Monday, February 9, 2009

2009-02-08 Iwo Jima Memorial

On Sunday we went to the Iwo Jima Memorial in Harlingen, Texas.

This is the original working model prepared by Dr. deWeldon for the casting of the bonze in Washington. He gave the work of art to the Marine Military Academy on October 1981, as an inspiration to young Cadets.

This is molding-plaster figures specially preserved. The figures are 32 feet high and the steel flagpole is 78 feet long.

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Iwo Jima is a small island 660 miles south of Tokyo. On February 19th, 1945, US troops started the campaign to capture the island from the Japanese. The Americans wanted the island for the landing strips to aid in winning the war with Japan. The Americans lost over 23,000 solders as did the Japanese.

The museum went into reason for the battle and why it cost so many lives.

1 comment:

  1. Wow. I did not think that memorial was that big. It give good perspective to see people standing in front of it.

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