This was always my understanding as well--there's a long military tradition of
only planting a flag AFTER territory is liberated/conquered/captured. And the
Marines DO have a thing for military tradition.
<<The battle was not quite over, but the flag raising was not to demoralize the
Japanese. At this point (the flag raising) the island was ours. What remained
was 10 days of clearing the caves on the island of the Japanese.>>
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