影片简介
STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I`m Steve Ember with Faith Lapidus.
This Monday is Memorial Day in the United States. The holiday honors the memory of the nation`s military dead.
FAITH LAPIDUS: One way to preserve a memory is with a camera. This week on our program, we tell the story of a famous photograph from World War Two. It led the sculptor Felix de Weldon to create one of the largest free-standing bronze statues in the world.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: Our story is about one moment in time. Really, one-four-hundredths of a second. That is the amount of time it took Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal to capture a historic image on film.
The photograph shows six men and an American flag during a battle in World War Two. Joe Rosenthal took it on February twenty-third, nineteen forty-five, on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. Japanese forces held the island. American Marines were trying to capture it.
On the fourth day of battle, Marines fought to the top of Mount Suribachi, the tallest mountain on Iwo Jima. A small American flag was sent to the top. The Marines placed the flagpole in the ground.
FAITH LAPIDUS: But the small flag could not be seen clearly far below. Commanding officers ordered the Marines to replace it with a much larger one. Joe Rosenthal wanted to make a picture of the event. So he took his camera and began to climb slowly up the mountain.
When he reached the top, Marines were tying the larger flag to a heavy pole. Joe Rosenthal backed away from the group and began talking to another photographer.
A minute later, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. "There it goes!" he said. He swung his camera up, following the movement of the flag, and pressed the button that took the picture.
STEVE EMBER: Six men are in the photograph. But only four of them are clearly seen.
In the front is Harlon Block, a Marine from Yorktown, Texas. Next is John Bradley. His face is the only one in the picture. He was a Navy corpsman; his job was to treat the wounded.
Also in the picture is Franklin Sousley, a Marine from Hilltop, Kentucky. And all the way at the left is Ira Hayes, a Marine, and an American Indian. The heavy pole holding the flag had just left his hand when the picture was taken. Behind these four men are two other Marines. They cannot be seen as clearly. They are Rene Gagnon of Manchester, New Hampshire, and Mike Strank. He lived in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, but was born in Jarabenia, in what was then Czechoslovakia.
FAITH LAPIDUS: The next day, Joe Rosenthal`s film went by airplane to the island of Guam where it was developed and printed.
The pictures were given to Associated Press photo editor John Bodkin. It was his job to decide which ones to send to the United States. They would go on a machine that sent images by radio.
As histories tell it, he looked and looked at the first photograph, and said: "This is one for all time." Within minutes he sent the picture of the six men raising the flag to the Associated Press headquarters in New York.
From there, the photograph went to newspapers across the United States. Most decided to print a huge copy on their front page.
STEVE EMBER: Most photo experts will tell you that the picture Joe Rosenthal made is almost perfect. The camera catches the flag as it rises. The flagpole cuts across the photograph. Wind blows against the flag.
The experts also say you must look at the picture as the American public saw it in nineteen forty-five. The world had been at war for years. Victory was not yet certain. Many people worried about family members. Many had a deep fear of the enemy.
The picture shows strength and courage. It suggests that six young men are working together to defeat the enemy. Joe Rosenthal`s photograph seemed to say: the battle may not be over, but we are winning.
It was the very image of a future American victory.
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: In Washington, D.C., Felix de Weldon saw the photograph in the newspapers. Born in Austria, he came to the United States and was an artist in the Navy.
Many y
This Monday is Memorial Day in the United States. The holiday honors the memory of the nation`s military dead.
FAITH LAPIDUS: One way to preserve a memory is with a camera. This week on our program, we tell the story of a famous photograph from World War Two. It led the sculptor Felix de Weldon to create one of the largest free-standing bronze statues in the world.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: Our story is about one moment in time. Really, one-four-hundredths of a second. That is the amount of time it took Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal to capture a historic image on film.
The photograph shows six men and an American flag during a battle in World War Two. Joe Rosenthal took it on February twenty-third, nineteen forty-five, on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. Japanese forces held the island. American Marines were trying to capture it.
On the fourth day of battle, Marines fought to the top of Mount Suribachi, the tallest mountain on Iwo Jima. A small American flag was sent to the top. The Marines placed the flagpole in the ground.
FAITH LAPIDUS: But the small flag could not be seen clearly far below. Commanding officers ordered the Marines to replace it with a much larger one. Joe Rosenthal wanted to make a picture of the event. So he took his camera and began to climb slowly up the mountain.
When he reached the top, Marines were tying the larger flag to a heavy pole. Joe Rosenthal backed away from the group and began talking to another photographer.
A minute later, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. "There it goes!" he said. He swung his camera up, following the movement of the flag, and pressed the button that took the picture.
STEVE EMBER: Six men are in the photograph. But only four of them are clearly seen.
In the front is Harlon Block, a Marine from Yorktown, Texas. Next is John Bradley. His face is the only one in the picture. He was a Navy corpsman; his job was to treat the wounded.
Also in the picture is Franklin Sousley, a Marine from Hilltop, Kentucky. And all the way at the left is Ira Hayes, a Marine, and an American Indian. The heavy pole holding the flag had just left his hand when the picture was taken. Behind these four men are two other Marines. They cannot be seen as clearly. They are Rene Gagnon of Manchester, New Hampshire, and Mike Strank. He lived in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, but was born in Jarabenia, in what was then Czechoslovakia.
FAITH LAPIDUS: The next day, Joe Rosenthal`s film went by airplane to the island of Guam where it was developed and printed.
The pictures were given to Associated Press photo editor John Bodkin. It was his job to decide which ones to send to the United States. They would go on a machine that sent images by radio.
As histories tell it, he looked and looked at the first photograph, and said: "This is one for all time." Within minutes he sent the picture of the six men raising the flag to the Associated Press headquarters in New York.
From there, the photograph went to newspapers across the United States. Most decided to print a huge copy on their front page.
STEVE EMBER: Most photo experts will tell you that the picture Joe Rosenthal made is almost perfect. The camera catches the flag as it rises. The flagpole cuts across the photograph. Wind blows against the flag.
The experts also say you must look at the picture as the American public saw it in nineteen forty-five. The world had been at war for years. Victory was not yet certain. Many people worried about family members. Many had a deep fear of the enemy.
The picture shows strength and courage. It suggests that six young men are working together to defeat the enemy. Joe Rosenthal`s photograph seemed to say: the battle may not be over, but we are winning.
It was the very image of a future American victory.
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: In Washington, D.C., Felix de Weldon saw the photograph in the newspapers. Born in Austria, he came to the United States and was an artist in the Navy.
Many y
