In the annals of World War II battles, Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest. It was a primitive contest of soldiers ... the Japanese fighting from caves and tunnels and the Americans above ground, exposed on all sides. Navy Corpsman John Bradley saw the worst of the massacre as a medical officer, caring for wounded Marines in battle, friends dying in his arms.

He never spoke of Iwo Jima - or the fact that he was one of the six men immortalized in that famous flag-raising photograph. Instead of capitalizing on that act of heroism on a remote Pacific island, Bradley returned to the states to lead an unassuming life in Antigo, Wis. - devoted husband for 47 years to his post-war bride, Elizabeth, steadfast father to eight children, owner of the McCandless, Zobel & Bradley Funeral Home, and community philanthropist. It was only after he died at the age of 70 in 1994 that his family discovered three cardboard boxes buried in a closet, each stuffed with Iwo Jima memories.

In one lay a Navy Cross - the second-highest medal awarded by the Navy and the country's second-highest award for valor. In another was a letter he had mailed to his parents from Iwo Jima on Feb. 26, 1945, just three days after the flag-raising. He wrote, "You know all about our battle out here. I was with the victorious (East Company) who reached the top of Mt. Suribachi first. I had a little to do with raising the American flag and it was the happiest moment of my life."

His son James wept at the realization that he had known nothing about his father's proudest moment. He knew he had to learn more. A voracious reader, he pored over every book he could find relating to World War II and Iwo Jima. He set aside his sales and marketing career and searched out the families of the other flag-raisers, a quest that lasted five years. He was driven to learn not only who these boys were, but how their lives happened to converge on a tiny, remote volcanic island in 1945.

After more than 600 heart-wrenching conversations, it was clear to him that he had to tell the world this gripping story of valor and routine self-sacrifice, of barbarism and mutilation.

"I'm not an author like Stephen King or a professional researcher with skills like Stephen Ambrose. I'm just a guy whose dad raised the flag at Iwo Jima, and I wanted to know why he never talked about it," explained 54-year-old Bradley in his hometown of Rye, N.Y.

Creating a Vision
How Bradley, who never saw himself as a writer, made it to the top of the best-seller list is a testament to his belief in the power of positive thinking, instilled in him as a child.

"We become what we think about. Those are the words of Earl Nightingale," Bradley said. In 1956, Nightingale, a motivational speaker, produced a record, "The Strangest Secret," which sold more than a million copies. "My dad sat in his home, in his cottage on Bass Lake, in his office, not thinking of the heroism of Iwo Jima. You could not find a picture of the flag raising in any of these places. What you could find were the Earl Nightingale records he listened to. Dad would look out the window at the birch trees and listen to Nightingale's words."

His words took root in the young Bradley, especially Nightingale's belief that writing down your goals and desires is an important step toward success.

"If you can do a simple thing like take a yellow pad of paper out every morning and write down what you want to do, you're in the upper 4 percent of the population," Bradley said, with his characteristic intensity, blue eyes blazing. "You can't get anywhere unless you can imagine where you're going."

Bradley envisioned climbing the best-seller list by looking in the mirror every day and saying, "Hi, I'm James Bradley. My dad raised the flag on Iwo Jima. It's the world's most reproduced photograph, and although everyone knows the photograph, they don't know the stories of the guys in the photo. I have those stories, and I'm going to write a book and it's going to become a New York Times No. 1 best-seller."

He needed to repeat that affirmation often. His book proposal, Flags of Our Fathers, was turned down 27 times by the biggest publishers. "I was told no one was interested in hearing the stories of old men. When I went to my mailbox and opened up my 21st rejection letter, I felt weak. I closed my office door," he recalled. He allowed himself an hour to "get in the fetal position on the floor" and stare failure in the face. Then he got up, dusted himself off, and made another pitch for the book.

It helped that rejection was nothing new for Bradley. As a door-to-door pots and pans salesman in Wisconsin during summers while attending the University of Notre Dame, he had learned to say "next" whenever he got a "no."

