Footnotes

• Exhibited:
  The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, New York, 1995-2007
  
  Provenance:
  - Joe Rosenthal
  - The War Museum
  
  An historic series of small delicate photographs chronicling the horrors of the Battle of Iwo Jima from the landings, the assault on Mt Suribachi and the subsequent 30 day campaign to capture this small 1.5 by 2 mile Island. This group includes a small version of his Pulitzer Prize-winning shot of the flag raising, but more than that it captures the hardship and the death that was the Battle of Iwo Jima. As a hardened AP photographer he was used to death and there was a lot of death to capture on film on that island. Of the near 21,000 Japanese defenders, 20,000 died in the 35 day campaign. For the Marines of the 3rd 4th and 5th divisions, the losses were around 7,000 dead and 14,000 injured, half the Marine losses in the Pacific Theater for the entire war.
  
  The resistance of the Japanese defenders was intense and stoical, and down to the last man, this being the first part of sovereign Japanese territory that America had attacked. This small and somewhat unobtrusive album gives us a small peek at the real war. The war with tiredness and hunger, with the exhaustion of a 34 day campaign, and the finality of death. Over the last 25 years it is estimated that over 5 million people have viewed these photographs in the museums where it has been displayed. A very poignant reminder for us all.

Saleroom notices

• Seven of the photographs in the album are replacement "Guam issued" shots, replaced after they were lost while on exhibition on the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, New York, 1995 - 2007.