we were getting more and more vaccines. people said alex, you are going into a dying field, forget it and he said no, think you are wrong. and he was correct as you know. we haven't exactly vanquished all of the microbes in the world but he couldn't get anybody to be interested in joining this group. fortunately we were in the middle of the korean war. and there was a doctor so the doctors didn't want to go into the army and when they joined the eyes it gave them an out. they spent two years in this program rather than two years in the military. by the time the doctor draft ended with the vietnam war, it had become a well-known organization and they didn't need the doctor draft. anyway, there was a bigger than life character. if you read a book you will see he's sort of -- his daughter said that when he walked into a room, that you can feel the room tip toward him. he was arrogant. he was intimidating. the i have officers were very afraid of him. i call this a silverback pose. and he was also brilliant and visionary and he led the eyes not only into dealing with microbes and infectious diseases in other words but into many other areas as well which i will be talking about. >> up next are the true story behind a widely known photograph of the marines who raised the american flag over iwo jima and what happened when three of them came home from the war. from 2000, and encore booknotes interview with james bradley. it is one hour. c-span: james bradley, author of "flags of our fathers," what is this book about? >> guest: they were depression era boys. they were rushed off to war. they would not have been warriors. they would not have been in uniform but something kind of big happen. you know we talk about war with titles. retitle wars. we say go for. we see vietnam war, we say peloponnesian war. this one that these little boys had to go out and win, we put the word world in front of it. world war. world war ii was the most significant event in the history of the human race. these boys and other boys like them when out and made sure that it came to the conclusion that their mothers would like. c-span: where did you get the idea for this book? >> guest: i did want to write a book. i wanted to find my father. my father died at the age of 70 in 1994 and he had never talked about it. i phoned my mom after he died and i said mom, there must have been some pillow talk. tell me what dad told you about iwo jima and she said well that won't take long. he only talked about it once on our first date for seven or eight disinterested minutes. and never again did i hear the word iwo jima from your father. what was going on here? my brother mark is searching in my father's office suite and he opens the secret closet door. in that closet are two cardboard boxes, plain ordinary like john bradley, but in those boxes we were surprised to learn my dad had saved 50 years and iwo jima memories and at the bottom of one of the boxes was a letter. it was a letter he had written home to his parents three days after the flagraising. in that letter he wrote, i had something to do with raising an american flag and it was the happiest moment of my life. i cried mr. lamb when i read that letter wondering what is going on here that a 53-year-old mystery. everyone knows the photo. noah knows the boy. i am a son. i have a degree in japanese studies and i know nothing about who my dad was on every 23rd, 1945. so people are calling me an author. no, i just picked up the phone and call the mayor's office in the sheriff's department all across the country and i said you have got to tell me where the relatives of these boys are. i have to find out who my father was. so the search for my father i did not intend to write a book but the story got so good i thought it was my duty to write them down. c-span: on the last page of the photographs you have this photo of it looks like your family. where was that taken? >> guest: that is about half of my immediate family. people ask which one i am there. i always say i'm the handsome one. i'm easy to point out, the guy with the top of mount sara bocce and bedding bradley green beach under mount sara bocce, walked up the hill in that picture we were putting ed black in the mitten shape of wisconsin ruby red granite that says to john bradley flag riser from the family. reiko what about the family below it? >> guest: we are in a japanese bath house. those things had 3-foot walls with 3-foot ceilings. aerial observers could not see them and the japanese in their new that they were going to die that their job was to kill 10 americans before they die. c-span: when did your father die? >> guest: in my mother's arms and i was holding his legs. he was in a hospital bed and it was january of 1994. c-span: by the way before we go any further, it says with ron powers, what role did he play in the book? >> guest: contractually i am the author of this book and he was the writer. reiko how did you find him? >> guest: my agent, i interviewed for the book and they chose ron. c-span: who is he? >> guest: ron won a pulitzer prize out for newspaper reporting. he is a distinguished author of mark twain. c-span: we have some video of iwo jima statue here in washington where a lot of people visit. when was the first year that you ever saw this? >> guest: the first year? 1979. c-span: who is in this? >> guest: well it is a picture. who is in the statute? how many people? >> guest: six. c-span: where's your dad? >> guest: the guy putting up over the ground is harlan block from texas in the next guys. bradley. his name is john bradley, my father. at that moment he would stop bradley, a navy corpsman. they were five marines, when navy corpsmen and my dad was a navy corpsman. c-span: is that, when they did a sculpture of him is that what he looked like them or have you delved into what the sculpture itself look like? >> guest: there is my dad. felix to weldon took the photo and he in his imagination moved it forward and that is what he sculpted and bronze. he did not sculpt the exact photo. he's gold something that in his imagination moved the photo forward. if the audience looks at the photo. c-span: he is the fellow on the right there? >> guest: harlan block is putting the flagpole in. is behind us to the photo. you can't see any side shots. so felix wanted to straighten that out. c-span: who are the other five beside your father in that statute? >> guest: the guy putting the pole in the ground is harlan block. he enlisted the senior members of his high school football team where he is in all states pass future. they are going off to another great glorious patriotic game. it didn't work out that way. harlan died march 1 with his intestines in his hands. his last words were, they killed me. than that figure on the photographs, harlan block was misidentified for two years. the united states government, the "associated press," the entire country said that is hank hansen from boston another dead marine who happen to die in my dad's arms. that there was one person he didn't believe that and that was a woman, his mother, they'll block and when her kids begged her, mom the neighbors think you are crazy. give it up. that is not harlan. she said a change so many diapers i know that is my boy and she was proven to be right. that is harlan block putting the pole in the ground in the next guy up the stock readily. my dad is in the ground and my father former captain phones my mother and says mrs. bradley, condolences blah, blah, blah. are you aware that your husband is one of the most decorated veterans in world war ii and he won the navy cross? do you know what betty bradley said with her husband in the ground? no. he kept it secret from his family, wife and community, the navy cross. i told us to senator john mccain and he shook his head and said and if you weren't his son telling me i wouldn't believe it. c-span: where did you bother lip when he came back to his country after the war? >> guest: we were all raised in -- 10,000 people. at that time it was the maple syrup capital of the world and we generally have the best football team in the state. c-span: what was the day the flag was raised? >> guest: february tourney third, 1945. c-span: we have for others to talk about. at the picture of ira hayes. who is he? >> guest: the press will tell you this is an alcoholic indian. i did interviews. i didn't hear that from any of the people who knew him. what i heard was that he was an honorable warrior. this is a pima indian, very uppercrust, peaceful relatively wealthy tribe. when rome was young, the pima had room. very intelligent honored tri. ira hayes was an honorable warrior. yaffe drank a little too much. i wish the public would get off his back for having a drink and take a look at a guide to engendered respect from everybody who knew him. rocco how long did he live? >> guest: ira had 10 years to live from the day the photo was put up. c-span: we are showing more video of the statute. this is not seen in the photo itself. this is from either side. you say in the book that ira hayes 51 times he was in jail? is that all from afterwards over for? >> guest: twice before he enlisted in the marines and almost all the others afterward. c-span: how much did the experience in the marine corps and world war ii have an impact do you think on his life and what happened afterwards? >> guest: it wasn't in the photo. there was this quote. this is after harry truman told him he was a hero in the oval office with my dad. ira hayes says, how can i feel like he wrote in 250 of my buddies hit the beach with me and only 27 of us walked off a life? c-span: another man in this photo and correct me if i don't pronounce it right, renee gagnon. what is his story? >> guest: rene gagnon at the time, where is he on the flagraising? harlan block put a poll in the ground in the next guy up as john bradley. there is rene gagnon right there behind john bradley on the photo obscure. there you see his face on the camera. if you could take that helmet off of him at the moment he was shot in that photo, you would find a photograph in the webbing. there was a photograph of his girlfriend. he used it for protection because he was scared. that boy was 19 years old. c-span: what happened to him? >> guest: he died at the age of 54, found. c-span: 1979? >> guest: 1979, correct, found dead in the basement of an apartment complex where he was a janitor. c-span: what kind of a life did he lead after this? >> guest: his son said he would get a phonecall, mr. gagnon it would be a wonderful day for community and a great honor if you would come and address us. hard to turn down. there were parades in applause and majorettes and the mayor and the key to the city. then he would go back to an ordinary life and --. c-span: who was mike strank, my hero. why? >> guest: mike, if you talk to guys in the 70s who knew mike, they know a lot of people and they say this is the finest man i ever met. they say he is a marine's marine so i didn't know anything about the military and i thought a marine's marine was a rambo john wayne killer. no. mike was 25. he was a grizzled leader. they called him the old man because he was already 25 but what mike was all about was caring for little boys. he had 17, 18, 19 else in his care and he would say to them you do what i say. you listen to me and i will get you home to your mother's. when they would do dangerous things on iwo jima like getting killed or getting shot, he would say your mom wouldn't like that. and then they would -- he was getting little boys back to their mothers and if you look at the photo, mike is captured in a characteristic pose. your audience has to use their imagination to find mike on the photo. let's do it again. harlan block is putting up on the ground of the next one up as john bradley and the next one is mike strank. if you look the photo from the front. know, the next one is franklin sousley. obscure it by him is mike strank. you can't see the right-hand. where where's the right-hand? he has his left hand on the pole and his right hand is round the wrist of franklin sousley. he is helping a younger boy raise the pole, characteristic of my, a marines brain, my hero, could've been governor of the state but instead was friendly fire and had his heart ripped out on march 1. c-span: who is this man? >> guest: boy. that is franklin sousley. franklin sousley was a kentucky hillbilly raised in hilltop kentucky. there is one structure called the hilltop general store. he and his best friend when they were boys, j.d. shannon, pushed