The 2nd large flag being raised was by no means “faked.” The first was too small to be seen from any distance, and the 2nd went up soon after. It was not some sort of PR stunt with actors. Most of the flag raisers did not survive the war. If you think that qualifies as “fake,” you need to do a little reading on the actual history.
Thank you...three of the flag raisers (Sgt Mike Strank, Harlan Block and Franklin Sousley) died on the island; Strank and Block died the same day, and Sousley was killed by a sniper in the final phase of the battle.
The “staged” controversy came because of an off-hand comment by Joe Rosenthal. After shooting the second flag-raising, he took a shot of some Marines celebrating around the newly-raised flag. That was clearly a posed shot. So, when another photographer asked him if the “posed” the shot, Rosenthal replied yes, thinking his colleague was referring to the staged “gung-ho” shot and not the flag raising. Time Magazine ran with that comment and tried to claim that the famous flag raising shot was staged. It was not, and the motion picture footage of the flag going up (shot by Marine Corps combat photographer Sgt William Genaust) proves the flag raising was not staged. Genaust, BTW, was another Marine who died on Iwo and his body was never recovered.
I am very aware of the history.
I bet that you have no idea of the fact that those men in the second picture were not the men who initially raised the first flag.
You need to do some serious research on this matter. Try to do some independent research on this however and don’t ask me to “spoon feed” you the information.
It was only a few years back that I learned the truth and was outraged by it.