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{{Short description|1945 photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt}}{{Italic title}}{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2018}}File:Legendary kiss V–J day in Times Square Alfred Eisenstaedt.jpg|thumb|right|V-J Day in Times Square, a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt, was published in Life in 1945 with the caption, "In New York's Times Square a white-clad girl clutches her purse and skirt as an uninhibited sailor plants his lips squarely on hers"]](File:Eisenstaedt signing "VJ day" print on August 23, 1995 at his Menemsha cabin on Martha's Vineyard (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Alfred Eisenstaedt signing a copy of his famous V-J Day in Times Square photograph during the afternoon of August 23, 1995, while sitting in his Menemsha Inn cabin located on Martha's Vineyard. He died approximately eight hours later.)V-J Day in Times Square is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays a U.S. Navy sailor embracing and kissing a total strangerWEB,weblink Interview Transcript: Greta Zimmer Friedman: Veterans History Project (Library of Congress), American Memory, Patricia, Redmond, August 23, 2005, September 12, 2016, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160916153530weblink">weblink September 16, 2016, mdy-all, —a dental assistant—on Victory over Japan Day ("V-J Day")BOOK, V-J Day in Times Square, The Photo Book, London, Phaeton, 2000, 0-7148-3937-X, 134, BOOK, V-Day, Twentieth Century Photography: Museum Ludwig Cologne, Cologne, Taschen, 2005, 3-8228-4083-1, 148–149, in New York City's Times Square on August 14, 1945. The photograph was published a week later in Life magazine, among many photographs of celebrations around the United States that were presented in a 12-page section entitled "Victory Celebrations".MAGAZINE, V-J Day, 1945: A Nation Lets Loose, Life (magazine), Life, August 27, 1945,weblink live,weblink March 14, 2018, mdy-all, A two-page spread faces a montage of three similar photographs of celebrators in Washington, D.C., Kansas City, and Miami, opposite the Eisenstaedt photograph that was given a full-page display on the right hand side.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). Eisenstaedt said that he did not have an opportunity to get the names and details, because he was photographing rapidly changing events during the celebrations.BOOK,weblink The eye of Eisenstaedt, Eisenstaedt, Alfred, Goldsmith, Arthur A., 1969, Viking Press, 56, 9780670302987, en, The photograph does not clearly show the face of either person involved, and numerous people have claimed to be the subjects. The photograph was shot just south of 45th Street looking north from a location where Broadway and Seventh Avenue converge. Donald W. Olson and his investigative team estimate that the photograph was taken at 5:51 p.m. ET.NEWS,weblink Mystery Clouds Times Square kiss for 70 years, USA Today, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160911134216weblink">weblink September 11, 2016, mdy-all, In their history pages, Life has noted that the Eisenstaedt photograph was taken with a Leica IIIa camera.MAGAZINE,weblink V-J Day, 1945: A Nation Lets Loose, Life, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130901154612weblink">weblink September 1, 2013, mdy-all,

Accounts by Alfred Eisenstaedt

In two books he wrote decades apart, Alfred Eisenstaedt gave two slightly different accounts of taking the photograph and of its nature.From Eisenstaedt on Eisenstaedt: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.Only one is right, on account of the balance. In the others the emphasis is wrong—the sailor on the left side is either too small or too tall. People tell me that when I am in heaven they will remember this picture.BOOK,weblink Eisenstaedt on Eisenstaedt: A Self-portrait: Photos and Text, 1985, Abbeville Press, 9780896595156, 74, en, From The Eye of Eisenstaedt:}}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.

Victor Jorgensen photograph

(File:Kissing the War Goodbye.jpg|thumb|right|Jorgensen's similar copyright-free photograph)U.S. Navy photojournalist Victor Jorgensen captured another view of the same scene that was published in The New York Times the following day.WEB, March–April 2007,weblink Everyman in Times Square, Columbia Forum, September 24, 2007, Marshall, Berman, They were also photographed at just about the same moment, from a slightly different (and less exciting) angle, by U.S. Navy photographer Victor Jorgensen; Jorgensen's photo was printed in the next day's New York Times., dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070829024522weblink">weblink August 29, 2007, mdy-all, Jorgensen titled his photograph Kissing the War Goodbye. 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. The photograph is dark and shows few details of the main subjects, such as not showing their lower legs and feet.Unlike the Eisenstaedt photograph, which is protected by copyright, this Navy photograph is in the public domain because it was produced by a federal government employee on official duty. While the angle of the Jorgensen photograph may be less interesting artistically than that of the Eisenstaedt photograph, it clearly shows the exact location of the iconic kiss, as occurring in the front of the Chemical Bank and Trust building, with the Walgreens pharmacy sign on the building façade visible in the background.The astonished woman on the left in Jorgensen's photograph has been positively identified as Kay Hughes Dorius of Utah.NEWS, Natalie, Andrews, November 10, 2006,weblink The other woman in the WWII 'kiss" photo, Daily Herald, September 14, 2015, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150916092517weblink">weblink September 16, 2015, mdy-all,