pushed -- j.d. was telling me this. a push to cows on the porch on halloween night and then we strung wire across the stairway so they -- oath cows couldn't get down and then we fed them at some salts. we stopped for a second there and he says, those cows went all night. that was franklin sousley a hillbilly. he was fatherless at the age of nine and dead on iwo jima at the age of 19. the story was when a telegram came to the hilltop general store a barefoot lawyer ram ran it up to his mother's farm. dolor is that the neighbors could hear her scream. i didn't say cry. i said scream all night and into the morning. the neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away. c-span: your father died in 1994. this is the year 2000. when did you start your research? >> guest: research researches of a court. i didn't do research. i started picking up the phone and looking for my dad. i read the first books ever read on iwo jima. i had no knowledge. if i had found out my dad was behind iwo jima i wouldn't have believed it because all his life he said i didn't do anything and then i heard the stories that what he was doing for 18 days was running into bullets. c-span: so as you went about finding your dad how many places in the world did you have to go to talk to people? >> guest: not many. iwo jima. i had been, i spent a lot of time in japan. i had an office there and i went to school there. i study the japanese history so i kind of knew them. i had to go to the flag raisers homes. ahead to mate, not had to, and that with relatives. i walked on the foot will feel that harlan block caught passes on. it was great spending five years talking to heroes. c-span: going over this one more time, three of them were killed on iwo jima. the three again that were killed are? >> guest: mike strank, harlan block, franklin sousley. franklin sousley's last less words rhyme okay. three came back as a mortal heroes were john bradley, jack bradley.radley, depending on when you knew them. rene gagnon in iraq hayes. c-span: ira hayes died in 55? then your father in 1994. let's go back to the photograph itself. you have in the book this photograph can you tell us what that is? >> guest: this is the important flagraising on iwo jima. this is about 10:00 a.m. the race the first leg and why is that important? saipan, guam, those were not japanese territory. they were not part of japan. they were captured by japan. iwo jima was part of the sacred wound. the mayor of tokyo was the mayor of iwo jima so that is the first leg over japanese territory and 4000 years. very important. the island went nuts. on like the fray lazing -- flagraising my dad was in. my dad's flagraising was to replace the flagraising. it was insignificant. c-span: who take this photograph? >> guest: the first one? lou lowery. c-span: what happened to it? >> guest: what happened to it? there it is in the book. develop but it didn't create a sensation like the replacement flagraising. reiko why was there a replacement flag raised and when did it happen? >> guest: so you have harlan smith the general with the secretary of navy. for still says i want to go on iwo jima which is a bad idea because where we stood you had a good chance of dying. the secretary of the navy he insists, so general harlan smith takes a secretary of the navy onto the worst d-day beach of world war ii. and forestall sees the first flag goes up and he says words to the effect, boy i would like that as a souvenir. that gets relayed to colonel johnson, my dad's colonel. he says the hall without. another thing i can't say on tv. that flag is going down into the battalion safe. we are keeping that flag. not souvenir hunters. he said put up a replacement flag. c-span: this is the picture of the replacement flag going up and the other flag coming down. >> guest: in the background there that is my dad and mike strank and the boys putting up a replacement flag in and the first one coming down. c-span: what was the timeframe of this? when did the first by go up and went to the replacement flag go up? >> guest: is in the book accurately, about three to four hours. c-span: was the same day? then you have the photograph seen around the world forever i joe rosenthal right here "associated press" photographer. the one up top is the one we see most of the time? >> guest: let's start with the one on the bottom. the one on the bottom is the original shot. that is a horizontal shot. you see the clouds in the islands and then they cropped it to get into newspapers and that crop became the most reproduced image in the history of photography. c-span: when was first published it first published in where was it published? >> guest: if you can find the newspaper that didn't have that on the cover, sunday february 25, please let me know. and trying to document the newspapers in the united states where it was not on the front cover. c-span: the date again? >> guest: that it appeared, february 25, 1945. c-span: who was joe rosenthal? >> guest: joe rosenthal was a 5 feet 4-inch guide who jumped on i believe for d-day's in the pacific to take pictures. this is an american hero and he gets up there and mount sara bocce and he has this big bulky camera. out of the corner of his eye he sees some action and he goes like this like a football game. he doesn't even focus it. people say the photo is pose which is ridiculous. joe was so far way he could yell at the guy. they didn't know there is a photographer. he barely got the shot and you know what the photographer who later becomes the most reproduced photo in the history of photography? dena what he thought at that moment? so he asked the lieutenant deposed 18 guys underneath this flag when it was up and he took a posed shot. he took a gung ho shot. my dad and three the flag raisers are in there, ira hayes, franklin sousley, mike strank are in there. josie sedin thinks it will make ahead back in the united states. he didn't see the flagraising shot. the film goes to guam. they send the flagraising poll to new york. is all over the place. joe doesn't see it because this is 1945. he is walking around bodies, stepping over and trails and he gets a telegram from the ap. congratulations on that great shot. joe thinks that is that posed shot i took a guess you never saw the