Flag of the Swedish-speaking Finns in countryside. The flag may have been used in the 16th century, As such, the flag is based on a proposal to civil ensign put forward by the Senate flag committee in 1917. This proposal included nine white roses in the upper left corner. It also contains the same colours as one of the candidates for the Finnish flag on independence in 1917 and may even have been a proposal for the state flag itself. The current blue and white state flag became official on 28 May 1918. The colours are traditional and based on the red and yellow of
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima the following decades, Rosenthal repeatedly and vociferously denied claims that the flag-raising was staged. "I don't think it is in me to do much more of this sort of thing ... I don't know how to get across to anybody what 50 years of constant repetition means." President Franklin D. Roosevelt, upon seeing Joe Rosenthal's flag-raising photograph, realized the image would make an excellent symbol for the upcoming Seventh War Loan Drive to help pay for the war, and ordered the flag-raisers identified and sent to Washington, D.C. after the fighting on the island ended (March 26, 1945). Using a