V-J Day in Times Square
Eisenstaedt was photographing a spontaneous event that occurred in Times Square during keen public anticipation of the announcement of the end of the war with Japan (that would be made by U.S. President Harry S. Truman at seven o'clock).
[6] In two books he wrote decades apart, Alfred Eisenstaedt gave two slightly different accounts of taking the photograph and of its nature.
[8]His photograph became a cultural icon overnight and, by establishing his copyright, Eisenstaedt carefully controlled the rights to it, only allowing a limited number of reproductions that determined how it could be used.
It shows less of Times Square in the background, lacking the characteristic view of the complex intersection so that the location needs to be identified using other details.
[12] Numerous men have claimed to be the sailor, including Donald Bonsack, John Edmonson, Wallace C. Fowler, Clarence "Bud" Harding, Walker Irving, James Kearney, Marvin Kingsburg, Arthur Leask, George Mendonsa (Mendonça), Jack Russell, and Bill Swicegood.
[20] George Mendonsa (or alternatively Mendonça, in the Portuguese spelling, with the C-cedilla) of Newport, Rhode Island, on leave from the USS The Sullivans (DD-537), was watching a movie with his future wife, Rita Petry,[15] at Radio City Music Hall when the doors opened and people started screaming the war was over.
Benson stated that "it is therefore my opinion, based upon a reasonable degree of certainty, that George Mendonsa is the sailor in Mr. Eisenstaedt's famous photograph.
[14] Mendonsa and Friedman (both individually and together), as well as Shain, Muscarello, and McDuffie, were widely interviewed in the succeeding years by Life, PBS, NBC, CBS, and others.
To the exclusion of any other woman claiming to be the subject, Mendonsa identified Friedman as the "nurse" he kissed in the photographs (or, to be precise, the woman in the white uniform, as Friedman was a dental assistant—a white uniform was customary in a dentist's office to be worn by female assistants and hygienists in that era).
[26] As part of a World War II memorial at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts, a new painting entitled Victory Kiss by Jim Laurier of New Hampshire was unveiled on August 24, 2013, to honor the event captured in the photograph.
[30] Glenn McDuffie laid claim in 2007 and was supported by Houston Police Department forensic artist Lois Gibson.
She measured his ears, facial bones, hairline, wrist, knuckles, and hand, and she compared those to enlargements of Eisenstaedt's photograph.
On August 3, 2008, Glenn McDuffie was recognized for his 81st birthday as the "Kissing Sailor" during the seventh-inning stretch of the Houston Astros and New York Mets game at Minute Maid Park.
[43] Combined with bemused expressions on some of the bystanders and the sailor's firm grasp of the nurse, the situation has been described as emblematic of a time when women were "subordinated to men", or that of a rape culture.
[39] At a June 2020 public meeting in Sarasota, Florida about the placement of a copy of Unconditional Surrender, a sculpture based on the photographs, Kafi Benz of the local organization Friends of Seagate, noting that it was conveying a message about subjugation,[40] referred to the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials related to subjugation (that was ongoing following the murder of George Floyd), identified that as one of several reasons the public art committee of Sarasota should recommend removal of the sculpture from public land in the city.
[40] At the close of 2021, the question of whether to place a sign addressing the "controversy surrounding the statue" was presented to the city commission at a public meeting in Sarasota on December 6.
After taking public comment and extensive discussion among the commissioners, a closely divided vote resulted in dismissal of the proposal.
Shortly thereafter, Kelly Franklin, a city resident who has advocated removal of the statue for some time, created Project Delta Dawn.
This website provides a comprehensive history of the original photograph, the copyright controversy, documentation of the subjects, creation of the statue, public sentiments about the statue, and the proposal for an interpretive sign to "address contemporary cultural attitudes regarding the non-consensual nature now known about the event captured in the famous photograph".
[45] On August 14, 2005, John Seward Johnson II displayed a bronze life-size sculpture of the kiss, Unconditional Surrender, at a 60th-anniversary reenactment at Times Square.
His statue was featured in a ceremony that included Carl Muscarello and Edith Shain as participants, holding a copy of the famous photograph.
In the film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009), two characters jump into a life-size enlargement of the photograph, finding themselves in a monochrome Times Square.
During the opening credits of the film Watchmen (2009), the Times Square V-J celebration is shown with a costumed heroine, Silhouette, kissing a female nurse as a photographer captures the moment.
In the film Letters to Juliet (2010), the photograph is featured in a scene where a magazine editor questions a writer about her fact-checking regarding the image.
In 2012, while performing a show for the Marines during the New York City Fleet Week, singer Katy Perry kissed a man on stage, replicating the pose.
