The son of a U.S. servicemember captured in a photograph of three Marines raising an American flag over Iwo Jima in 1945 has questioned whether his father was the individual from the picture.
James Bradley said Tuesday he believes his father, Navy corpsman John Bradley, participated in a flag-raising that took place earlier in the day on Feb. 23, 1945, but was not present in the iconic photograph that later inspired the Arlington, Va. monument, according to a report published late Tuesday.
In 2000, Bradley’s son published “Flags of Our Fathers,” which told the story about the Marine’s life and was later made into a movie by Clint Eastwood.
Bradley said he first discovered the inconsistencies after the Omaha World-Herald published an article in 2014 claiming there was evidence the photographed mens’ identities were inaccurate.
But Bradley waited a year before he looked into the matter and brought it up to the appropriation authorities.
“It wasn’t top of mind,” Mr. Bradley told the New York Times. “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 Marine Corps confirmed it has assigned its chief historian to investigate the claim, but has not set forth a timeline for when it will be able to reveal its findings.
The process will be difficult because three of the six men in the photo and the first non-photographed flag-raising have died.
