The Kiss photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt
One of the most famous photos of the 20th century 《The Kiss 》 George Mendonsa, the "sailor" in, died on February 17, 2019.
This is called The Kiss 》 This is a picture of a sailor kissing a "nurse" in Times Square, New York on August 14, 1945. On that day, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced that he would accept the Potsdam Proclamation and surrender to the Allies. The United States immediately conveyed the news to its citizens, and then the public celebrated the end of World War II in Times Square. While the photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt was holding a Leica camera, he captured this most memorable moment. This is a news photograph, which was published on In Life magazine on August 27, 1945. (However, Japan officially signed the surrender instrument on September 2, 1945.)
After a full page of the photo was published in Life magazine, it was copied onto the poster and inspired Seward Johnson to create a series of sculptures called Unconditional Surrender.
One of the Unconditional Surrender sculptures is from Twitter @kellystilwell
The English name of the photo is The Kiss or V-Day. Life magazine wrote V-J Day in Times Square (V-J, Victory over Japan) in the title under the photo at that time. The accompanying text reads: "In the center of New York's Times Square, an uninhibited sailor pointed his lips directly at her lips, and the girl in white tightly grasped the wallet and skirt." This 21-year-old woman was identified as Greta Friedman decades later.
After the photos were published, dozens of sailors and nurses thought they were the people in the photos. Although the photographer Eisenstaedt never obtained the names of men and women in his photos, Mr. Mendonsa is widely regarded as the "kissing sailor" in the photos. Include《 The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo that Ended World War II》 One book The author and other parties reached a consensus that Mendonsa is the sailor in the picture.
A lump or cyst on Mendonsa's left arm is one of the evidence This can be seen in a picture taken by Eisenstaedt. Richard Benson, a photographer and lecturer of Yale University, found this lump. Norman Sauer, a forensic anthropologist at Michigan State University, spent three months trying to find the contradiction between Mendonsa and the man in the picture, but he did not find it.
The author of the book also concluded that the woman in the photo was Greta Zimmer Friedman, born in Austria, a Holocaust refugee, once a dental assistant, but wearing a white uniform of a nurse.
The four photos taken by Eisenstaedt and a similar photo taken by Navy photographer Victor Jorgensen also help to prove this - Mendonsa is kissing Friedman.
This is the same scene captured by Victor Jorgensen, a naval photographer, with the title of "Kissing the war Goodbye".
The photo entered the public domain because it was the work of the Government of the United States of America, and was also published in the New York Times the next day. The angle is slightly different from that of Life magazine. From Wikipedia
This photo is the product of an era, and its popularity is also closely related to the historical background at that time. It has received numerous respects, but also some blame. Some people think that this photo represents an unnecessary sexual provocation.
At that time, Mendonsa thought it was an instinctive act to express celebration. But he also described the kiss as an abnormal moment, an instinctive reaction to the white uniform. He said that the image of the nurse reminded him of his days as the helmsman of the destroyer Sullivan.
May 1945 He piloted the Sullivan alongside the burning aircraft carrier Bunker Hill. In an interview with the Veterans History Project, he said that the sailors jumped out of the ship and hundreds of people were rescued by the Sullivan before being transferred to a medical ship. He said, "When we sent the wounded, I was always observing how the nurses took care of the wounded."
Mendonsa was born in Newport, southern Rhode Island, USA on February 19, 1923, and grew up on a nearby island without water and electricity. Both parents immigrated from Portugal. His father is a fisherman. Since Mendonsa was very young, he and three other brothers have gone fishing expeditions with his father.
In 1942, Mendonsa joined the Navy. Less than a year later, he took the Sullivan to cruise the Pacific Ocean and participated in the Iwo Jima and other battles. In July 1945, he took a month's leave and returned to Xingang.
The day in the photo, he was on his first date with Rita Petry, who later became his wife. When they were watching a matinee performance, the crowd outside the concert hall began to knock on the theater gate and shouted, "The war is over!" Mendonsa and Petry went outside and found thousands of revelers on the street. After a few drinks, "We came to Times Square, the war was over, and I saw the nurse." Mendonsa recalled 。 "I had several drinks. I think it's just a simple instinct. I just grabbed her."
The captured "nurse" was actually Friedman, a dental assistant, who didn't see this picture until the 1960s. Interviewed by Veterans History Project in 2005 She recognized her hair, clothes and figure.
"I was suddenly caught by a sailor," she recalled. "This is not a kiss, it is more like his cheering for not returning to the battlefield." She said that the kiss was not romantic. More importantly, the war is over, and people are very grateful.
Friedman died in Virginia in 2016 at the age of 92.
Eisenstaedt, the photographer of this photo, died in 1995 at the age of 96. Eisenstaedt once said "People tell me that when I go to heaven, they will still remember this picture."
Mendonsa resumed fishing in January 1946 after retiring from the navy and went to sea until she was over 80 years old. For many years, he fought a lawsuit with Life magazine, hoping that he could be recognized as the "kissing sailor" in the photo. But he finally withdrew the case in the 1980s.
At that time, he had established a friendship with Friedman, and they would exchange Christmas cards every year.
This website and its public account are public welfare network platforms, and the pictures and texts sent are only for the purpose of spreading information, introducing knowledge and explaining problems; The copyright belongs to the original author. Please note the source and author when reprinting.
Once a manuscript is selected, it is deemed that the author agrees that the website will use it free of charge for various non-profit publications, Internet and mobile media, professional academic libraries, etc.
Copyright problems caused by contributions and their legal responsibilities shall be borne by the authors themselves.
For more information, please scan the QR code and follow our WeChat official account:
