American Marines during the Battle of Saipan
On commission for Life magazine, Smith photographed the encounters between America and Japan in the Pacific in the final year of the Second World War. His photographs of the American invasion of the island of Saipan, during which hordes of Japanese soldiers and civilians committed suicide, brought the conflict right into American sitting rooms. This shot of the weary marine Angelo Klonis shows just how grueling the invasion was.
W. Eugene Smith