NEW YORK — The figure in the photograph is clad in Army fatigues, boots and helmet, lying on his back in repose, folded hands holding a military cap. Except for a thin trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, he could be asleep.

But he is not asleep; he is dead. And this is not just another fallen GI; it is Ernie Pyle, the most celebrated war correspondent of World War II.

As far as can be determined, the photograph has never been published. Sixty-three years after Pyle was killed by the Japanese, it has surfaced — surprising historians, and reminding a forgetful world of a correspondent who told the story of a war from the foxholes.

"It's a striking and painful image, but Ernie Pyle wanted people to see and understand the sacrifices that soldiers had to make, so it's fitting, in a way, that this photo of his own death ... drives home the reality and the finality of that sacrifice," said James E. Tobin, a professor at Miami University of Ohio.

Pyle was at first buried among soldiers on Ie Shima, a small island near Okinawa. In 1949 his body was moved to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl in Honolulu.

Army photographer Alexander Roberts took the photo on April 18, 1945, the day Pyle was killed by machine gun fire. Roberts crawled in an area peppered by enemy fire to record the scene with his Speed Graphic camera. His risky act earned Roberts a Bronze Star.

Roberts' photograph, however, was never seen by the public until now. He said the War Department withheld it "out of deference" to Pyle's ailing widow, Jerry.

But at least two sailors aboard USS Panamint, a Navy communications ship where Roberts printed his photos, received copies of the photo.

Retired naval officer Richard Strasser, 88, of Goshen, Ind., who recalls Pyle visiting the ship just before he was killed, said a friend named George, who ran the ship's darkroom, gave him a packet of pictures after Japan surrendered in August 1945.

Months later, back in civilian life, Strasser finally opened the envelope. "I was surprised to find a picture of Ernie Pyle," he said. "At the time, Ernie's widow was still alive and I considered sending the photo to her, but had mixed feelings about it. In the end, I did nothing."

Strasser recently provided his photo — a still-pristine contact print from the 4-by-5-inch negative — to The Associated Press. He since has made it available to the Newseum, a $435 million news museum scheduled to open in Washington this year.

Ernie Pyle was a household name during World War II. From 1941 until his death, Pyle riveted the nation with tales about hometown soldiers in history's greatest conflict.

In April 1945, the one-time Indiana farm boy had just arrived in the Pacific after four years of covering combat in North Africa, Italy and France. With Germany on the verge of surrender, he wanted to see the war to its end, but confided to colleagues that he didn't expect to survive. He was killed at age 44.