flagraising. he flies to guam seven days later and the press runs out of the quonset hut and says joe, did you pose it? joe says he is of course because he is thinking of a posed shot. and b.c. got it and here's that and said i'll get the school. kovacs and wires new york. there begins the myth, the myth that was supposed out. c-span: here's the front page and you have this picture in your book of "the new york times" with a photograph and at the top it says myths. what happened to the myth? how many myths were there? >> guest: i don't know, excuse me. i don't know but i get so much mail and when and doing radio prague ramps collins, my grandpa was next to the flag raisers. my grandpa took the pole of. the general said if everyone who insist they were on mount suribachi that day if there were that many on mount suribachi the island would have sunk. 60% of americans believe in ufos apparently according to the polls and i think at least that number thinks that my dad the brain matter of his friends was at the poll. pole. i don't think so. c-span: and the other myths around the whole event? >> guest: occo yeah. c-span: what do you hear when you are doing the radio shows, the call-in shows? >> guest: what you here? c-span: what he fear from callers? >> guest: people think it is at the end of the battle. people think those boys are heroes because they are in the photo. people think it represents so many qualities about america that they are and feuding. they don't know the boys. c-span: you saying your book that actually when that flag was raised it was the start of the battle, 36 day battle started on february 19. >> guest: five days into the battle but they took the high ground. mount suribachi. logically they thought we won. they didn't know there were 22,000 japanese underground and underground city. c-span: talk about the island. where is it in relation to tokyo? >> guest: it is 600 miles south of tokyo. is one of the ugliest sinking rocks you could possibly does it. you can't get on unless the president are somebody figures out how to get your body on there. c-span: today? >> guest: today. we didn't ask permission the last time. you see it is only 5 miles long. for d-day beach was hundreds of miles? how long was normandy? the beach on iwo jima was 2 miles. the japanese were in mount suribachi seven stories, seven stories with ventilation systemr months, ammunition. behind 7-foot walls. they only had a hole for the turret so my dad and those little boys run across this volcanic ash sand. they can't see anybody. their 22,000 guys underground. america doesn't understand that. i was in the hospital. it is 45 feet underground. they have hospital beds cut into volcanic rock. you could drop a nuclear bomb on top of iraq and it is not going to disturb the scalpel. 45 feet underneath solid rock. an american surgeon set up a table and he was operating on boys. he got tired and went to sleep one night and year japanese voices. he scratched underneath a t.a.r.p.. 22,000 people living underground they didn't see -- i interviewed guys and never saw a live japanese soldier. the americans are thinking germany. we can't see them, throw grenades and then they will pop up. 22,000 japanese with 80,000 americans up above them. c-span: i think you said 120,000 people participated. >> guest: the numbers can't be known but let's say this 80,000 american and let's say this 22,000 japanese. c-span: how many japanese died? >> guest: those boys had to die. all of them. so now one of the listeners is going to write in and say 1000 japanese or capture. no, but listen. not roughly. most of those guys supposedly captured, were korean slave laborers who gave up. the japanese who were captured generally had a hole in a part of their body and a behalf of their blood system was already out of their body and they were unconscious. the japanese were not surrendering. the german surrender, the italians surrendered, the english surrendered. the japanese, no. c-span: how many americans were killed? >> guest: about 7000 boys. they had so many they couldn't very an individual great. they had to bury by row and they had addressed a draftsman marking the lines. c-span: what did you learn about your father that you didn't know besides the navy cross and that he didn't talk about the most exhilarating day of his life? what else did you learn about him? what kind of a the guy with the? >> guest: we didn't learn anything really new about that guy you are looking up because he was my dad. we knew his life. what i learned about was the boys, the 21-year-old boy running through bullets to save lives. he probably held two to 300 kids in his arms as they died and when they died on iwo jima they wriggled in pain. c-span: how did you find it? who told you about it if he wouldn't talk to about it? >> guest: i talked to all of the living guys who went up mount suribachi. i talked to hundreds of iwo jima vet's. c-span: how close did he come to dying? >> guest: he is in his grave right now and when his body is gone, when his clothes are gone in the casket the only thing that will be left is some pieces of metal made in japan. c-span: shrapnel. how badly was the one that? >> guest: ripped his pants off in his legs were all chewed up with shrapnel. and eyewitnesses said he would not treat himself. he was crawling with his what he likes to care for guys around him. c-span: who was it be? >> guest: he was my dads buddy who was tortured underground for three days and then when the japanese gave the body back by tossing it up mutilated, things i can't say on tv. my dad was called to examine the body. c-span: how did you find that out? >> guest: my dad told me just a little about it and an anguished kind of gush when i was a little boy and i didn't have the sensitivity to understand what he was talking about. then later, the other guys that saw the body talk to me as a son. c-span: did they know then that japanese were treating people like that? i mean when made when they were on iwo jima were the stories around them at the time? what did he do to them? do you know? >> guest: it made them very afraid. they were little boys. reiko did it make them angry? >> guest: i didn't detect any anger. interviews hundreds of iwo jima vets and you know, see, it was all about love. i thought hate won the battle of iwo jima but what i didn't realize it was love. it was a bunch of boys that bonded and they loved each other so when their best friend gets killed and they describe if they it they don't say those japanese -- no, no then they say in and marty got it in ahead. they don't personalize it. marty guided in the head and i held him. i said, marty? it is all about their buddies and their love. they were fighting for each other. acquirement said it wasn't about valor or fighting or pray for you. is about helping your friend. c-span: when we are recording this booknotes you are already number three on "the new york times" list, or going to. how did it happen? you haven't been around that much in the book just came out. >> guest: the book has nothing to do with me. is the most reproduced photo in the history of photography. those were wonderful, nice boys and i am the curator. i have been honored to curate some stories. c-span: but are you surprised? did you have any idea what take off this vast? >> guest: yes. c-span: you did? >> guest: it is the number one hit -- photo in the history of photography. america was in love with those guys. hundreds of thousands of people would stand in fleet storms to get a glimpse. victor -- duke of windsor begged the manager of the waldorf-astoria, could they please shake hands with rene gagnon ira hayes and jack radley. it was like egomania. it was a phenomena that photo created. c-span: but as you know it is not the first time the photo has been published. it was published in a lot of books. has a book ever been written about the photo and how it got there and all that? >> guest: the book is about the boys. i dad wouldn't talk. it took his son to get the bradley story and it a ticket member of -- part of the family at the flagraising. i could call up mel and john and marina mary and when they said occo my brother wouldn't want to be portrayed as a hero i would say, what are you just cut that out? my dad gave me that mantra all my life. what i want to know, did harlan ever kissed a girl? i want to know the family stuff. how did the photo effect your mom and dad? the book is about six boys, not about war. c-span: talk about who you've got to spend time with in each case. france and ira case -- ira hayes. >> guest: i didn't get anyone to talk. they voluntarily told me stories that they had never told before outside the family. they gave me documents. it is very voluntary. c-span: has anybody left and his family? >> guest: yes, kenny hayes. i stood on the spot that he found ira hayes face down. i spent a lot of times these people. c-span: how about harlan bloc? >> guest: harlan has such a nice family. at blogs in texas and malice in california. marines has had an operation. she's a beautiful woman, his sister. she was the last family member to see him alive. he came up to her and said, marina i'm not coming back this time. good night. c-span: two of them said that. >> guest: mike m. harlan. mike and harlan prepared for their death and they told people they weren't coming back. but for half a century those people thought they were the only one. i went out and made all of these phonecalls and mike strank for example i have seven months of him telling loved ones and friends he is not coming back, from pennsylvania to training camp in california, training camp and can power a hawaii to iwo jima the night before the invasion. on the island, the night before he dies you tell someone is coming pretty soon. five minutes before he dies he points to a dead marine and he says i wonder what it will be like when i'm like that. five minutes later he is dead. he knew exactly where and when he was going to die. try to explain it. i don't try. c-span: who was around for rene gagnon? >> guest: rene gagnon has a widow, polling and a son rene gagnon jr.. c-span: where did they live? >> guest: up in new hampshire. c-span: what about franklin sousley? >> guest: his poor mother, goldie, she cried a lot. to husbands and six sons, she outlived them all. there is no sousley blood to talk about. she is long gone. all of them are gone but he left some old friends. he left a girlfriend, beautiful lady marion hamm and i captured his hillbilly story. he was such a fun loving guy. teeple loved him. they would laugh. franklin doesn't let anybody have a bad day. his last words were, i am okay. c-span: how did you and ron powers in direct? how did that work? >> guest: i did all the interviews and i have a degree in that part of the world. the book is -- i am the author and then. c-span: did you sit down with him? >> guest: no, no, e-mail and telephone. c-span: how many times have you ever been with him? >> guest: ron? c-span: yeah. >> guest: i never thought about that. c-span: the whole book was done long-distance? >> guest: most of the book was done long-distance. if you fly out to do an interview there is an hour of them being icu, coffee. wonderful people. telephone is direct. i can go right in there and say mr. jones you are not talking to me because you saw probably a friend die horribly. now you are 75. your life expectancy is about zero mr. jones. you are staying quiet out of respect for a friend, 19 probably when he died and now you will die and it is as if that guy never live. if you will talk to me maybe we can bring him back to life in a sensitive way. now you are concerned you might cry. i have been crying for years now on this trail and just give it a try. tell me something in honor of that guy, please mr. jones. he would say call me tomorrow at 1:00. he shoot his wife out of the house, picked up the phone and cries into the phone for 40 minutes. i'm looking at the computer, headset on. i can see the screen any more. i'm crying. i'm not even wiping it off. it's just too much. 40 minutes into the deal he goes, puts the phone down. who got the most benefit out of the book? o-oscar my dog because at that point i would say oscar, and i couldn't find my name in that point. we would go out on the beach and i would look at the water for two hours trying to understand what i was just told. c-span: where did you do this? >> guest: manhattan and new york, new york and rye, new york. c-span: what do you do full-time for a living? >> guest: i speak and i write. c-span: