The Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, is dedicated to all US Marines who have died in service since independence. The statue is based on a photo taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, and was designed by Felix De Weldon. The statue is made up of several individual pieces that were assembled on site, and an American flag flies from the memorial 24 hours a day.
The Iwo Jima Memorial is officially known as the Marine Corps War Memorial, and is a statue outside the gates of Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, United States. The memorial is dedicated to all United States Marines who have died in service since the United States declared independence. The Iwo Jima Memorial statue is based on a photo taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima that occurred during World War II. The photo was taken by photographer Joe Rosenthal and the statue was designed by Felix De Weldon.
The battle commemorated by the Iwo Jima Memorial took place in 1945 between the United States and the Empire of Japan. The island of Iwo Jima was strategically important to US forces, providing a valuable airstrip from which aircraft could be sent to the front during battles over mainland Japan. The fighting lasted for more than 30 days and US forces were ordered to capture the top of Mount Suribachi, which was at the southern end of the island. A flag was raised at the start of the fighting, replaced with a larger American flag shortly thereafter. The Iwo Jima Memorial is based on the photo taken by servicemen raising the second flag, erected just days after the fighting began.
The statue itself was originally sculpted from plaster, then cast in bronze. The process of sculpting the memorial took several years and several sculptors worked on the project under De Weldon’s direction. Once the plaster statue was completed, it was shipped to New York where, over the course of several years, it was cast in bronze. The statue is actually made up of several individual pieces that were broken down for shipping and was assembled on site by bolting the pieces together from the inside. A trap door is built into the statue to allow for construction this way. Some of the surviving military members from the original photograph posed for the sculpture during construction.
An American flag flies from the Iwo Jima Memorial 24 hours a day, as ordered by President John F. Kennedy, Jr. It is one of the few sites in the United States where this is permitted. The statue was dedicated in 1954 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Several Iwo Jima Memorial replicas exist throughout the United States, and the original plaster mold still exists and is on display in Texas.
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