I revisited "The Flag of the Fathers" again. This film has three main clues, the flag planting, the war bond seller, and the flag planter. The Battle of Iwo Jima is the background of these three clues.
Let’s talk about flags first. Mount Zhebo is the commanding height of Iwo Jima, and the artillery positions on the mountain can effectively attack all positions on the island. Therefore, the first thing the US military won after the landing was Mount Zhebo, which took a week. Then, as is customary, the army raised the national flag on the top of the mountain. Mount Zheba is the commanding height of the whole island, and the flag on the top of the mountain can be seen on the whole island and the surrounding sea. The commander of the U.S. Marine Corps decided to keep the first hoisted flag as a personal collection (political ornament), so he found another flag, bigger than the first, and asked the soldier to replace the first hoisted flag with this flag give him.
So the soldier ran to the top of the mountain the day after the first flag was raised, and raised the flag again. And this time, military reporters took the most famous photo of the "Iwo Jima flag" in World War II. When the flag was planted for the first time, Junji failed to leave enough shocking images. When the flag was planted for the second time, the newly arrived reporter wanted to take a picture from the front, but the environment did not allow it, so he only took a picture of the back. However, after washing it out, it was found that although a frontal face was not photographed, the back of the soldier showed a group sculpture-like effect, and the composition was perfect. The photo caused a stir when it was sent back to the United States, becoming a symbol of victory and later a symbol of the U.S. Marine Corps.
In fact, the two flags were raised during the battle. After the flag was raised on Mount Zhebo, the Japanese army on the island was stimulated. The remnants of the Zhebo Mountain position and the Japanese troops stationed in other parts of the island had attacked Mount Zhebo, but were attacked by the Japanese army on the island. repel. After the flag was raised, the Battle of Iwo Jima continued. The entire battle lasted for 46 days (February 19-March 26). It was just over a week when the flag was raised. The soldiers involved in raising the flag, both times six, lost half of their lives in the ensuing battle, and only three survived to the end of the war.
Because the picture is too perfect, there have been many rumors of posing for fraud. Personal feelings are not always the same. The first and second hoisting are carried out during the battle. One is as usual and the other is to satisfy the commander's will (replace the old flag with a new flag). The flag went on to fight, because the Japanese army was still stubbornly resisting. The raising of the flag is both a practice of war and a demonstration to the resistance, which is part of the conduct of war. As for the treasures found after the deconstruction of domestic society in the United States, it was an accident.
Not to mention selling war bonds. During World War II, the United States adopted a national system model in which the national (world) resources were integrated and allocated to serve the war under the leadership of the government. The government proposes projects, and as long as the production suppliers meet the government bidding conditions, they can get a piece of the cake (raw material supply and product manufacturing contracts) from the war business, which means that the state behavior replaces the market behavior. The result of this model running for a long time is the relative sluggishness of the people's livelihood market and the huge pressure on the government's finances.
The film borrows the words of the head of war bond sales: "This war has been going on for too long, and the people have no hope and no longer support the government. And the government has been printing new currencies to solve the fiscal problem, so the dollar will become A blank sheet of paper."
Anyone who knows a little about the social economy will understand what the crisis behind this passage is. Large-scale production to serve the war consumes more material resources. The products are all kinds of war machines, and the government finances and the people's livelihood market pay for them. space must be squeezed. These products, no matter how high-grade materials are used and how expensive, are eventually sent to the battlefield to be smashed and consumed. Although the government will not default on the production payment, not only the capitalists, but as long as the production is growing, the workers working overtime on the production line will also bring relatively rich income. However, the shrinking supply of the people's livelihood market caused by the war is a social-level phenomenon that cannot be removed. The increase in residents' income has not been simultaneously transformed into purchasing power, but has the effect of currency devaluation due to insufficient supply in the consumer market. In order to solve the problem of insufficient currency (fiscal expenditure), the government over-issues currency, which will exacerbate this depreciation trend. Imagine a family where the husband is working hard, the child joins the army and his life is uncertain on the battlefield. The market is getting scarcer and more expensive. The government is short of money, the residents' currency reserves are devalued, and the American version of the landlord's home has no surplus food.
There are two solutions. The seemingly fundamental solution is of course to end the war as soon as possible. The film said that "by next month, the government will have no money to buy bullets for the army" and "we can only stop the war according to the meaning of Japan." If you don't win, you will stop the war, and the previous price will be in vain. Stopping the position and stopping the loss has never been the first choice. The second is to sell war bonds. Capitalists and ordinary people should not put the earned contract money and overtime pay into the consumer market to intensify inflation, but use them to invest in bonds, form currency backflow, increase government currency reserves and reduce over-issuance. The quota not only maximizes the stability of the currency value but also allows the government to have money available. The war can continue until it is completely victorious.
Getting people to buy bonds is about igniting enthusiasm for the war, restoring confidence in victory, and believing that investments will yield huge returns after victory, and not for long. It all takes war heroes and (victorious) iconic events to convince everyone.
Therefore, the random act of raising the flag on Zhebo Mountain in the battle was fermented and enlarged into a glorious history, to build a consensus with positive significance and help the society get out of the war dilemma. After all, there are pictures and stories, and the photos are really good. I personally think that this incident should not be too bad, otherwise it will be backlashed.
The flags were planted twice, and the people who planted the flags overlapped in memory. Those who survived and were regarded as heroes were more substituted for the experience of the first flag planting. One of the three (a Navy Medic, an Aboriginal Marine, a Signal Corps) was a complete mess, the Signal Corps. After the commander decided to replace the old flag with a new one, he sent the flag up the mountain, participated in the second flag-planting, and was photographed. His presence made the flag-planting more controversial. The three returned to normal after the war, one was drunk and froze to death (Indian), and the two lived a normal life. It's not that the society ignored these people, but that there were more people who experienced tragic experiences during the war who compared them, too many to count. Moreover, American society has embarked on the road of liberalization and degeneration, and old-fashioned heroism has become a Disney fairy tale~~
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