to? >> guest: audiences. i'm not trying to be a wiseguy but about motivational speakers, about leadership. about how yes we could have lost out there but its attitude and it is a common virtue in organizations that makes excellence, not uncommon dollar. common virtue. c-span: how long have you done this kind of work? >> guest: many years. c-span: is this what you have done all of your life? what we trained it originally? eska my background -- i have been to 46 countries. i threw myself on the set of the american embassy in kabul because i was dying of amoebic dysentery and i challenge the marines to shoot me. get off the fence. i have been up to mount everest base camp for a couple months. i've walked in africa looking at lions. i have run companies in japan, america, germany, italy, mostly in the communications business. it is a varied background. c-span: back to the way this whole thing was done because there is a lot of history in here about the battle itself. you credit in the back a couple of looks. won by harlan smith and percy finch. is this the best book on this? you have two of them. one was by richard wheeler in 1994. the best book on iwo jima, the battle itself. >> guest: right. richard wheeler, a great guide, talk to them tonight to go. we joke a lot. he was in my dad was in. he was a third platoon. he knew all of those guys. he'd couldn't be around for the flagraising because half of his job was gone in half his leg was gone. they put them on a hospital ship but he started to write notes and produce the best books on iwo jima. the first is called the bloody battle for suribachi in the second one is called you zero. richard wheeler, the best two books. the the book is harlan smith covers his whole life. part of it is iwo jima. harlan smith was general harlan smith and if you want some marine attitude reed harland smith. if you want history of iwo jima reed richard wheeler. if you like the history of six nice boys read james bradley. c-span: again, working with the writer on this, did you record the stuff, physically recorded? >> guest: i don't like to record because you lose the tape then you get lazy, so what i have done for probably 20 years is take verbatim notes. when i'm listening i'm not interpreting. i am just documenting verbatim. so yeah there are a lot of misspelled words but when i hang up the phone you go back and clean up all the misspelled words and put in the words that you know you heard but didn't have time to type. a one-hour interview you have to sit there for two hours and clean it up. c-span: when it came to the descriptions in here of all the battles and all that kind of stuff, were those your words or did you have ron powers do that? >> guest: i did all the research. c-span: you sent him the research and he put it in some kind of context? >> guest: we worked in different ways. there are parts of the book that i row completely. other parts of that book that i looked at what ron wrote and i approve it. other times they changed it. i am the author. every word his mind. reiko just a question on this. >> guest: thousand people contributed. reiko just a question, why did you need another person to help you write this? why couldn't she you do it yourself? >> guest: i went to 27 publishers and said i i am a song and i'm going to write a book. 27 geniuses took out beautiful starchy stationary with some of the most famous names in american publishing and wrote me a letter telling me -- these are columbia masters in journalism you know. brilliant letters about what it was. they were not going to accept me alone and jim horne fisher my agent says you had better face the facts. you want six boys to be known? you had better have the insurance policy here and you better have a talented minder to make sure that the publisher has enough confidence that a book is going to come out of this mr. bradley because i don't have 15 years with "the new york times." going into a publisher and saying i'm a son and i just came back from mount everest doesn't get you a book contract. c-span: you said earlier when we talk about talked about you said you know had -- had no doubt this would be a success. >> guest: no i didn't say that. c-span: what did you know that they didn't know and why did ransom by it? >> guest: ban somebody because they have a genius editor there called katie who is a very brave woman and bantam is lucky to have katie hall. bantam also has the best marketing -- the bantam team is the best in the business. people in the know know that. so that is them. you are asking me why did i know? i was raised by a flag raiser. i am in new delhi and i say to an afghani, have you ever seen this photo? occo yeah. i am in an airplane over the pacific flying to japan. i didn't tell a lot of people i was a flag raiser but i mentioned it. no, really? he had eight kids and i'm one. oh my god. martha, there is pent-up excitement. that photo is as if it is surgically inserted into the american school system. there is great emotion around that. i got 27 letter saying know they were logical letters. they didn't understand it as an emotional story, and emotional photo. c-span: how many books are printed right now and out in the marketplace? >> guest: the last count i think was 280,000. c-span: i don't know if you want to do this or not. >> guest: i will do anything you tell me to. c-span: on page 351 there is a letter. see? you are not sure you want to do this, are you? there is a letter. it is your daughter when she was 15 years old that she wrote. give us a circumstance. >> guest: her teachers said their assignment is to write a letter to someone you admire the most. so allison at the age of i think 15 chose her grandpa who was dead for three years. c-span: can you read it? and if you can't we don't need to go through the whole thing. the reason why is it tells the story and you can stop and comment if you want to. >> guest: it is very long. this is allison bradley, letter to grandpa and she was a 15-year-old high school student and she wrote a letter to grandpa bradley who was dead for three years. dear grandpa, you see on the envelope there is no address. i sat for a long time and wondered where to address it. heaven? is that where you are? i have no way of knowing so i hope this ends up getting to you. i've been thinking a lot of you lately. i just have a few questions i need to answer. this past holiday daddy, me, took us to washington d.c. for a few days to learn more about you. daddy told the stories of your youth. he told us how was a young unmarried and you boarded a boat with thousands of marines and were shipped off to iwo jima to live or die. world war ii was such a horrible thing for your generation, grandpa. i saw the letter you wrote to your mother from mount suribachi. you describe how filthy you all were and how you would give "your left arm for a good shower and a clean shave." how did you do it, grandpa? i will never know. finally daddy showed us the original footage of the flagraising. over and over we saw you and your friends raise that flag. this was a background to the trip, no more and no less. once in washington d.c., the enormity of the event and your contributions sank in. in our four days we climbed up your leg at the memorial had a personal tour of congress in a and a private tour of -- the white house. i finally obtained knowledge of that love and respect the world has for you. in four days there i learned more about you than i did in the 12 years that i do you. why did you not tell us about the navy cross, grandpa? and about the time the congress stopped and the senate lined up to shake your hand? why did you never said this on your knee and tell us the stories? the only answer i can give myself is that you are quiet and modest and honorable man who did not bask in glory. the only words that you ever spoke in front of the camera were quote i was in a certain place at a certain time. none of us are real heroes. we all jumped in and lend a hand." these words illustrate your feelings exactly, grandpa. you just wanted a normal ordinary family life with your wife in a children and that is exactly what you had. after you died a local newspaper wrote quote radley was the sole survivor of the flagraising for more than 14 years. he often was asked to attend banquets and dinners and give interviews that bradley was a quiet man who operated the bradley funeral home. he declined. ." she writes, the article and "his silence has been honorable and now it is eternal." allison is now writing i wrote this letter cusack the 52 years to this day since the flagraising on iwo jima. i sat for about an hour before he started writing to you and try to picture exactly how you felt and what it was like being on that little island thousands of miles from home. to you there was no glory in an operation that caused two nations so dearly. every year on your birthday grandpa, we all go out to your grave and tell stories about how it was when you were alive. we all always sing your favorite songs. can you hear us, grandpa? my questions are pointless seeing as i will never know the answer. i just needed to ask them. i cannot send this to you so it will go into my drawer but wherever you are, heaven or otherwise, i do hope you receive my letter. we are all healthy and their lives are going well. signed, your loving granddaughter, allison bradley. c-span: what is allison like? >> guest: she's a beautiful girl that and why do you called and said would you please attend our university? but, there is a but you have to go to florida for the first year and live in a camp. c-span: and do what? >> guest: i do think she'd won't tell her dad probably five freshmen and why do you, michelle my oldest daughter is going to shanghai next year to college. c-span: this letter when he first read it, what impact did it have on you and were you surprised? >> guest: what impact? i wept. c-span: what were the circumstances? did it surprise you? >> guest: i got it by e-mail. daddy, here's my assignment. i had no idea that was the assignment and i read it on e-mail and i set it to family and friends avail cried. c-span: what was the reaction of the school? did she get in a on this? >> guest: you know, i don't know. we talked about it as a family. c-span: your father, what kind of a relationship to do have with him? >> guest: he was a great guy. yet a great life, very sympathetic man, a listener, a good man. c-span: one of the things you spend a chapter in the book is the seventh bonds to her. the reason i bring this up is, go back to the photo taken. the war is over and your father comes back. at one point does he come back to this country and how did on to her workout and what happened? >> guest: oh man. i didn't save in the book but there are many books that saved the seventh bonds to her is the most successfully marketed product in the history of all-american marketing. bill gates told us windows 95 and that was an incredible sale. the bond tour raised $24 billion in just 60 days. they sold $24 billion of bonds. what does that mean? right now the president can take your taxes and fight anywhere he wants. back then, back then war was not in the federal budget so the president is so democratic this country, had to go out basically and make appeals across the country to the populace. please approve what we are doing by buying a bond. buy it for $17, keep up for 10 years and it rises to $25. there are no good stood by and he keeps inflation down. brillion. there have been six bond tours, huge extravaganzas like a rolling stones concert moving across the country. parks, stadiums, huge lights, big hotel rooms. mayors, governors, huge. six of us. the american public is a little higher. they don't have a lot more money. roosevelt, brilliant. we will have the photo as a symbol. then we will get the six guys who raised it. three are dead and only three comeback. my dad, rene gagnon and ira hayes. they bring them into the white house. my dad is on crutches full of shrapnel and they said you used to work for the war department and now you work for the treasury department. you fought for amount in the pacific and now you are going to fight for a mountain of money. and they put those three boys on a bond tour. they went to cities across the country. are going boston 200,000 people stood in a fleet storm for hours just to get a glimpse. in houston the police put the roadblocks outside of the city because the crowds were so huge that they were afraid to gridlock the town. you are looking at a photo of times square, mayor laguardia's watching my dad raise the five. hundreds of thousands of people jamming into times square. in chicago they closed the loop down because so many people were coming in. they filled stadiums. people were wild about the picture like beatlemania and they dug deep in their pockets and they contributed $24 billion. let me put that into context. harry truman's entire budget, entire government budget, his entire government budget, everything, the numbers are in there, i will say 56 billion. 