NEW YORK -- A new book on Iwo Jima demystifies the flag, said Richard Bernstein, reviewing it for The New York Times.

What James Bradley calls "The Photograph in Flags of Our Fathers" (Bantam, 2000) is only too famous: a picture of a small band of soldiers in battle fatigues struggling to raise the U.S. flag on what appears to be a devastated, windswept hilltop. Almost accidentally taken by Joe Rosenthal, the photo instantly captured the American imagination as the very image of valor and patriotism.

The idea for what finally became the 100-ton bronze statue, the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, was proposed less than 20 days after the flag-raising, before the battle was over.