On which Pacific island did the US Marines raise the flag on Mount Suribachi? The answer is Iwo Jima. The famous scene occurred during the Battle of Iwo Jima, fought from February 19 to March 26, 1945, as U.S. forces sought to capture the strategically located island.
Mount Suribachi stands at Iwo Jima’s southern end. Marines captured its summit on February 23, 1945, and raised an American flag there. A smaller flag was raised first; later that day, it was replaced by a larger flag, whose raising was photographed by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.
The iconic photograph shows six Marines, but it depicts the second flag-raising, not the first. Three of those six—Michael Strank, Harlon Block, and Franklin Sousley—were later killed in the battle. Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Okinawa were also major Pacific battles, but none is the island associated with the Suribachi photograph.