On August 14, 1945, Alfred Eisenstaedt took a picture of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, minutes after they heard of Japan’s surrender to the United States.
It became one of the most famous WWII photographs in history a cherished reminder of what it felt like for the war to finally be over.When you look at this photo, what do you see? [see original photo]
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| photo credit: Des Morris |
In two different books he wrote, Alfred Eisenstaedt gave two slightly different accounts of taking the photograph and of its nature.
#1
In Times Square on V.J. Day I saw a sailor running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight. Whether she was a grandmother, stout, thin, old, didn't make a difference. I was running ahead of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder but none of the pictures that were possible pleased me. Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse. If she had been dressed in a dark dress I would never have taken the picture. If the sailor had worn a white uniform, the same. I took exactly four pictures. It was done within a few seconds.
#2
I was walking through the crowds on V-J Day, looking for pictures. I noticed a sailor coming my way. He was grabbing every female he could find and kissing them all — young girls and old ladies alike. Then I noticed the nurse, standing in that enormous crowd. I focused on her, and just as I'd hoped, the sailor came along, grabbed the nurse, and bent down to kiss her. Now if this girl hadn't been a nurse, if she'd been dressed in dark clothes, I wouldn't have had a picture. The contrast between her white dress and the sailor's dark uniform gives the photograph its extra impact.
Although the backstory has been around for years, it wasn't until the writer behind feminist blog Crates and Ribbons posted about the photograph that the story resurfaced. In a pair of posts, the blogger criticised media coverage that whitewashed how the kiss was non-consensual. The truth, unfortunately, taints what's long been seen as a perfectly romantic photo.
What's most unsettling are the clues in the photo itself. The body language is off: his clenched fist, her body swept off balance. The caption that accompanied the photo when it appeared in LIFE hints at something less romantic too:
To cut the long story short...
On VJ day in 1945, the sailor, George Mendonsa, was drunk by his own admission. So drunk that even with his girlfriend and future wife in tow—she's the head peeking behind his shoulder in the LIFE photo—he grabs a random woman and kisses her. The woman was Greta Friedman, a dental nurse. This was the first time she'd ever laid eyes on him."Suddenly, I was grabbed by a sailor. It wasn't that much of a kiss." she said in a 2005 interview with the Veterans History Project. "I felt that he was very strong. He was just holding me tight. I'm not sure about the kiss...it was just somebody celebrating. It wasn't a romantic event."
Although the backstory has been around for years, it wasn't until the writer behind feminist blog Crates and Ribbons posted about the photograph that the story resurfaced. In a pair of posts, the blogger criticised media coverage that whitewashed how the kiss was non-consensual. The truth, unfortunately, taints what's long been seen as a perfectly romantic photo.
Do people hug when they kiss?
What's most unsettling are the clues in the photo itself. The body language is off: his clenched fist, her body swept off balance. The caption that accompanied the photo when it appeared in LIFE hints at something less romantic too:
"In the middle of New York's Times Square a white-clad girl clutches her purse and skirt as an uninhibited sailor plants his lips squarely on hers."She's clutching at herself rather than embracing her kisser. The sailor is uninhibited because he's drunk. But these details were lost in the happy, romantic narrative surrounding the photograph.
* V-J Day - Victory over Japan Day
* Times Square - a major commercial intersection and a neighbourhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue
