50 Years of Goa's Liberation and Battle of Iwo Jima Fake Photographs

A commemorative postal stamp marking the Golden Jubilee of Goa’s Liberation was released on 19 December 2011 in Panaji, in the presence of Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and Smt. Manjula Prasher Secretary, Posts, Government of India.
The stamp shows freedom fighters marching with the Indian National flag in the backdrop of the lighthouse of Aguada Fort. The Chief Minister thanked India Post and said the stamp captured the spirit of the  Goa liberation struggle. Aguada and  Reis Magos Fort located across the banks of the river Mandovi from Panaji was built in 1551 by the Portuguese, it was formerly an outpost of the erstwhile empire of the Adil Shah of Bijapur. Freedom dawns on Goa, exactly 50 years ago as Goans hoist the Indian National flag at Adil Shah Palace,  to welcome Goa’s Liberation from the Portuguese colonial rule of 450 years.
 The Indian tricolour on the iconic World War-2 photograph of the US victory in the Battle of Iwo Jima
  One such Fake picture
 The Goan newspapers of 19 December 2011 carried several advertisements on the great occasion of celebrating the golden jubilee which turned out to be a sheer nonsense , it was found the image selected by the Goan Government agencies is a FAKE one.

The advertisement showed Marines holding high the Indian tricolor in an act of triumph.  If you think the newspaper ad. was to glorify and well up patriotism,  you are terribly wrong . In fact the  advertisements considered as an affront to our dignity.

 

In the recent past the same art work  made by some braindeads in the government agencies had revealed  how an immortal photograph that  came to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of American people in World War II in the Pacific had been unashamedly vandalized. The 'Fake art work' was first published  by the Defence Research and Development Organisation  (DRDO - an agency under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India) and now by the Goa Government agencies. The advertisements reduced all of us Indians into a bunch of laughing stocks. It seems Government Departments just won’t learn.

 Heroes of the War in the Pacific

 The US stamp was issued just five months after the Flag-Raising atop Mt. Suribachi in Iwo Jima. On the day of issue, people stood patiently in lines stretching for city blocks on a sweltering July day in 1945 for a chance to buy the beloved stamp. For many years, this was the biggest selling stamp in the history of the US Post Office. (Over 137 million sold.)

 A retouched copy of the original photograph. Issued in 1995 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the first Iwo Jima stamp.

During World War II, exactly sixty-seven years ago – U.S. fighting forces displayed extraordinary courage and determination in winning the war in the Pacific. But it was on the island of Iwo Jima that a singular event occurred that would come to symbolize for all time American valour in the long bitter fight against the Japanese. With Japan’s home islands sighted squarely in their minds, as the next target for American warplanes, the U.S. determined that the  volcanic island of Iwo Jima was vital to the US goal. The only island in its region suitable for an airfield. Iwo Jima was already the site of two operational Japanese air strips, when the US Marines began their invasion on 19 February 1945. On February 23 – after clawing their way up Mt. Suribachi  under relentless Japanese fire – Marine raised a small American flag on the summit.
 
The sight of the American flag 'The Old Glory' waving in the breeze evoked cheers from Marines. Offshore, U.S. warships blew their whistles in tribute. Few hours later, as a larger flag was being raised on the Mt. Suribachi, the Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal took the memorable picture of the event and became the most famous of the Pacific war.  

The photograph was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications and came to be regarded in the United States as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.