James Bradley, whose popular nonfiction book Flags Of Our Fathers was adapted into a film by director Clint Eastwood, has died.
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According to his obituary, Bradley passed away on June 5, surrounded by his four children. A cause of death for the longtime Antigo, Wisconsin, resident wasn’t given.
Bradley was 72.
Born in Antigo on February 18, 1954, Bradley was a history enthusiast. His father, John “Doc” Bradley, was a WWII veteran who served at Iwo Jima.
Per Deadline, after his father’s death in 1994, Bradley discovered a letter he had written to his parents in 1945. The letter was dated just three days after Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal captured the iconic image of six American servicemen raising the flag on Mount Suribachi.
“I had a little thing to do with the raising of the American flag, and it was the happiest moment of my life,” Doc Bradley reportedly wrote. This prompted his son to tell the story of the flag-raising.
The book, Flags of Our Fathers, written by Bradley and journalist Ron Powers, was published in 2000 and became a #1 bestseller. In it, Bradley identified the six flag-raisers as his father, Navy Corpsman John “Doc” Bradley, along with Sgt. Michael Strank, Cpl. Harlon Block, Pfc. Ira Hayes, Pfc. Franklin Sousley, and Pfc. René Gagnon.
Of course, Clint Eastwood’s 2006 film adaptation followed, with Ryan Phillippe portraying Doc Bradley.
James Bradley’s ‘Flags Of Our Fathers’ Eventually Met with Some Controversy
However, according to Deadline, a later Marine Corps investigation revealed that the six men identified by Bradley had raised a smaller flag earlier that day. The larger, more famous flag photographed by Rosenthal was raised by Strank, Block, Hayes, Sousley, Pfc. Harold Schultz (replacing Bradley), and Pfc. Harold “Pie” Keller (replacing Gagnon).
James Bradley eventually admitted his research was wrong. He acknowledged that while his father, Doc Bradley, had participated in an earlier flag-raising on February 23, 1945, he was not in the famous Rosenthal photograph.
Regardless, Bradley went on to write several other historical nonfiction books after Flags of Our Fathers. These include Flyboys: A True Story of Courage (2003), The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War (2009), and The China Mirage: The Hidden History of American Disaster in Asia (2015).
Bradley is survived by his children, Michelle Bradley, Alison Cinnamond, Ava Bradley, and Jack Bradley.