Thursday, February 22, 2001

By Fred Knapp
Stars and Stripes

IWO JIMA — When Herb Tarant’s generation planted the American flag atop Mount Suribachi, they had to fight their way there through ferocious Japanese resistance in the bloody battle of Iwo Jima.

When Herb’s daughter, Lt. Nicki Tarant, took her flag there this week, she rode in the back of a pickup truck up a paved road to the summit.

Much has changed since what is arguably the most famous flag-raising in history, immortalized in Joe Rosenthal’s photograph. The photograph, in turn, inspired the Marine Corps Memorial near Arlington National Cemetery.

But even at the distance of 56 years, the site — on top of the dormant volcano, overlooking the island where nearly 7,000 Americans and an estimated 20,000 Japanese lost their lives — exerts an emotional pull.

"I wanted to fly a flag for my father," Lt. Tarant said. "I would love to be there when he opens it up."

Herb Tarant, now 73, actually jointed the Army at the tail end of World War II, and didn’t serve overseas, Lt. Tarant said. But the "hard work, sweat and tears" of his generation were very much on her mind as the flight surgeon from Carrier Air Wing FIVE at Atsugi Naval Air Facility visited here this week. The air win currently is conducting night-landing practices on Iwo Jima.

Tarant’s flag was one of more than 130 raised on Monday, the 56th anniversary of the Marines’ Feb. 19 landing on Iwo Jima. Four days after that landing, after Marines fought their way up the volcano, they planted the first American flag, and soon replaced it with a larger banner in the image captured by Rosenthal.

Overall, the battle against the Japanese defenders entrenched in a series of interconnected caves and fortifications took nearly a month.

The island was returned to Japanese control in 1968 and is now a base for the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force. Since 1993, the U.S. Navy has also used the island for night-landing practice.

On the site of the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi sits a monument to the American conquerors, quoting Adm. Chester W. Nimitz that on Iwo Jima "uncommon valor was a common virtue." Nearby are monuments to the Japanese defenders and kamikaze pilots who took off from what was then a Japanese airfield.

"It’s pretty sensitive for the Japanese to have the American flag raised here, because of what happened here," said Petty Officer 1st Class Arnel Vega, Iwo Jima logistics coordinator, helping raise the commemorative flags Monday.

Vega said the Japanese allow the American flag to be raised at the monument four times a year: on Feb. 19, known as "Invasion Day," Memorial Day, July 4 and Veterans Day. The flags are sent by people who have heard of the program, and returned to them with a certificate.

"It’s because of good relations that they let us raise the flag here," Vega said, noting that once the Japanese flag is lowered, no more American flags can be raised that day.

After the last of the American flags was raised Monday, Ensign Yasunori Tabia and Petty Officer 3rd Class Tomohiro Namba of the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force lowered their flag from the nearby Japanese monument as a tape recorder played the national anthem.

Then, the American flag was lowered to the sound of taps. And that was followed by silence, punctuated by the distant wash of waves on the beach below.

For information on flag raising, write to:

     Iwo Jima Coordinator’s office,
          PSC477 Box 13,
          FPO AP 96306-3316

or call DSN 264-3316.

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