Iwo Jima - The Story Behind the Story Presented in Under Wraps

FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS a Clint Eastwood Film tells only part of the story. Former infantryman Jay Coffman was there with some of those men who raised the American flag for the famous photograph and who later died in the clean up of IWO JIMA. The book Under Wraps talks about the events in the South Pacific.

Orlando, FL (PRWEB) November 9, 2006 -- Flags of Our Fathers promises to be a classic film. Released in theaters on October 20, it is produced by Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, and Rob Lorenz. This movie depicts the momentous battle for the strategic Japanese island of Iwo Jima during World War II, culminating in the triumphant photograph of soldiers raising the American Flag on Mount Suribachi taken by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press. The American victory at Iwo Jima and the photograph inspired Allied soldiers and the American public for the remainder of that war.

The Americans invaded Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, after softening it up with bombs and shelling. The Japanese offered stiff resistance, but after four days of intense fighting, six Marines reached the summit of Mount Suribachi and raised a small American Flag, while a combat photographer took their picture.

But that was not the celebrated photograph. Rosenthal was not there when the first flag was raised. According to the book Under Wraps: one soldier's hidden diary of WWII by Jay Coffman with Tom Fulks, Rosenthal arrived later that day and arranged to photograph a larger, cleaner flag being raised by five Marines and a Navy Corpsman, none of whom were there for the original flag raising. It was this second, staged photograph that became legendary.

The late Jay Coffman, an infantryman, arrived later on Iwo Jima and, with his platoon, undertook the dangerous job of ridding the many caves of dug-in Japanese soldiers. Three of the six Marines who raised the first flag were killed while mopping-up Iwo Jima. The book, Under Wraps, contains Coffman's diary that recounts his fascinating experiences in the South Pacific throughout World War II as he recorded them on the spot.

Coffman kept his diary on scraps of paper which he hid in his personal effects until the war ended, as keeping a diary in combat zones was a court-martial offense in combat zones during that war. An important artifact of WWII, Coffman's diary had been seen only by his siblings until Tom Fulks, Jay's nephew, discovered it in 1999 and prepared it for publication in the book Under Wraps, So while it is great that Clint Eastwood wants to go back and revisit a snippet of our military history. It should be noted that not everything we see can be taken at face value.

If you are interested in finding out more about World War II and about the life of an ordinary infantryman check out the book UNDER WRAPS: one solder's hidden diary of WWII (ISBN 1-890905-52-6) at www.UnderWrapsDiary.com, and the film at www.FlagsofOurFathers.com.

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