60th anniversary honored with battle of Iwo Jima re-enactment(Photos)

Glen Milliman couldn’t control his emotions. Tears streamed down the World War II veteran’s face as he talked about his time on Iwo Jima, the friends he lost in combat there and the battle re-enactment in Doss, a tiny town just northwest of Fredericksburg.

The re-enactment Saturday and Sunday commemorated the 60th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima and concluded with a re-creation of the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi. Today is the 60th anniversary of the flag-raising, a turning point in the battle to secure the island.

Milliman remembers the flag going up. He joined the battle for the island on D+3 day, or Feb. 22, 1945, and saw the flag raising on D+4, or Feb. 23.

"It was very emotional," he said, his hands resting on his wheelchair. "Very emotional."

For the 79-year-old Andrews, N.C., resident, seeing the re-enactment was just too much.

"We lost a lot of good people on that island," he said, even as a 10-year-old child walked up to him with his father asking for his autograph. "A lot of them were my buddies."

More than 25,000 people attended the Iwo Jima re-enactment, meant to honor the veterans who survived the battle and pay homage to those who didn’t. The culmination of the re-enactment was the flag-raising, immortalized in the Feb. 23, 1945 photograph by Joe Rosenthal, an Associated Press photographer. The flag-raising was re-created on both days using six active serviceman, five Marines and one Naval corpsman.

Sixty years after the battle, it seems people can’t stop saying "thank you" to the World War II veterans for their service.

Re-enactor Rick Davis, who portrayed a 59-year-old China Marine, said he wanted to thank the veterans. Davis, a Vietnam veteran, couldn’t say enough about the unflinching spirit of the Marines during the battle.

Bertian resident Bill Monahan remembers seeing the flag go up on Mount Suribachi 60 years ago today.

The rifleman was stationed with the Fifth Marine Division on Iwo Jima and remembers many of his friends talking about the photograph.

"They said they would be talking about that picture for the next 50 years," the snowy-haired man said in a slow, shaky voice. "I didn’t believe ’em because, well, it was just taken."

Monahan carried a scrapbook to the re-enactment that included several of his professional baseball photos and newspaper clippings (he played for the Sacramento Solons and the Austin Senators), his Marine photos and a square medium-format photograph of the flag raising.

"Three of the six men died … ," Monahan recalled as he gently slid the photograph out of the plastic sleeve. "(Weslaco native) Harlon Block died, Frank Sousley (died), Ira Hayes … everybody knew Ira, but he couldn’t take (the adulation after the war) and drank himself to death. It’s a shame."

Takahi "Mike" Fukuda, 51, a writer from Tokyo, said it was important for him to participate in the re-enactment because his government has ignored the history of the war.

"We were all born after World War II and we’re curious about how our fathers and grandfathers fought," he said. "They were very good soldiers."

"At best maybe one or two pages," he said as he looked down at his Imperial Army officer uniform and his furled rising sun flag. "They don’t say that we surrendered, or why we attacked Pearl Harbor, or (about) Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

"I think if they did teach World War II history, they would have to explain how we started the war with the United Stated and I think they want to forget about it."

Dressed in olive, crimson and gold Imperial Army uniforms, Fukuda and his men practiced drills and maneuvers with military precision. Most of their uniforms were replicas of what their grandfathers would have worn on the island. Enlisted men wore black tabi shoes and puttee straps, while the officers wore polished black or brown boots. Several of the men had round discs hanging from their necks, symbolic of land mines. Sometimes, Japanese soldiers dove underneath tanks with the mines, instead of surrendering to the Americans.

David Serikaku, a nurse from Westmont, Ill., who portrayed a Japanese soldier during the re-enactment, said he was paying homage to his grandfather.

His family was split on both sides of the war, some living in Hawaii and others living on Okinawa, the next strategic Japanese island the Americans secured after Iwo Jima.

"My grandfather fought in the war, in an all-Japanese-American combat platoon," he said. "For our family, there was a lot of mixed emotions about the war. Doing this gives me an idea of what the average Japanese soldier went through, knowing he wasn’t going to come back."

