By Jan Gardner
June 10, 2012
On Aug. 14, 1945, the day Japan’s surrender to the United States was announced, Times Square in New York City was overrun with crowds celebrating the end of the war. Overcome with emotion, a sailor spontaneously embraced and kissed a woman in a white uniform. Unbeknownst to the couple, Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captured the moment.
For decades, the identity of the couple in one of the 20th century’s most memorable pictures remained a mystery. Surprisingly, neither the sailor nor the woman in white saw it until 1980. In the meantime, legions of sailors and nurses stepped forward to say they were in the picture. In “The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo That Ended World War II” (Naval Institute), Rhode Island history teacher Lawrence Verria and retired Navy captain George Galdorisi make a compelling case for the identity of the couple.
On the day World War II ended, so their story goes, George Mendonsa, a Navy sailor from Newport, R.I., and his girlfriend (whom he later married) were making their way through the crowds in Times Square when he was seized by a desire to kiss a woman dressed in white. Her uniform evoked in him an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the nurses who had ministered to his wounded buddies during the war. He did not know that the woman he embraced, Greta Zimmer, was not a nurse, but a dental assistant.
When Life magazine in 1980 asked the kissing sailor to identify himself, a number of men, including Mendonsa, claimed to be the one. The previous year a woman named Edith Shain had come forward to say that she was the woman in white. Eisenstaedt verified her claim, but the “Kissing Sailor” disputes it. The co-authors consulted with forensic anthropologists and experts in facial recognition and examined hairlines, knuckles, noses, and a tattoo. They conclude that Zimmer and Mendonsa (pictured) were the kissers. According to “Kissing Sailor,” the couple has been reunited from time to time over the years (as in the 2009 photo above), but they have never re-enacted their famous kiss.
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