There appears to be no more popular symbol of American patriotism and resiliency than the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima. Do Americans think Mount Suribachi overlooked Pearl Harbor? (As if Hawaii in the mid-Pacific was even US manifest destiny). Of the USA’s far flung “possessions” Iwo Jima was not among them. As usual the US Marines were laying claim to lands of others, of the Japanese. It had as much to do with protecting our freedom as Montezuma and Tripoli.