There was a glimpse of that kamikaze spirit during the re-enactment, when a Japanese officer charged a Sherman tank with his saber, knowing he was going to be killed.

The Japanese built a labyrinth of underground tunnels on Iwo Jima. They had a network of interconnecting trenches that stretched from one end of the island to the other. At some point, they knew the battle would be impossible to win.

Perhaps that’s why Fukuda, the native Japanese, was a little apprehensive about participating in the re-enactment.

"Because of the veterans," he said quietly. "Plus we’re in Texas — maybe some people have never seen Japanese, maybe they would throw a rock at us or something.

Instead, many of the Iwo Jima veterans stopped Fukuda and several of his friends and talked with them, reminiscing about the war.

Some U.S. veterans, however, still harbor a deep uneasiness about their former enemies.

"You know I still have nightmares," said Joe Johansen, 82, a retiree from Rockport. "It’s always me trying to get the Jap."

The resentment from Pearl Harbor still aches in his heart, more than 64 years after it happened.

"I didn’t have a choice, but to go in," into the service, he said. "But my dreams … it’s always me and a Jap, hand-to-hand."

"Then there’s the smell," he said of the one thing he can’t get out of his dreams. "You couldn’t get away from the smell. There’s nothing worse than the smell of dead people."

Johansen said seeing the Japanese didn’t bother him, but the battle re-enactment did bring back some memories he had buried for six decades.

"We went in toward the end of the battle, after they raised the flag," he said. "But it’s never over."

Jeff Hunt, chief organizer of the weekend’s events, said he knew the re-enactment would cause some veterans to have flashbacks.

"We wanted to make this as real as possible without killing anybody and without all the body parts flying," he said. "You cannot cheapen the experience when you’re doing it in front of the people who were there."

"You pretty much have to go back to 1945 to see this many Japanese Imperial Army soldiers," he said.

The museum’s living history department organized the epic re-enactment that also included period weapons, vehicles, uniforms and other details.

"We tried to get it down to the last detail," he said, glancing over at the K, D, and C Ration cardboard boxes splayed out on the battlefield. "Because when you’re doing this for World War II veterans, you have to get it right, all the way to the last detail."

"Closure?" Serikaku paused. "I don’t think that’s the right word. I think it’s more about reconciliation. In the end, the Japanese soldier was a lot like the American soldier, politics, presidents, imperial and religion aside.

"They were just soldiers in a battle neither one wanted to be in, protecting their buddies and wanting to go home."

Dulcinea Cuellar covers entertainment and features for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4427.

Photo by Jerome T. Nakagawa
Despite heavy gunfire by Japanese soldiers stationed in pill boxes, United States Marines inch their way towards Mount Suribachi during a large scale reenactment of the Battle of Mount Suribachi and the famous flag raising in Doss, Texas, Saturday, February 19, 2005. The largest battle reenactment in history is in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima, which was one of the greatest amphibious assaults in history.

Photo by Jerome T. Nakagawa
Armed Japanese war reenactors walk to the top of Mount Suribachi moments before the start of a large scale reenactment of the Battle for Mount Suribachi and the famous flag raising

Photo by Jerome T. Nakagawa
The War Dogs from Lackland Air Force Base reenact the famous flag raising during a large scale reenactment of the Battle for Mount Suribachi and the famous flag raising in Doss, Texas, Saturday, February 19, 2005.

Photo by Jerome T. Nakagawa
United States Marines reenactors participate in a 1928 version of the Holy Communion of the Episcopal Church adminstered by retired Marine Chaplain Father Paul Worley moments before the reenactment of the Battle for Mount Suribachi and the famous flag raising in Doss, Texas, Sunday, February 20, 2005.

Photo by Jerome T. Nakagawa
Joe Johansen, a veteran of war who served at the Battle of Iwo Jima 60 years ago, recalls painful combat experiences while sitting next to his wife, Lois, in Fredericksburg, Texas, Friday, February 18, 2005. According to Johansen, although he is 60 years removed from the horror of the Battle of Mount Suribachi, he still has nightmares about hand-to-hand combat with Japanese

Photo by Jerome T. Nakagawa
Jordan Malone, 4, of Austin, stands with his family while enjoying the Heroes' Parade commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima in Fredericksburg, Texas, Saturday, February 19, 2005. Many veterans who fought in the Battle for Mount Suribachi appreciated the fact that there were so many children who attended the events in their honor.

