A Better Way

In the past couple of months I have read two of James Bradley’s books. Mr. Bradley is the son of a man who served in the Marines Corps during World War II and happened to be one of the men in the most frequently reproduced photograph in history – the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima. It wasn’t the first American flag raised on that island, by the way. It was the second, but it wasn’t a staged event either.

The first flag was taken down as soon as a second could be found and raised. The reason? There are two, in fact. The first flag was small and the commanding general, Holland M. (Howlin’ Mad) Smith wanted everyone on that 8 square mile island to be able to see it. The second reason was that Smith recognized the political, historical, and morale boosting significance of that flag. It was the first ever foreign flag to be raised on Japanese soil. As such it carried a lot of symbolism for the troops who had not yet completed their assault of Iwo Jima and for the world that was watching to see signs of the fall of the Japanese army that had for several years dominated and terrorized the Far East.

In Flags of Our Fathers, Bradley shows both the first and second flag raising, but it was the tension filled action Joe Rosenthal captured by chance in the 1/400^th of a second that the pose existed that somehow caught the full significance and effort those Marines were putting into declaring their dominance over that blood covered mountain by raising that second flag.

Thousands of men died there. Of the 310 young men in the company that raised those two flags, 50 lived through the experience. The 2^nd Battalion alone landed 1,688 men and boys on the beaches of Iwo Jima. Of these, 1,511 were killed or wounded. Only 177 walked off under their own power, and 91 of that 177 had been wounded at least once and went back into the fight. In all in that 30 day fight, America sustained 26,000 casualties, and inflicted 21,000 on the Japanese.

Is it any wonder that the raising of that flag brought cheers from every American on the island and raised a chorus of whistles and horns from the 22 ships that had brought them there? (Incidentally, it only took 8 ships to carry them home. There just weren’t that many left.)

Is it any wonder, either, that those men and boys who came home from that carnage didn’t want to talk about it? Is it any wonder that so many of them were reluctant to ever see America engage in another war? Is it any wonder that they were so adamant that, while there can be reasons compelling enough to send America’s sons and daughters into that maelstrom again, those who served in that kind of conflict wanted to see every effort made to find a better way to settle differences?

James Bradley’s father helped raise that flag on Iwo Jima, but not once during the remainder of his life did he speak of it or tell his children any stories of his experiences during the war. Why? I expect it was because he saw no glory in it. He saw no reason to give his children the idea that war was in any way noble or glorious. He had seen the elephant and knew the depths of its horrors.

Obviously, I was moved by this book, but I began writing today so I could tell you how huge an impact his other book, Flyboys, made on me. Don’t confuse that title with the movie that is out bearing the same name, by the way. The movie is about the first American flyers in WWI. Bradley’s Flyboys is about the Americans and Japanese involved in the assault in Ichi Jima, another of Japan’s islands that were key to the ultimate defeat of Japan in WWII.

I think this book should be required reading for everyone in the world and especially for Americans and Japanese. I have never read a more eloquent argument against war. I don’t know if that was Mr. Bradley’s intent. In fact I doubt that it was, but he so clearly and objectively described the actions and motivations of both sides that the thinking reader would have a difficult time not concluding that all of the horrific things he describes could and should have been avoided.

There can be no more eloquent argument against war than war itself. We mislead our children into thinking that they are going to fight for their country. They are not. They are going to fight for their government. They are going to fight for their leaders’ ideology and for their government’s ideals of dominance and sway.

In 1942, America had no choice but to enter that war and to fight it to the bitter end. In 2003, we did have choices, and we made the wrong one.

There must be a better way, and unless we find it – and relatively soon – this planet may well be left, someday, to heal itself and spin on through time without us. I’m sure it would be grateful for the respite.

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” – M. K. Gandhi