Identity of the subjects of the photograph

Life initially asked for the subjects of the photograph to reveal themselves, without receiving any replies. Decades later, in 1980, Eisenstaedt received a request for a copy of the photograph from a woman claiming to be the woman in it. This prompted the magazine to publish a request for the man to identify himself. They received several claims from men and unexpectedly, additional claims from women.

Claiming to be the woman

Greta Zimmer Friedman

Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi, authors of The Kissing Sailor, a 2012 book about the identity of the subjects of the photograph that had become so famous, used interviews of claimants, expert photograph analysis, and identification of people in the background, as well as, consultations with forensic anthropologists and facial recognition specialists. They concluded that the woman was Greta Zimmer Friedman and that she was wearing her dental hygienist uniform in the photograph.Friedman died at age 92 on September 8, 2016, in Richmond, Virginia, of age-related health complications.NEWS,weblink Greta Friedman, woman in iconic WWII Times Square kiss photograph, dies at 92, September 10, 2016, Los Angeles Times, September 11, 2016, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160911045333weblink">weblink September 11, 2016, mdy-all, NEWS, USA Today, Sailor kissing woman in iconic V-J Day photo at Times Square dies at 95, Pitofsky, Marina, February 18, 2019,weblink

Edith Shain

File:Edith Shain.jpg|thumb|Edith Shain, shown at the 2008 Memorial Day parade in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Edith Shain wrote to Eisenstaedt in 1980 claiming to be the woman in the photograph.WEB, Lucas, Dean, Famous Pictures Magazine, VJday Times Square Kiss, April 17, 2007,weblink live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130718145945weblink">weblink July 18, 2013, mdy-all, NEWS, Wadler, Joyce, The Shot Seen Round the World, The Washington Post, August 16, 1980, D1, Then, 35 years later, the nurse, a Mrs. Edith Shain, 62, from Beverly Hills, broke the silence. Contacted the photographer, Alfred Eisenstaedt, identified herself, and asked for a print. At Life, where the publisher keeps the picture on his wall, there was great jubilation., WEB,weblink The Daily Mirror, Voices: Edith Shain and 'The Kiss', Harnisch, Larry, August 14, 2005, Los Angeles Times, June 3, 2011, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130616012315weblink">weblink June 16, 2013, mdy-all, Shain's letter motivated the magazine to publish a request for the other subject to come forward. A number of replies were received, both from men and women claiming to be one of the subjects. Nonetheless, Shain cultivated the notoriety associated with her claim and accepted invitations to attend events related to the photograph and to meet with men claiming to be the sailor.WEB,weblink V-J Day Is Replayed, but the Lip-Lock's Tamer This Time, The New York Times, August 15, 2005, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150210223109weblink">weblink February 10, 2015, mdy-all, On June 20, 2010, Shain died at age 91 of liver cancer.NEWS,weblink Edith Shain, Who Said Famous Kiss Came Her Way, Dies at 91, June 22, 2010, June 22, 2010, The New York Times, Richard, Goldstein, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140325060033weblink">weblink March 25, 2014, mdy-all, Verria and Galdorisi's 2012 book about the identity of the subjects of the photograph stated that Shain could not have been the woman because her height of just {{convert|4|ft|10|in|abbr=on}} was insufficient in comparison with the height of any of the men claiming to be the sailor.NEWS, Diane, Bell,weblink Famous 'kissing sailor' photo sparks true detective tale, U-T San Diego, April 20, 2012,

Claiming to be the man

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.MAGAZINE,weblink Who is the Kissing Sailor?, Life, October 1980, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20071019055308weblink">weblink October 19, 2007, mdy-all,

