San Francisco names a street for the photographer who captured Marines raising an American flag on Iwo Jima

In early 1945, the Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal captured an iconic shot of troops raising an American flag on the Japanese island Iwo Jima. It became one of the most famous images of World War II and won the prize Pulitzer Prize for photography later that year.

“Of course, I took the photo,” Rosenthal said when complimented on his winning photo APwith Janie Har and Terry Chea. “But the Marines took Iwo Jima.”

This month, Rosenthal, who died in 2006, is being honored in San Francisco, where he lived most of his life: Officials renamed a downtown block of Sutter Street “Joe Rosenthal Way.” As speakers emphasized at the recent name change, Rosenthal’s contribution to World War II photography was the culmination of a long career primarily concerned with covering local events for the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Bay Area city, home to crucial Naval shipyards during the 1940s — is a fitting location to honor a World War II photographer, as Aaron Peskin, leader of the city’s Board of Supervisors, tells Ryan Curry KCRAa local news channel. “San Francisco’s modern history is inextricably linked to World War II,” he says. “It’s American history, and [Rosenthal] is a son of San Francisco.”

Born in Washington, DC in 1911Rosenthal moved to San Francisco shortly after graduating high school. He became a newspaper photographer in the early 1930s and joined the AP in 1941. When he became the AP’s war correspondent in 1944, he was sent to the AP. Pacific Theater.

Rosenthal has documented many American attacks, including Guam, Angaur And Peleliu. But he didn’t take his famous photo until Iwo Jima, where US Marines invaded on February 19, 1945. About 22,000 Japanese soldiers died in the ensuing 36-day battle, and about 24,000 American soldiers were killed or wounded. highest number of single-action casualties in Marine Corps history.

USA: IWO JIMA PHOTOGRAPHER – JOE ROSENTHAL

“No man who survived the beach can tell you how he did it,” Rosenthal later said Chronicleby Peter Hartlau. “It was like walking in the rain and not getting wet.”

On the fifth day of the Battle of Iwo Jima – February 23 – Rosenthal observed two Marines attempting to place a 150-pound flagpole on top. Mount Suribachi. Other soldiers came to help and worked together to raise the flag, and Rosenthal took a photo.

His image became a poster advertising war bonds, which citizens could buy to finance the military, and the ad helped raise $26 billion in 1945, according to the AP. After the war, Rosenthal returned to the Bay Area, where he made photographs for the Bay Area for more than thirty years Chronicle before retiring in 1981.

As Rosenthal’s daughter Anne tells KCRA, her father “fell in love” with the beauty and people of San Francisco. She says she feels “very honored” about Sutter Street’s new name, adding, “Of course, [I] I wish my dad was here to see this.”

In Rosenthal’s post-war decades with the Chroniclehe captured a professional baseball player Willie MaysSenator Dianne Feinsteinchildren finishing their last day of school in 1965 and countless other moments and figures.

“He had a 50-year career – 35 years with the Chronicle– and he was known for one photo,” said Tom Graves, chapter historian for the US Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Associationtells the Chronicle. “From kindergarten to parades and professional and amateur sports competitions, he was his hometown photographer. I think this is something that San Francisco needs to recognize and cherish.”