't top of mind," Bradley said in the interview. "It wasn't a priority. I was overseas, and this past fall I was recovering from a disease I got in New Guinea that almost killed me. Now there's interest in this, and I'm talking about it. I didn't have the energy to carry the water all by myself."
The photograph, taken during one of the bloodiest battles of the war, was splashed across the front pages of newspapers throughout the country less than 48 hours after it was taken, exceptionally fast for the time. It was an immediate source of patriotism and controversy.
President Harry S. Truman used it to sell bonds to fund the war, and Rosenthal brushed back accusations that it had been staged. And two years after the image was taken, one of the men identified as being in it hitchhiked to Texas from Arizona to tell the family of a man who died on Iwo Jima that the man had been incorrectly named as one of those depicted. That spurred a congressional investigation that ultimately led the military to acknowledge that it had misidentified one of the men.
"Flags of Our Fathers," first published in 2000, was on best-seller lists for nearly a year. It was later made into a movie directed by Clint Eastwood. The photograph was also the inspiration for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, a statue in which six 32-foot-tall figures are depicted in the positions captured by Rosenthal. Bradley said that his father had met with the sculptor of the memorial, who based some of the figures on his body.
All of the men identified in the photograph are dead. Three of the men died fighting the Japanese on Iwo Jima. John Bradley died in 1994.
The 2014 article in the Omaha newspaper detailed how Stephen Foley, a man in Ireland who worked at a building supply company, and Eric Krelle, an Omaha-based historian, had concluded that Bradley was misidentified after poring over the images and studying uniforms worn on the island.
At the time, however, the Marines and James Bradley discounted the research.
"Listen, I wrote the book based on facts told to me by guys who had actually been there," Bradley was quoted saying in the article. "That's my research. That's what I trust."
He added: "At the end of the day, the truth is the truth. Everything is possible. But really?"
The Marines said at the time that they "firmly" stood by the established accounts of who was in the photograph.
Last year, Dustin Spence, a historian from California who made a documentary about the flag-raising, and Foley approached the Marines with findings that they said showed problems with the identifications, Spence said in a telephone interview. The Marines, Spence said, did not seriously look into their claims. "I believe it's something difficult for some in the Marine Corps to swallow," Spence said.
In January, the Marines were approached by the Smithsonian Channel, which is producing a documentary on the identities of the flag raisers, and the Marines took their research more seriously and opened an inquiry.
The Marine Corps acknowledged in a written statement that the Smithsonian Channel had approached it with new information about the photograph and that it was investigating the matter, but it would not comment on what that information was.
Marine officials said the inquiry was being led by the corps' chief historian, and the commandant of the Marine Corps is expected to be briefed on the results in the coming weeks. It is not clear when the Marines will release the findings to the public.
"Rosenthal's photo captured a single moment in the 36-day battle during which more than 6,500 U.S. servicemen made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, and it is representative of the more than 70,000 U.S. Marines, sailors, soldiers and Coast Guardsmen that took part in the battle," said Maj. Clark Carpenter, a spokesman for the Marines.
A summary on the paperback edition of "Flags of Our Fathers" reads: "Here is the true story behind the six flag raisers and the immortal photograph that came to symbolize the power and courage of America during World War II. In 'Flags of Our Fathers,' the son of one of the flag raisers captures the glory, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six ordinary boys who came together at a crucial moment in one of history's bloodiest battles — and lifted the heart and spirit of a nation at war."