55, 56, can't remember. that is all the dollars he would get to play with. the bond tour raises 47% of that. some young kids talking. c-span: they were the seventh bond to her and there were a total in the war? later in what year, 54 for the actual dedication? of the iwo jima statue? here is vice president nixon the photograph in your father at the left with the glasses on, is that right? >> guest: yes, sir. c-span: what are the circumstances here? >> guest: eisenhower and nixon had just dedicated the marine corps memorial and that is the last picture of the flag raisers ira hayes. i raise dead two months later. face down. this whole statue was sculpted by? >> guest: felix d. weldon. who was he? >> guest: a sculptor. c-span: is he alive? >> guest: he is alive. c-span: what did he tell you about the whole experience? why was he chosen? >> guest: incredible story. felix is in the navy and it is in the book exactly. it is in maryland. he is that some navy base and he is working on mural of the battle of the coral sea for the navy. i don't know what type of machine but over some machinelike teletype, i don't know but the photo comes the day before the american public sees it. he sees that photo of the young navy band. he abandons the picture he is working on as an artist and -- artist. he takes him clay. he stays up all night, all night and the day that america saw the photo, felix do weldon already have the lump of clay about this big cat was a statue. so he went -- it is a long story about how it finally got so big out there and he made a number of them but he was in the white house with the president. look at the statue. he was the one that made the first clay lump and their other scattered around the country. c-span: what did your father think think about being a hollywood adviser on the sands of iwo jima was john wayne? >> guest: he was a star. he appeared in the movie that john wayne. c-span:c-span: what did he thine whole experience? >> guest: not much. c-span: by? >> guest: as he said the heroes of iwo jima are the guys that did not come back and in the sands of iwo jima is not about iwo jima. it is about prostitutes and lying and training in new zealand and it is about the battle of powell and right at the end they hid iwo jima. why did they call a sands of iwo jima? said they could use the number one image in the history of photography, the flagraising. and they could advertise, the flag raisers in this movie so they would pack the seat. what did the sands of iwo jima mean to john wayne? go to the chinese theater and you will see betty grable's footprints in elizabeth taylor's handprints and when he could to john wayne 10 pack you will notice it is different from all the others. john wayne's plaque is black is john wayne as for the honor of the memorialized in black cement made from black sand. the black sands of iwo jima. c-span: so, when you look back at all the work you did -- >> guest: not much were compared to those guys. c-span: what is the experience been like? >> guest: oh, beautiful. i've been five-year searching for my father, five years finding five more brothers, five years talking to heroes, five years talking to girlfriends who wish their puppy love boys had come back. c-span: as you have gone about the country talking about it but it's been the reaction of the people you see and meet? >> guest: i understand that my dad started teaching me about fame at the age of nine and i was trained how to handle walter cronkite's producers when i was a little kid. c-span: what would you tell them? >> guest: my dad would be sitting at the table in the code was he was in canada so "the new york times" would call and i would say, no, sir i am sorry thank you for calling but my father is fishing in canada. there is no phone up there. we don't know when he is coming back. he would be sitting right there. my dad never fish and never went to canada. c-span: why did you do that? >> guest: to honor the real heroes of iwo jima. he understood he created a headline. that headline was obscure who we thought were the real heroes the guys who did not come back. c-span: what you think you would think if he came back to life and saw this book? >> guest: if he was alive, he would probably move to alaska, rip out all the telephone lines in be muttering james and that but that he is not a alive and i think now up there where the six boys are they are happy the book is out because it does something his father could never do a better shine a light on the heroes. c-span: insure mother still alive? guest -- >> guest: yes, she is 76 and she got snowshoes for christmas. c-span: what is she think of the book? >> guest: she was in love with one of the boys who raised the flag on iwo jima. c-span: we have videos all of them taken by richard hall on our staff. we have video showing where it's located in relationship to the capital. we will roll it here. will just take a second. and advice to people coming to town who have never seen this? >> guest: don't believe almost everything you have read about this. the school kids are going there and getting a pamphlet from some ridiculous company that i hope is watching this, some marketing company and in the given pamphlets about the different monuments. the pamphleteer says hey go look for the 13 -- there's a secret on the monument. their 13 hands. it is the hand of god. that is what we are telling american schoolkids. complete myth but there it is written down so her schoolkids can look at it. don't believe almost everything you have read about the boys are the monument or the photo or iwo jima. read the book. it is not because i am good. does just that i picked up the phone, heard the ana stories and i laid them down. c-span: there is joe rosenthal's cover with the ap on the cover of the book.