This is a United States postage stamp from July 1945, one of the many reproductions of Joe Rosenthal’s original, historic photograph.

 

Iwo Jima stamp 1945

 

Today in 1945, during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, five United States Marines and a United States Navy corpsman raised two American flags at the summit of Mount Suribachi. The raising of the second, larger and more visible flag occurred several hours after the first and was photographed by Associated Press photographer, Joe Rosenthal.

 

Rosenthal’s photograph quickly became an iconic, defining image of the war effort which was widely reproduced and later used as the basis of the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.

 

The original image can be seen here.