The dead of Iwo Jima

Just saw the movie Flags of our Fathers. Quiet sentimental. World war 2. Americans conquering the island of Iwo Jima of Japan. Thousands died. Six men while raising the American flag on mount Suribachi were photographed by Joe Rosenthal. That photo became iconic of American victory and was all over American press. The six men became famous. Three of them died without even knowing that they were celebrities. The rest of the three were brought back home and were used to raise funds for the war. Ira Hyes, one of the three men was Indian. He faced anti-Native American prejudice both during and after the war. He returned to his home in Arizona, where he drank heavily and sank into poverty. He was eventually found dead in a ditch, after a heavy drinking spree. Rene Gagnon, the second also returned to his home, where he spent the rest of his life holding a series of dead-end jobs. John Bradley was the only one who apparently lived a happy life financialy after the war. He had terrible memories. He had hallucinations. He would wake up at nights from nightmares. He stashed away all of his war time memorabilia including a Navy Cross. He did not even tell anything at all about the war to his son, James Bradley who learnt the details after his fathers death and that his father had got a Navy Cross. James later wrote a book on which this movie is based.

What did they fight for? What did they get? They did not get Japan. They killed and returned and led miserable lives. A common man can never see what they saw on the island, what made them lunatics. Why do people fight? A war is the ugliest thing in the world.