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By Wesley Strackbein
Posted: June 7, 2005
In the span of God’s grand work across the generations, from time to time, the Lord ordains an event that can only be described as epic. He appoints a moment on the landscape of His Divine Providence that serves as a microcosm of the human condition; that contains lessons that transcend the event itself; that powerfully communicates truths from which the discerning man can learn much.
The Battle for Iwo Jima in the Spring of 1945 stands prominently in the last century as just such an event. The unusual convergence of elements that came to bear on this tiny island in the closing months of World War II mark it as singular in the annals of recorded military history. Not only was the struggle for Iwo Jima the defining battle in the history of the United States Marine Corps, but it produced a photograph that more than any other image ever shot captured the sacrifice of the common soldier.
The Battle for Iwo Jima is indeed epic, and its significance will be studied long after the last remaining warriors who fought there pass into eternity.
In March of this year, as our film crew of twenty-one journeyed to the Pacific to meet the veterans who fought on Iwo on the sixtieth anniversary of the battle, we were mindful of the import of the moment. We knew that we had a stewardship responsibility during our tour to honor these brave soldiers and, by God’s grace, to accurately distil down the principles that we learned from their legacy so that we might pass these truths onto the next generation.
Even now, more than two months since our visit with the veterans and their sons, we are processing the lessons we learned from them and seeking to bring meaning, in light of God’s Word, to the testimony we observed.
While there are many deep insights which I could relate that confronted me as a member of the Faith of Our Fathers film crew, the one that most struck me is this: the power of a father discipling his son through the written word. As a man endeavoring to start my own family, I was moved as I learned of two fathers who fought on Iwo who, amidst peril, took the time to write words of counsel to their sons. (To read more about this, see Doug Phillips’ article, “The League of Grateful Sons.”)
Both fathers would die during the bloody conflict on Iwo, but in meeting the sons and grandsons of these two men, it was plain to see that the sons of the fallen were still drawing strength from their father’s written testimony. More than a half century before, their fathers had admonished them as boys through letters to act as men and to be courageous. And as these fatherless sons held in their hands the now sixty-year-old letters their fathers penned to them, it was abundantly clear that the sons had unequivocally embraced the written directives they contained.
Less than three months before he gave his life on Iwo Jima, 1st Lt. Leonard Smith Isacks, Jr. charged his sons Bryan (8) and Leonard (5) to be courageous in this letter, dated December 17, 1944:
[A]bove all, my boys have courage, have courage to do the things that you know are right. Never be afraid to fight for what you think is right. To do those things you need a strong body and a brave heart; never run away from someone you may be afraid of; if you do, you will feel ashamed of yourself, and before long you will find it easy to run away from the things that you should stand up and fight against.
During our interview with the grandsons of Iwo casualty 1st Lt. Leonard Smith Isacks — Leonard Scott Isacks, Jr. (41) and Fletcher Bryan Isacks (38) — I was bolled over by how they, along with their father and uncle, had embraced the call to courage written out to them by the fallen patriarch of their family.
In writing to his sons, 1st Lt. Leonard Smith Isacks followed the faithful example of another great patriarch of old: the Prophet Moses. Following their victory over the Amalekites, Moses, at the Lord’s command, wrote the story of God’s faithfulness down in a book and rehearsed it in the ears of Joshua, his son in the faith (Exodus 17:14).
Later, on two separate occasions, Moses would charge Joshua to “be strong and of a good courage” (Deuteronomy 31:6-7; 23). This admonition would be recorded in Moses’ closing written work, the book of Deuteronomy, and the Lord would later urge Joshua to follow the written commands given to him by his spiritual father:
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. (Joshua 1:7)
Joshua had the boldness to conquer because his spiritual father took the time to encourage him through written words. The Isacks brothers and others sons of Iwo have become strong men because their fathers wrote to them, even as they were on the cusp of one of the most epic conflicts in the history of recorded warfare.
While the Battle for Iwo Jima has many lessons to teach us, one that must not be missed is this: verbal communication is important, but fathers must do more than talk. They must memorialize in writing directions to their sons. Fathers must pick up their pens and call their boys to courage and faithfulness. Just as God charged the prophet Habakkuk, fathers ought to “write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it” (Habakkuk 2:2).
In light of the faithful patriarch-warriors of Iwo Jima, I purpose to write to my sons and charge them to be mighty men before the Lord. In keeping with this goal, I have written this poem to the boys I pray God sees fit to grant me, which I hereby dedicate to the memory of the fallen fathers of Iwo who wrote to their sons:
Courage, My SonCourage, my son,
Be stout of heart for the battle that lies ahead.
Have pluck, my son, to play the part:
Give not your heart to dread.
Courage, my son,
Be strong of arm when another sword meets yours.
With wit, my son, fend off this harm
With a blow of force that’s sure.
Courage, my son,
Be firm of mind, and fear not men who mock.
Refute in kind the words of those
Who spurn the One True God.
Courage, my son,
Be kind of soul, and rescue those who fall.
Give hope, my son, to those in need —
Stand fast, and give your all.
Joshua 1:9 / 1 Chronicles 19:13