But this time he wasn't peddling cookware. He was keeping his father's legacy alive. Finally, in 1998, after 27 other publishers turned him down, an editor at Bantam Books, Katie Hall (who was only 30 at the time), saw the potential in Bradley's book and persuaded her bosses to give him a $75,000 advance. And true to his vision, the book went on to become a No. 1 best-seller.

Taking It on the Road
Bradley has incorporated many of the messages in his book into speeches he makes around the country … inspirational and moving testaments to the men and women who do the impossible. He has an ability to bring the war's chaos and slaughter to life in graphic detail - while conveying complete empathy. On the one hand, there is the brutality of war. On the other, amazing stories of courage and vision under fire.

In the Iwo Jima campaign, Bradley found an example of a hardworking visionary in Marine Gen. Holland M. Smith, nicknamed "Howlin' Mad," who planned the amphibious attack, defying military experts who said it couldn't be done. "He told his troops, 'We're going to do the impossible, and we're going to do the impossible well,'" Bradley observed. "It was Howlin' Mad Smith who placed my father on Iwo Jima. When I look at that photo I see American boys doing the impossible because of the vision of a great leader. They are the fruition of Howlin' Mad's vision."

When Bradley speaks to groups, he talks about ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things, and his examples are not limited to World War II. For instance, there's Roger Bannister, who ran the first four-minute mile. "Doctors had warned that if anyone dared to push the human body over the distance of one mile in less than four minutes, their circulatory system would collapse," Bradley said. Within months, other runners around the world saw the fallacy of the "impossible" and broke the four-minute time barrier as well.

Then there's Chuck Yeager, a combat aviator and test pilot, who had been told if he broke the sound barrier, the molecules in his body would disintegrate. He proved his critics wrong in 1947. The message Bradley tries to drive home is that "Every single leader can help his organization with the gift of 'imagination rules.'"

Last year, after Bradley's Flags of Our Fathers topped the best-seller list, it was released as a critically acclaimed film, directed by Clint Eastwood and produced by Steven Spielberg. On the set when the movie was being shot in Iceland, Bradley was standing beside Eastwood on the beach one cold afternoon, looking out at the sea. "I told him I had 27 turndowns and had people telling me I couldn't do this." He asked Eastwood if he ever had a similar experience. "He thought for a second and said, 'I can't think of any part of my life that wasn't exactly like that. That's how it always works. If you're moving something forward, not everyone is going to have the vision because the vision was not there before. You have to create it.'"

Uncommon Valor, Common Virtue
After all his years of research, is Bradley any closer to understanding his father? He's found that the Marine Corps War Memorial (the world's tallest bronze statue), near Arlington National Cemetery, offers a clue. The inscription at its base reads, "Uncommon Valor was a Common Virtue."

"The world looked at those flag-raisers as men of uncommon valor. I lived with one," he said. "And I have come to realize the virtue my father and that generation shared was that these were good boys. They helped their moms. They studied their books. They played baseball. They went to war. Under gunfire, when someone is doing the common virtue of running to save your life while you're getting shot at, we call it uncommon valor. But those who were in the war say that was a common virtue. They do not see themselves as heroes - my father included."

The Most Successful U.S. Product Ever Sold
Three of the six Iwo Jima flag-raisers were among the more than 6,000 U.S. servicemen who died in the ferocious fighting on that tiny volcanic island in the Pacific that also claimed almost 21,000 Japanese.

The three survivors - John Bradley; Rene Gagnon of New Hampshire; and Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona - became brief celebrities upon their return. They were the stars of the Seventh Bond Tour that President Franklin D. Roosevelt organized to raise money for World War II.

"The most successful product ever sold in the history of the United States is called a World War II Seventh War Bond," explained Bradley. The tour raised $26 billion for the U.S. Treasury in two months.

The bond tour provides a lesson for whatever group Bradley is addressing. "Let's say I'm talking to a banking association. I will expand on the fact that this was the largest movement of money in the history of the world," explained Bradley. "If I'm talking to meeting planners, I'll describe the 33 cities and 33 stadiums where the three appeared. I also talk about the fact that one-sixth of the American public volunteered to help during this tour … talk about a logistics problem!" he added with a laugh.