George Mendonsa

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, at Radio City Music Hall when the doors opened and people started screaming the war was over. George and Rita joined the celebration in the street, but when they could not get into the packed bars decided to walk down the street. It was then that George saw a woman in a white dress walk by and took her into his arms and kissed her, "I had quite a few drinks that day and I considered her one of the troops—she was a nurse." In one of the four photographs that Eisenstaedt took, Mendonsa claims that Rita is visible in the background behind the kissing couple.In 1987, George Mendonsa filed a lawsuit against Time Inc. in Rhode Island state court, alleging that he was the sailor in the photograph and that both Time and Life had violated his right of publicity by using the photograph without his permission.COURT,weblink Mendonsa v. Time Inc.,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20141123024610weblink">weblink November 23, 2014, 678, F.Supp, 967, D. R.I., 1988, Citing legal costs, Mendonsa dropped his lawsuit in 1988.BOOK, Verria, Lawrence, Galdorisi, George, 2012, The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo That Ended World War II, Annapolis, MD, Naval Institute Press, 118, 9-781612-510781, Mendonsa was identified by a team of volunteers from the Naval War College in August 2005 as "the kisser". His claim was based on matching his scars and tattoos to scars and tattoos in the photograph. They made their determination after much study including photographic analysis by the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who were able to match scars and tattoo spotted by photograph experts, and the testimony of Richard M. Benson, a photograph analysis expert, professor of photographic studies, plus the former dean of the School of Arts at Yale University. 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."The identity of the sailor as George Mendonsa has been challenged by physicists Donald W. Olson and Russell Doescher of Texas State University and Steve Kawaler of Iowa State University based on astronomical conditions recorded by the photographs of the incident. According to Mendonsa's account of the events of the day, the kiss would have occurred at approximately 2 p.m. However, Olson and Doescher argue that the positions of shadows in the photographs suggest that it was taken after 5 p.m. They further point to a clock seen in the photograph, its minute hand near the 10 and its hour hand pointing virtually vertically downward, indicating a time of approximately 5:50, and to Victor Jorgensen's account of the circumstances of his own photograph. They concluded that Mendonsa's version of events is untenable.JOURNAL, Olson, Donald W., Doescher, Russell L., Kawaler, Steven D., Telltale Sun & Shadow: Astronomy & the VJ Day Kiss, Sky and Telescope, August 2015, 30–35,weblink January 29, 2016, Mendonsa died on February 17, 2019, aged 95,NEWS, McLaughlin, Eliott C., Johnston, Chuck, Man identified as kissing sailor in WWII Times Square photo dies at 95,weblink February 19, 2019, CNN, February 18, 2019, two days shy of his 96th birthday.

Friedman identified by Mendonsa

(File:George Mendonca and Greta Friedman.jpg|thumb|George Mendonsa and Greta Friedman, determined to be the most likely subjects of the photograph, were the guests of honor at the Bristol, Rhode Island, 4th of July parade in 2009)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).BOOK, Christina, Bates, A Cultural History of the Nurse's Uniform, Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2012, 978-0660201849,

Mendonsa attended a war memorial ceremony in 2013

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 Hampshirewas unveiled on August 24, 2013, to honor the event captured in the photograph. George Mendonsa was in attendance for the unveiling.WEB,weblink Iconic WWII painting unveiled at Battleship Cove, August 25, 2013, WHDH-TV, August 25, 2013, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130827125339weblink">weblink August 27, 2013, mdy-all,

Carl Muscarello

Carl Muscarello was a retired police officer with the New York City Police Department, who relocated to living in Plantation, Florida. In 1995, he claimed to be the kissing sailor. He claimed that he was in Times Square on August 14, 1945, and that he kissed numerous women. A distinctive birthmark on his hand enabled his mother to identify him as the subject. Edith Shain initially said she believed Muscarello's claim to be the sailor and they even dated after their brief reunion. But in 2005, Shain was much less certain, telling the New York Times, "I can't say he isn't. I just can't say he is. There is no way to tell."WEB,weblink V-J Day Is Replayed, but the Lip-Lock's Tamer This Time, The New York Times, August 15, 2005, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150210223109weblink">weblink February 10, 2015, mdy-all, Muscarello has described his condition on August 14, 1945 as being quite drunk,NEWS, Carli, Teproff,weblink WWII 'Kissing Sailor' Carl Muscarello visits Fort Lauderdale school kids, Sun-Sentinel, October 14, 2010, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150210180358weblink">weblink February 10, 2015, mdy-all, and having no clear memory of his actions in the square. He stated that his mother claimed he was the man after seeing the photograph, and he came to believe it.NEWS, Sarah, Mirza,weblink A Smooch For History, CBS News, June 23, 2010, Muscarello died in February 2024, at the age of 96.NEWS, Morto il marinaio «siciliano» del bacio con l’infermiera. Mito e falsi. Lei lo riconobbe (ma ci furono anche altri scatti),weblink 1 March 2024, Corriere Della Sera,

