Iwo Jima Flag-Raising Photographer Dies

The photographer who captured the immortal image of World War Two servicemen raising the American flag over Iwo Jima has died. Joe Rosenthal of The Associated Press won a Pulitzer Prize for that 1945 snapshot, which ranked 68th among 100 examples in a survey of the best journalism of the 20th century. His daughter says Rosenthal died of natural cases in suburban San Francisco yesterday. He was 94.Joe RosenthalThe A-P photo quickly became the subject of posters, war-bond drives and a U-S postage stamp, but it almost didn't happen. Rosenthal later wrote that he almost didn't go up to the summit of Japan's Mount Suribachi when he learned that a flag had already been raised there. But he decided to go anyway, and found servicemen preparing to put up the second, larger flag, and the rest is history. Rosenthal's photograph became the model for the Iwo Jima Memorial near Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.