technicat reviewed Flags of Our Fathers by Ron Powers
Brings home the sacrifice of those who fought in that war and the toll it took on them
5 stars
I expected a lot about the ordeal of battle and valor and patriotism, and there is plenty of that, but nearly as much attention is paid to the aftermath, how the experience affected the veterans of that campaign, standing out even for those who later fought in the Korean and Vietnam wars, and how the media and political circus, and really the public essentially appropriated (and mischaracterized) the famous flag raising moment on Iowa Jima for their own needs.
I do feel the author glosses over racial issues, emphasizing how PTSD issues were not well recognized or treated back then (or less well, anyway), but in the process somewhat casually dismissing the element of race in the troubled life (and untimely early death, after all he had survived) of the Native American flag-raiser. Then there's the offhand mention of the "Japanese-American relocation" ("internment" is already bland terminology for a concentration …
I expected a lot about the ordeal of battle and valor and patriotism, and there is plenty of that, but nearly as much attention is paid to the aftermath, how the experience affected the veterans of that campaign, standing out even for those who later fought in the Korean and Vietnam wars, and how the media and political circus, and really the public essentially appropriated (and mischaracterized) the famous flag raising moment on Iowa Jima for their own needs.
I do feel the author glosses over racial issues, emphasizing how PTSD issues were not well recognized or treated back then (or less well, anyway), but in the process somewhat casually dismissing the element of race in the troubled life (and untimely early death, after all he had survived) of the Native American flag-raiser. Then there's the offhand mention of the "Japanese-American relocation" ("internment" is already bland terminology for a concentration camp). And the nostalgic quote "We were one people back then" ignores how a large portion of the population were still second class citizens (segregation and anti-miscegenation laws were still a thing) and some white workers in the south went on strike rather than work with African-Americans.
Nevertheless, as much as any other war history book I've read (I can't believe this one was rejected twenty-six times by publishers), it brings home the grisliness of and inhumanity of war (Japan has never had the same reckoning with the racism and atrocities of its past that Germany has), the utter callousness and dubious competence of upper management (the Navy limited pre-invasion bombardment of Iwo Jima for bureaucratic and political reasons), and the emotional wounds it left on the survivors, who didn't feel they were heroes because they were the ones who survived.