More photos in the Iwo Jima Photo Gallery

http://www.themonitor.com/

Thanks, Swinney!

I attended this--but it was hard to see everything that was happening at once. These photos show me a lot I missed--LOL!

It truly was moving to be there, though, and sorta mingle with the heroes of that battle.

I knew there were a lot of people there, but this is the first time I have seen a figure set to the number of attendees. I would say that they are probably spot on!

"diversity" Is not what made us great. Unity did. The revolutionary war had a great deal of diversity... many of the citizens and troops did not even speak the same language. They won because despite their differences they were UNITED, NOT because of their diversity.

They all had one thing in common; they believed in the United States. Diverse in back grounds, united in their belief of the UNITED STATES ABOVE ALL ELSE.

Not their diversity! They came here to become ONE, NOT to stay with their old ways. They came knowing their old lives were done. They stayed knowing their past was gone. They stayed knowing they could not go back. They stayed knowing they were part of something better than all that had EVER been. They knew diversity was death.

Why can't our teachers, politicians, administrators, and fellow citizens look back to that time and see that to become the United States of America all had to GIVE UP their past. Not keep it!

Perhaps you should look at the combat records of the Japanese-American combat units as well as units like the Tuskegee Airmen. They worked their asses off - the most highly decorated unit in WW2 was the 442nd Infantry, a unit made up entirely of Japanese Americans. The segregated Tuskegee Airmen (99th Fighter Squadron) never lost a bomber to enemy aircraft while they were escorting them - a record few other units could boast.

Men are men. The color of their skin or their facial features are unimportant; what is in their heads and hearts and souls (if you believe in them) is the only true differentiation. Racism has NO place in a discussion of US combat troops and their accomplishments. Please go crawl back under the rock you came from.

The diversity I am talking about is not the type that we experience today as part of our PC culture but the diversity in spite of our unity during WWII. I fully recognize the heroism of the Japanese-American and Tuskegee units in Europe. What does aggrivate me is that we are reminded that our strength is in our diversity, which is not true. Our strength lies in a common cause of love of country. It is not diversity that should be emphasized but unity, instead.

Holy mackerel; let me explain myself one more time.

As I carefully select green bananas in Wal-Mart’s vegetable section I am informed (over the intercom) that the store manager is proud of the diversity in his work force. Who cares? No one in the work force even pays attention to this announcement. Will my bananas taste better and will I decide to give Wal-Mart more of my business because of that warm and fuzzy feeling I now experience?

The pastor gushes about the diversity in his congregation. “Multi-cultural” programs are offered that are attended by either the same people or none at all. Question: will this multi-culturalism give the service a deeper spirituality? I say: Shut up and pray!

Once a year we have to attend a 3-hour session for the purpose of learning about diversity sensitivity. I ask my Vietnamese-American friend what he thinks of the meeting and he gives me the finger. Very insensitive of him. Of course, hundreds of man-hours have been wasted. As far as I know we have never had any interracial problems at work. (A couple was fired because they had sex during working hours, but there was nothing interracial about that. It was sensually consensual.)

We as a nations feel the need to continuously pound our chest in pride about how our strength lies in our diversity. Usually, people that are self-assured do not have to brag. To constantly being bombarded with this “strength through diversity” drivel makes it seem as if we are saying that previous generations were weak because they did not experience the same range of diversity that we currently do. I shall never accept that. We are so preoccupied in defining our national identity because we have compartmentalized ourselves in many groups. Do we perhaps feel the need to brag because a doubt has slowly entered our national psyche?

If I were to tell any of my three neighbors (Iranian, Philippino, Chinese) that I am proud of our diversity they would look at me funny and never invite me in their homes again. And that would be a national disaster.

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