Wanderlust Spirit Leads to Peace Foundation
As a sophomore at Notre Dame, James Bradley had the opportunity to study abroad. "To go to France or Germany, you had to be fluent in the language," he explained. Not so for Japan. "I stumbled on the idea of going to Japan. In 1973, I thought Japan was China. I did not connect my father fighting the Japanese to going to Japan."

He called his dad to ask his permission to study in Japan, and was told, "If the good fathers of Notre Dame approve of it, it's okay with me."

The intrepid traveler has hitchhiked across the United States three times, and in addition to Japan, has visited Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Paris, London, Germany, Italy, and Spain. After learning of global warming 20 years ago, he wanted to see the proof himself and took a year off to go to the Himalayas and live at a Mt. Everest base camp. During this period he also participated in Dr. Ian Player's Wilderness Leadership program, which took him into the heart of Africa.

"I had a deadly green snake fall on me while I was taking a nap," he recalled. "And I heard the cries of the lions as they discussed killing a buffalo while I was tending a fire."

As a sophomore, James not only fell in love with Japan, but with a native daughter, Emi Oshima, whom he brought home to meet his family. She asked the elder Bradley if he was uncomfortable with her being Japanese. He answered, "Iwo Jima was war. That was a long time ago. I welcome you to my home as a friend of my son and as a friend of my family." The two lost contact for more than 25 years, until Oshima, a fellow author, came across Bradley's newly released Flags of Our Fathers. She couldn't help but send him an e-mail, and the two have stayed in touch since.

"Only now, years later, do I realize how the Japanese and my father shared such similar values: quietness, politeness, integrity, honor, simplicity, devotion to family," Bradley said.

He now facilitates the sharing of cultures among American students through the James Bradley Peace Foundation. Proceeds from his books are creating scholarships that send American high school students to study in Japan and China.

"My books deal with a lot of vicious events and tragedies between Asians and Americans. I wondered how this could be slowed down or stopped. The only way you can understand other people is by going into their living rooms … taking American children and putting them in the living room of a Japanese or Chinese mother will change them."

His hope is when they return to the United States they will help give peace a chance: "When we're trying to decide if we can talk it out or if we have to fight it out, maybe one of these James Bradley Peace Foundation scholars will make a difference."

A Flourishing Publishing Career for a 'Non-Author'
In addition to his speaking engagements - and being father to four children who range in age from 28 to 11- Bradley continues to write. Considered by many a leading military historian since the success of Flags of Our Fathers, he is often sent ideas for future novels. One in particular caught his attention. It was from Bill Doran in Iowa, who claimed to have transcripts of a secret war-crimes trial held on Guam in 1946. Bradley visited Doran in his home, and the tall stack of papers on his kitchen table became the fodder for Bradley's second book, Flyboys: A True Story of Courage. It is the story of nine World War II airmen who were shot down and taken prisoner on Chichi Jima, an island near Iwo Jima. Eight of them died savagely. The ninth, President George H.W. Bush, escaped. Buried in secrecy for almost 60 years, Bradley uncovered the story that culminated in a trip to the island with the former President.

He is busy putting the finishing touches on his third book, The Imperial Cruise, slated for October 2009 publication. On July 8, 1905, one of the first and largest U.S. foreign diplomatic delegations to Asia boarded the Manchuria in San Francisco for a three-month cruise, stopping in Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea. Under the leadership of Secretary of War William Howard Taft, the entourage included 35 U.S. congressmen, seven U.S. senators, and a group of civilians (among them Alice Roosevelt, daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt and the media darling of the era). The book reveals the historic importance of this trip - commemorated by Bradley exactly 100 years later, when he took a cruise along the same route as the Manchuria.

Andrea Doyle is Convene's senior writer.

The Leading by Example series is sponsored by the Canadian Tourism Commission. Visit its Web site at www.meetings.canada.travel.