Joe Rosenthal was initially rejected by the US Army as a photographer due to poor eyesight. However, he then went on to capture one of the most enduring images of World War II while working for The Associated Press – US Marines raising the flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima.
Rosenthal died in 2006, at the age of 94, and now he will be further commemorated with a block in downtown San Francisco named after him.
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima won Rosenthal the Pulitzer Prize, becoming one of the best known photographs of the war, and was replicated as the United States Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.
He took the photograph on his bulky Speed Graphic camera, the standard for press photographers at the time.
Post-war, he went to work as a staff photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle, capturing the life of the city for 35 years until his retirement in 1981.
He photographed everyone from children on their last day of school in 1965 to baseball player Willie Mays – regarded as one of the greatest of all time – getting his hat fitted as one of the San Francisco Giants in 1957.
The US Marine Corps Combat Association pushed for the street naming, and its chapter historian, Tom Graves, said it was a shame that Rosenthal was only known for one photograph.
“From kindergarten to parades, to professional and amateur sports games, he was the hometown photographer,” he told the Chronicle. “I think that’s something that San Francisco should recognize and cherish.”
The 600 block of Sutter Street, near downtown’s Union Square, will be renamed Joe Rosenthal Way, which is also home to The Marines Memorial Club.
The Battle of Iwo Jima was fought between February 19 and March 26 1945, and the 5-week battle saw some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the Pacific War. Unique among all the Pacific War Marine battles, the total American casualties exceeded those of the Japanese.
When asked about the photo, Rosenthal once said: “Sure, I took the photo. But the Marines took Iwo Jima.”
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