Glenn McDuffie

Glenn McDuffie laid claim in 2007 and was supported by Houston Police Department forensic artist Lois Gibson.NEWS, Juan A., Lozano,weblink Forensic expert: N.C. native is sailor in famous wartime photo, The News and Observer, August 3, 2007, {{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=Imzadi1979 |fix-attempted=yes }} NEWS, Juan A., Lozano,weblink Man says he's the sailor in famous photo, Associated Press, August 3, 2007, Yahoo! News, Gibson's forensic analysis compared the Eisenstaedt photographs with current-day photographs of McDuffie, analyzing key facial features identical on both sets. She measured his ears, facial bones, hairline, wrist, knuckles, and hand, and she compared those to enlargements of Eisenstaedt's photograph.}}In the August 14, 2007, issue of AM New York McDuffie said he passed five polygraph tests confirming his claim to be the man.Dispute over famed smooch â€“ AM New York â€“ August 14, 2007{{full citation needed|date = June 2017}} McDuffie, a native of Kannapolis, North Carolina, who had lied about his age so he could enlist at the age of 15, went on after the war to play semi-pro baseball and to work for the United States Postal Service.NEWS,weblink Kannapolis sailor in iconic WWII photo dies in Houston, Independent Tribune, March 15, 2014, NEWS,weblink 'Kissing sailor' from famous WWII photograph dies, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 15, 2014, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140315155838weblink">weblink March 15, 2014, mdy-all, He stated that on that day he was using the subway to go to Brooklyn to visit his girlfriend, Ardith Bloomfield. He came out of the subway at Times Square, where people were celebrating in the streets. Excited that his brother, who was being held by the Japanese as a prisoner of war, would be released, McDuffie began hollering and jumping up and down. A nurse saw him, and opened her arms to him. In apparent conflict with Eisenstaedt's recollections of the event, McDuffie said he ran over to her and kissed her for a long time so that Eisenstaedt could take the photograph:}}Gibson had also analyzed photographs of other men who have claimed to be the sailor, including Muscarello and Mendonsa (Mendonça), reporting that neither man's facial bones or other features match those of the sailor in the 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.{{Citation needed|date=June 2010}} McDuffie died on March 14, 2014, at the age of 86.NEWS,weblink Glenn McDuffie, man known as kissing sailor in WWII-era photo, dead at 86, CBC News.com, March 15, 2014, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140315034853weblink">weblink March 15, 2014, mdy-all,

1980 claims published by Life

Publishing information about those claiming to be the subjects of the Eisensteadt photograph, an October 1980 issue of Life did not include Muscarello or Glenn McDuffie,NEWS,weblink When a Kiss Isn't Just a Kiss, The New York Times, August 6, 2007, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070825030813weblink">weblink August 25, 2007, mdy-all, because their claims were made much later.

Alternative interpretations of the photograph

File:Glasgow. Ibrox. Graffiti.JPG|thumb|Glasgow. Graffiti inspired by the famous photograph, showing an unlikely, therefore supposedly humorous "role reversal" (although, without the headlock, appearing consensual)]]The original interpretations of the photograph centered on the jubilation of the 1945 V-J Day celebrations. In 1997, art critic Michael Kimmelman summarized the composition of the Eisenstaedt photograph as reflective of that mood: the sailor representing returning troops, the nurse representing those who would welcome them home, and Times Square standing for home.In the 2010s, bloggers began calling the photograph a documentation of a type of "normalized sexual assault." The people pictured in the photograph did not previously know one another. Drunk at the time of the photograph, the sailor is shown kissing an unwilling partner (according to historic preservationist Kafi Benz, among the four frames taken by Eisenstaedt, available through Getty Images, the woman is shown defensively socking the man in the face with the closed fist of her one, free arm).WEB, Hackney, Rachel Brown, 2020-06-18, Sarasota nonprofit implores Public Art Committee to recommend City Commission keep 'Unconditional Surrender' off the bayfront after roundabout completed,weblink live,weblink 2020-06-19, 2020-09-10, The Sarasota News Leader, en-US, Franklin, Kelly, Mystery Solved: The case of the invisible woman and the heroic, mythical, monumental… kissing sailor, Project Delta Dawn,, accessed January 30, 2020Verria, Lawrence, The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo that Ended World War II, Naval Institute Press, first edition, May 15, 2012 The widely agreed-upon identity of the woman who is a subject in the photograph, dental assistant Greta Zimmer Friedman, had also explicitly stated that the kiss she was subjected to, was not a consensual act, that he just "grabbed" her.Friedman, Greta Zimmer, transcript of interview of Greta Zimmer Friedman: Veterans History Project, United States Library of Congress, August 23, 2005 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.BOOK, Popular Culture, Gronseth, Michael, Cognella, 2015, 978-1634872881, Howell, Mark, 1st, 47–52, A Kiss Is Just A Kiss... Or Is It?, At a June 2020 public meeting in Sarasota, Florida about the placement of a copy of Unconditional Surrender, a sculpture based on the historic photographs (cf. above), Kafi Benz of the local organization Friends of Seagate, noting that it was conveying a message about subjugation, 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.

Second interpretive sign proposal

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.Sarasota Agenda Item IX.2) Direction Re: Unconditional Surrender Interpretive Signage, Sarasota Granicus video, city of Sarasota, December 6, 2021 The proposed sign would be donated by Friends of Seagate and would be designed and drafted through a joint effort by the organization, city staff overseeing public art, and the public arts committee, as well as, having to meet the approval of the city commission. The sign would accompany an existing interpretive sign that had been designed and placed by the donor who gave the statue to the city. 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".Franklin, Kelly, Project Delta Dawn: time to wake up to the facts of Life, Project Delta Dawn, accessed January 25, 2022

In popular culture

File:Unconditional Surrender sculpture Aug 13 2015.jpg|thumb|right|Unconditional Surrender sculpture in Times Square, ManhattanManhattanIn 2005, John Seward Johnson II displayed a bronze life-size sculpture, Unconditional Surrender, at an August 14, 2005, 60th-anniversary reenactment at Times Square, of the kiss. His statue was featured in a ceremony that included Carl Muscarello and Edith Shain as participants, holding a copy of the famous photograph.NEWS, The Huffington Post,weblink W Hotels' WWII Kiss Reenactment Contest (Photos), live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20100819123716weblink">weblink August 19, 2010, mdy-all, Johnson also sculpted a {{convert|25|ft|m|adj=mid|-tall}} version in plastic and aluminum, which had been displayed in several cities, including San Diego and Sarasota.WEB,weblink Unconditional Surrender Statue,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130514033612weblink">weblink May 14, 2013, Roadside America, NEWS, Robert L., Pincus,weblink Port surrenders in the battle against kitsch, San Diego Union-Tribune, March 11, 2007, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110717163229weblink">weblink July 17, 2011, mdy-all, NEWS, Ogles, Jacob,weblink Unconditional Surrender Deal to Be Finalized Today, SRQ Daily, June 11, 2010, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120304024828weblink">weblink March 4, 2012, mdy-all, The {{convert|25|ft|adj=on}} version was moved to New York City again on August 12, 2015, for a temporary display.WEB,weblink Monumental—and Controversial—'Kissing Sailor' Sculpture Comes to Times Square, The Observer, August 12, 2015, August 13, 2015, Alanna, Martinez, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150813082823weblink">weblink August 13, 2015, mdy-all, Controversy over it being kitsch and having been revealed to depict subjugation during an assault continued unabated as copies of the statue were slated for more permanent displays in some of the cities visited. In The Simpsons episode "Bart the General" (first airdate February 4, 1990), victory celebrations following a "war" between two groups of children include a boy in a sailor outfit kissing Lisa Simpson as a photograph is taken. She then slaps the boy, exclaiming, "Knock it off!"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. One of them cuts in on the sailor for a kiss with the nurse. This kiss is performed without the headlock, making it consensual.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.NEWS,weblink Katy Perry kisses Marine during NYC Fleet Week, Bidwill, Colleen, USA Today, May 25, 2012, May 29, 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120701190335weblink">weblink July 1, 2012, In the video game (Wolfenstein: The New Order) (2014), an alternative history version of the V-J Day kiss (V-A Day in the timeline) appears as a Nazi soldier forcing himself on the nurse, in Paris instead of New York.WEB,weblink It's Nazis, Nazis Everywhere In The Latest 'Wolfenstein: The New Order' Trailer, Nathan, Birch, June 7, 2013, November 14, 2015, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20151222231306weblink">weblink December 22, 2015, mdy-all, WEB, Wolfenstein: The New Order Trailer - E3 2013, YouTube,weblink June 10, 2013, November 14, 2015, live,weblink July 8, 2015, mdy-all,

See also

• Dancing Man, an image of V-J Day in Sydney
• List of photographs considered the most important

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

External links

{{commons category|V-J Day in Times Square (Alfred Eisenstaedt)}}

• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20141118104047weblink">V-J Images from Life, article and slideshow
• "V-J Day âˆ’ Is He the Real McCoy?" The Art Quarterly, 2007
• NEWS, Oladipo, Gloria, 6 March 2024, Controversial Kiss Photograph Can Stay in Veterans' Facilities After Rapid U-Turn,weblink The Guardian, London, 7 March 2024,

{{Times Square}}{{Authority control}}{{Coord|40.757682|-73.98571|region:US-NY_type:event|display=title}}