African-Americans written out of Pacific war in Clint Eastwood's new film, veterans say On February 19 1945 Thomas McPhatter found himself on a landing craft heading toward the beach on Iwo Jima. "There were bodies bobbing up all around, all these dead men," said the former US marine, now 83 and living in San Diego. "Then we were crawling on our bellies and moving up the beach. I jumped in a foxho
![Where have all the black soldiers gone?](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/0293de779e6f59cc8d3df6e15d02e446bc05d82a/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fassets.guim.co.uk%2Fimages%2Feada8aa27c12fe2d5afa3a89d3fbae0d%2Ffallback-logo.png)