[Peace-discuss] African-Americans written out of Pacific war in Clint Eastwood's new film

[David Green]

Where have all the black soldiers gone? 

African-Americans written out of Pacific war in Clint
Eastwood's new film, veterans say 

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles

Saturday October 21, 2006

The Guardian 

On February 19 1945 Thomas McPhatter found himself on
a landing craft heading toward the beach on Iwo Jima. 
"There were bodies bobbing up all around, all these
dead men," said the former US marine, now 83 and
living in San Diego. "Then we were crawling on our
bellies and moving up the beach. I jumped in a foxhole
and there was a young white marine holding his family
pictures. He had been hit by shrapnel, he was bleeding
from the ears, nose and mouth. It frightened me. The
only thing I could do was lie there and repeat the
Lord's prayer, over and over and over." 

Sadly, Sgt McPhatter's experience is not mirrored in
Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood's big-budget,
Oscar-tipped film of the battle for the Japanese
island that opened on Friday in the US. While the
film's battle scenes show scores of young soldiers in
combat, none of them are African-American. Yet almost
900 African-American troops took part in the battle of
Iwo Jima, including Sgt McPhatter. 


The film tells the story of the raising of the stars
and stripes over Mount Suribachi at the tip of the
island. The moment was captured in a photograph that
became a symbol of the US war effort. Eastwood's film
follows the marines in the picture, including the
Native American Ira Hayes, as they were removed from
combat operations to promote the sale of government
war bonds. 

Mr McPhatter, who went on to serve in Vietnam and rose
to the rank of lieutenant commander in the US navy,
even had a part in the raising of the flag. "The man
who put the first flag up on Iwo Jima got a piece of
pipe from me to put the flag up on," he says. That,
too, is absent from the film. 
"Of all the movies that have been made of Iwo Jima,
you never see a black face," said Mr McPhatter. "This
is the last straw. I feel like I've been denied, I've
been insulted, I've been mistreated. But what can you
do? We still have a strong underlying force in my
country of rabid racism." 

Melton McLaurin, author of the forthcoming The Marines
of Montford Point and an accompanying documentary to
be released in February, says that there were hundreds
of black soldiers on Iwo Jima from the first day of
the 35-day battle. Although most of the black marine
units were assigned ammunition and supply roles, the
chaos of the landing soon undermined the battle plan. 

"When they first hit the beach the resistance was so
fierce that they weren't shifting ammunition, they
were firing their rifles," said Dr McLaurin. 
The failure to transfer the active role played by
African-Americans at Iwo Jima to the big screen does
not surprise him. "One of the marines I interviewed
said that the people who were filming newsreel footage
on Iwo Jima deliberately turned their cameras away
when black folks came by. Blacks are not surprised at
all when they see movies set where black troops were
engaged and never show on the screen. I would like to
say that it was from ignorance but anybody can do
research and come up with books about
African-Americans in world war two. I think it has to
do with box office and what producers of movies think
Americans really want to see." 

He added: "I want to see these guys get their due.
They're just so anxious to have their story told and
to have it known." 

Roland Durden, another black marine, landed on the
beach on the third day. "When we hit the shore we were
loaded with ammunition and the Japanese hit us with
mortar." Private Durden was soon assigned to burial
detail, "burying the dead day in, day out. It seemed
like endless days. They treated us like workmen rather
than marines." 

Mr Durden, too, is wearied but unsurprised at the
omissions in Eastwood's film. "We're always left out
of the films, from John Wayne on," he said. Mr Durden
ascribes to both the conspiracy as well as the cock-up
theory of history. "They didn't want blacks to be
heroes. This was pre-1945, pre-civil rights." 
A spokesperson for Warner Bros said: "The film is
correct based on the book." The omission was first
remarked upon in a review by Fox News columnist Roger
Friedman, who noted that the history of black
involvement at Iwo Jima was recorded in several books,
including Christopher Moore's recent Fighting for
America: Black Soldiers - the Unsung Heroes of World
War II. "They weren't in the background at all," said
Moore. "The people carrying the ammunition were 90%
black, so that's an opportunity to show black
soldiers. These are our films and very often they
become our history, historical documents." 
Yvonne Latty, a New York University professor and
author of We Were There: Voices of African-American
Veterans (2004), wrote to Eastwood and the film's
producers pleading with them to include the experience
of black soldiers. HarperCollins, the book's
publishers, sent the director a copy, but never heard
back. 

"It would take only a couple of extras and everyone
would be happy," she said. "No one's asking for them
to be the stars of the movies, but at least show that
they were there. This is the way a new generation will
think about Iwo Jima. Once again it will be that
African-American people did not serve, that we were
absent. It's a lie." 

The first chapter to James Bradley's book Flags of Our
Fathers, which forms the basis of the movie, opens
with a quotation from president Harry Truman. "The
only thing new in the world is the history you don't
know." It would provide a fitting endnote to
Eastwood's film. 


First person 

Sgt Thomas McPhatter, 8th US Marine Corps ammunition
company, was at Iwo Jima in 1945. These are his
memories 

We set up an ammunition dump and the Japanese spotted
it because they were firing mortars. There was black
powder and smoke everywhere. It's unbelievable what
you can smell. Men losing their legs ... 

"On the second night we were hit again by mortar fire.
All of a sudden the dump was burning. I said the whole
dump's going to go soon, and we couldn't put the fire
out. We made our way to the beach ... when I got to
the beach my eyes were burning and the dispensary put
something on my face. Two days later they start
ammunition drops from planes. They started dropping
the ammo in multi-coloured parachutes like an
ice-cream canopy. So you've got to chase ammunition
with the enemy firing on you. Oh, Lord. My platoon
leader put us in for a commendation but that never got
anywhere. It was beyond the call of duty. 

"Our last involvement was when we turned back a banzai
attack ... the last battle on Iwo Jima. There were
army people there who had come after us to repair the
airfield who were living in tents ... they came out of
their holes with their swords drawn, high-hollering
'Banzai!' The Japanese cut the guy ropes and they were
running them through the canvas with their swords.
When they came through our area, we were still
sleeping in the dirt. We cut them down. It was the
black soldiers that did it. It's never been
recognised.


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