The U.S. Defense Department said Wednesday that it was working to restore a deleted webpage hosting an iconic photo of six Marines hoisting an American flag on Iwo Jima in 1945, as well as content about the Pacific War’s legendary Navajo Code Talkers, following an uproar over their removal under the Trump administration’s wide-ranging crackdown on what it says are “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) efforts in the federal government.
The deletion of the Iwo Jima flag-raising page — which was believed to have occurred because the webpage and photo emphasized the contributions of Pfc. Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian, in the Pacific War against Japan — was first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday. It followed similar removals of pages about Native Americans and other minorities — including several related to the Pacific War and Japanese-American troops who fought in World War II that were deleted earlier this month.
A Pentagon spokesperson told The Japan Times that the Defense Department was restoring content related to both Hayes and the Code Talkers.
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