James Bradley (author)

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James Bradley (fl. late 20th century) is an American author.

His father, John Bradley, was one of six men who became famous for being photographed raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi. That photograph has gone on to be the most duplicated and reproduced photo ever taken.

[edit] Author fame

In 2000, Bradley published Flags of Our Fathers, which tells the story of five U.S. Marines and his own Navy corpsman father, John Bradley, raising the American flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima. In that book, which has since been released in film, directed by Clint Eastwood, Bradley took great care to actually locate and speak with family and friends who actually knew the men depicted. In doing this, he received great praise for his realistic portrayals, and for bringing life to the men who lived the event. Bradley also met with and spoke with former World War II veterans who served with the men.

The book and the film goes indepth about the men, and their war-time service. Of the six men, Bradley's father John, PFC Ira Hayes, and PFC Rene Gagnon were the only ones to survive the battle. SGT Michael Strank, CPL Harlon Block, and PFC Franklin Sousley were all killed in action later on in the battle. The book and film tells the story in a before, during and after format, and both were well received upon their release.

In 2003 he published Flyboys: A True Story of Courage. That book tells the story of an air raid that took place during the Battle of Iwo Jima, some 150 miles away, when U.S. warplanes bombed the small communications outpost on Chichi Jima. While Iwo Jima had Japanese forces numbering 22,000, Chichi Jima's forces numbered 25,000.

Nine crewmen survived after being shot down in the raid. One was picked up by the American submarine USS Finback. That one man was then Lieutenant George H. W. Bush, who later went to become the forty-first President of the United States. The other eight were captured as POWs by the Japanese and were executed and eaten, a fact that remained hidden until much later. Like Flags of Our Fathers, Flyboys: A True Story of Courage also topped the New York Times Bestseller list when it came out.