Not all Japanese fight to die. These surrendered Okinawa. A further indication that not all Japanese fight to the death is this bag of 221 Japanese prisoners of war. Sprawled on the deck on an LCT, they are resting on a Coast Guard-manned troop transport at Guam for transfer to Pearl Harbor. Thirty of them were taken at Guam, the balance at Iwo Jima. For the most part the prisoners were thin, indicating that even their usual diet of rice and dried fish had been sorely cut before their capture, June 28, 1945.

Sheet: 6 1/2 x 7 7/8

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

This object has the following keywords:

• Battle of Iwo Jima
• Coast Guard
• Guam
• Iwo Jima
• Japan
• LCT
• Okinawa
• Pacific Theater
• Pearl Harbor Naval Station
• Prisoners of War
• Soldiers
• Surrenders
• Troop transports
• United States Coast Guard
• World War II

• Image Dimensions: 6 3/16 x 7 1/2 in. (15.72 x 19.05 cm)

This object is a member of the following portfolios: