Long Ago, At Iwo Jima
Posted: February 26, 2013
Though released a year earlier, the song “Long Ago (and Far Away)” was still a jukebox favorite in early 1945. Featured first in the movie “Cover Girl,” in which Gene Kelly sang it to Rita Hayworth, the Jerome Kern offering was later recorded by Bing Crosby, Perry Como, and Jo Stafford.
To the Marines slogging inland from the coral beaches of a nondescript Pacific atoll called Iwo Jima, the song had a melancholy poignancy. “Dreary days are over,” it begins, “life’s a four-leaf clover.”
For these Leathernecks, though, “life” had resembled a living hell since they came pounding ashore on Feb. 19. Capture of this island, needed for an airstrip on the leapfrog toward Japan, did not come easy. Its Japanese defenders fought to the death.
Sixty-eight years ago came an inspirational moment when five Marines and a Navy corpsman raised the American flag atop Iwo’s Mount Suribachi. An enterprising photographer, Joe Rosenthal, caught the stirring scene on film. To this day, it remains, perhaps, the most iconic image of World War II.
The invaders’ work was far from done. The battle for Iwo raged on for weeks; the island was not declared secure until March 26, 1945. By the end, 6,821 Americans gave their lives; another 19,217 were wounded. The Japanese fared worse: 21,844 were killed.
Such was the standard of courage and selflessness on Iwo that an astounding 27 men — 22 Marines and five corpsmen — received the Medal of Honor for their heroism there. Said Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz of those brave Marines, “uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
That valor resonates still, from “long ago and far away.”
To the Marines slogging inland from the coral beaches of a nondescript Pacific atoll called Iwo Jima, the song had a melancholy poignancy. “Dreary days are over,” it begins, “life’s a four-leaf clover.”
For these Leathernecks, though, “life” had resembled a living hell since they came pounding ashore on Feb. 19. Capture of this island, needed for an airstrip on the leapfrog toward Japan, did not come easy. Its Japanese defenders fought to the death.
Sixty-eight years ago came an inspirational moment when five Marines and a Navy corpsman raised the American flag atop Iwo’s Mount Suribachi. An enterprising photographer, Joe Rosenthal, caught the stirring scene on film. To this day, it remains, perhaps, the most iconic image of World War II.
The invaders’ work was far from done. The battle for Iwo raged on for weeks; the island was not declared secure until March 26, 1945. By the end, 6,821 Americans gave their lives; another 19,217 were wounded. The Japanese fared worse: 21,844 were killed.
Such was the standard of courage and selflessness on Iwo that an astounding 27 men — 22 Marines and five corpsmen — received the Medal of Honor for their heroism there. Said Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz of those brave Marines, “uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
That valor resonates still, from “long ago and far away.”