Dickey Chapelle on Iwo Jima

Dickey Chapelle in a 1942 selfie

Wisconsin State Historical Society

Image #64787

Dickey could barely control her excitement when the lieutenant agreed to take her to "the front." She would soon be taking photos of the most important, most violent battle of the Pacific War.

So she was puzzled when, 40 minutes later, he stopped the truck in a desolate, quiet area of volcanic ash ridges. This was the front? She climbed to the top of the empty ridge, took some photos, and left.

Marines climbing a ridge on Iwo Jima

Photo NOT taken by Dickey Chapelle

Accredited to Louis R. Lowry, USMC

Courtesy of Betty Michels McMahon

Back on Guam that evening, Dickey discussed her day with Barbara Finch, a more experienced war correspondent. Barbara was surprised to learn the front had been so quiet.

"Tell me every sound you heard," she said.

"A tank fired once," Dickey replied. "A man shouted...and there were wasps and I could hear the shutter of my camera click."

"There were what?" Barbara asked?

"Wasps, I guess. Insect noises anyhow."

Barbara smiled. "I don't think we'll file that the entire front was wholly inactive today, after all. And--I guess somebody will have to tell you. There is no insect life on Iwo Jima. It's a dead volcano."

"You mean, those weren't--"

"They were not wasps."

Dickey had come under direct Japanese sniper fire.

From "Dickey Chapelle: "As Far Forward as You'll Let Me" from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater.



"I've told you the truth." The endurance of Singaporean Elizabeth Choy

Elizabeth Choy

Japanese guards ushered Elizabeth into a tiny cell, measuring 10 by 12 feet, so crowded with prisoners--most of them Chinese--there was no room to sit down. Everyone was kneeling or squatting. It was absolutely silent. No one was allowed to speak. Bugs crawled across the filthy floor.

Almost every day, Elizabeth was taken out of the cell, interrogated, beaten, and brutally tortured. The Kempeitai wanted her to admit she was anti-Japanese and pro-British. She always denied it. "I'm just wanting to help those in need, never mind what race," she would say. "If you should be in the same position, you are my friend, I would help you also."

Between beatings the Kempeitai questioned Elizabeth about other things...She denied all knowledge of these accusations. But each day, she was threatened with death if she didn't confess.

"I've told you the truth," she would reply. "I cannot tell you any more."

"Then we are going to execute you."

"All right," she would say. "If I have to die for telling the truth, I will die."

From "Elizabeth Choy: "Justice Will Prevail" from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater