The famous VJ Day photo of a soldier kissing a nurse that became a symbol of the end of the Second World War has survived calls for it to be banned after complaints that it was “offensive” as it showed a ” non-consensual act.”
The image, taken in New York’s Times Square, shows the moment when a soldier grabbed a nurse – whom he did not know – and kissed her, as part of the celebrations to celebrate the Victory over Japan.
It was immortalized on film by photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt, who took the image for Life magazine.
Last week, a memo was leaked from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs directing employees to “promptly remove” the historical image and replace it with one deemed less offensive.
The department has now confirmed that the memo has been rescinded, but the event has reignited debate over the image, which some have claimed is a symbol of a “very public sexual assault.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs has rescinded a memo that banned the iconic JV Day kiss photo in Times Square from its buildings.
In 2012, George Mendonsa and Greta Friedman were appointed. Greta, a dental nurse who died in 2016 aged 92, revealed they had not met before and the kiss was “not romantic”. They appear in the photo recreating the kiss in 1980.
For years, no one knew who the two hugging in the picture were, and many people came forward claiming to be the people in the picture.
In 2012, George Mendonsa and Greta Friedman were appointed.
Greta, a dental nurse who died in 2016 aged 92, revealed they had not met before and the kiss was “not romantic”.
“It was kind of like, ‘Thank God the war is over,'” he told the Library of Congress in 2005.
‘It wasn’t my choice to be kissed. The guy just walked up and kissed me or grabbed me,” she added.
Alfred added that the image was “spontaneous” after he saw George walking through Times Square and “grabbing every woman he could and kissing them all.”
However, the couple apparently stayed in touch over the years.
Freidman’s son, Joshua, said his mother and Mendonsa became friends as they grew older.
The couple stayed in touch over the years and met in 1980 in Times Square.
The couple is photographed at the World War II Memorial in 2005.
“My mother always appreciated the feminist point of view and understood the premise that you have no right to be intimate with a stranger on the street,” Josh Friedman told NYDN.
“(But) she didn’t assign any bad motive to George in that circumstance, that situation, that moment.”
However, the debate about photography has heated up over the years.
In 2014, Time magazine said many people consider it “little more than documentation of a very public sexual assault,” and in 2019, #MeToo was painted on a statue of the image in Florida.
Others, however, have continued to celebrate the photo. On the 70th anniversary of VJ Day in 2015, hundreds of couples headed to Times Square to recreate the image.
Several couples have claimed to be the people in the photograph over the years, but George and Greta were finally identified in 2012.
Another angle of the kiss shows George’s future wife, Rita, in the background (on the left).
In the late 1970s, nurse Edith Shain wrote to Eisenstaedt that she was the woman in the photograph, wandering around Times Square after working at Doctor’s Hospital in New York City.
Without indisputable evidence, LIFE launched an attempt in 1980 to identify the couple, and a flood of war veterans and nurses came forward to claim their kisses had been recorded.
But forensic analysis managed to confirm that they were Mendosa and Friedman.
Incredibly, Mendonsa had a date with his girlfriend, Rita Petry, at Radio City Music Hall that day.
He was on leave after surviving battles in the Pacific, where he watched nurses care for wounded sailors.
He says he immediately left the theater with his date and went to a nearby bar where he began “drinking and raising hell.”
Later, the couple was walking together through Times Square when they saw the nurse coming in the opposite direction and decided to kiss her.
Another image from that moment, taken by another photographer from a slightly wider angle, apparently shows Rita smiling in the background.
“A lot of people say, ‘Well, you called the nurse and you have an appointment.’ I say, ‘For God’s sake, the war is over!'” I remembered what those nurses were doing there.
For her part, Rita claims she didn’t care, and the couple grew tired of it and remained married until Mendosa’s death.
Greta’s granddaughter has since revealed that she never felt violated, although it came as a surprise.
Caroline Branin, 28, told DailyMail.com that her grandmother saw the famous photo as a “celebration of the end of the war.”
Caroline Branin told DailyMail.com that her grandmother Greta Friedman, who was the nurse in the photo and died in 2016, saw the iconic photo as a “celebration of the end of the war.” They are pictured together
The memo instructed employees to “immediately remove” the image and replace it with one deemed less offensive.
‘She was always very proud of the image and thought it was two young people celebrating in the street.
“It was really something that made them very happy.” My grandmother signed photo images until her death.
“She was proud to be an American citizen. She was a refugee from Austria and that’s why the end of the war was more important for her than for ordinary people.
“She never felt it was inappropriate. It is interesting that they tried to reframe historical events in current values.
‘I have a painting in my house that my grandmother signed and even George Mendonsa signed it. My grandmother kept in touch with George and did shows with him on VJ day.
“She never said it was something she found uncomfortable.”
Mendonsa and Friedman returned to Times Square in 1980 to recreate the photograph. At the time they were both happily married to other people and had not seen each other in 35 years.
Greta Zimmer Friedman: the woman surprised in the VJ Day kiss photograph
The name Greta Zimmer Friedman may not ring a bell, but the famous photograph of her being kissed by a sailor in the middle of Times Square celebrating the Japanese surrender in World War II is seen and known by millions.
Friedman was born and raised in Austria. She and her two sisters fled Hitler and the Nazis and came to the United States in 1939, leaving her parents behind.
He was 21 years old, living in Queens and working as a dental assistant when he encountered George Mendonsa, a drunken sailor stumbling through Times Square amid jubilant crowds after the war ended on August 14, 1945.
Describing the moment decades later, Friedman said she would never forget her surprise when Mendonsa grabbed her and kissed her completely unexpectedly.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that Friedman learned that the kiss had been immortalized by Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt, when she saw the photo and immediately recognized herself.
By this time, she had married a doctor, Mischa (Mitty) Friedman, and moved to Maryland, where they raised their son Joshua and daughter Mara.
Friedman and Mendonsa met through photography and developed a friendship over the years, but that kiss in 1945 was the only one they would share.
She died at age 92 in an assisted living facility in Virginia on September 8, 2016. She was buried next to her late husband at Arlington National Cemetery.
Debate over the photo was reignited after US Foreign Secretary Denis McDonough was forced to deny banning the photo after a leaked memo signed by Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health for Operations, RimaAnn O. Nelson, will begin to circulate online.
“Let me be clear: this image is not prohibited in VA facilities, and we will keep it in VA facilities,” McDonough said on Twitter.
When pressed by DailyMail.com, the VA admitted that the memo was sent late last month but had since been rescinded. It is unclear whether McDonough ever approved it.
This is not the first time Nelson has faced backlash for his handling of veterans’ affairs.
In 2016, after she was named head of the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Arizona lawmakers, including John McCain, raised concerns about her “questionable record” in a letter to then-President Barack Obama.
In a letter, they cited a 2011 report that found a St Louis facility under Nelson’s direction potentially exposed more than 1,800 veterans to HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
The report found long-standing problems with dental equipment at the facility, but also added that the chances of “transmission of a blood-borne infectious disease from one patient to another… were unlikely.”
Still, the center notified nearly more than 1,800 patients of the risk.
In another letter signed by lawmakers, including then-Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, lawmakers called Nelson’s past “less than impressive.”
The letter said: “To think that Ms. Nelson, with her unimpressive past, is the best possible candidate to provide crucial leadership for the facility equated to “ground zero” of the VA scandal is unequivocally offensive to us and to each of us. of the veterans we represent.”