A U.S. team is slashing its way through thick, thorny underbrush to find a cave where a marine combat photographer was believed killed by Japanese machinegun fire nine days after he filed the iconic World War II flag-raising 62 years ago on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwojima.
The island this month was officially renamed Iwoto, the name that residents used before the war. The kanji remains the same, which means "sulfur island."
The seven-member team, from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, based at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, is on the island looking for the remains of Sgt. William H. Genaust and "as many other American servicemen as they can find," JPAC spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Brown said Friday.