V-J Day in Times Square

On August 14, 1945, as crowds in Times Square eagerly awaited President Truman’s seven o’clock announcement ending the war with Japan, photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captured a sailor in a dark uniform grabbing and kissing a woman in white—a total stranger. The image, taken with a Leica IIIa camera just south of 45th Street where Broadway and Seventh Avenue converge, was published a week later in *Life* magazine as part of a 12-page section called “Victory Celebrations.” It appeared full-page on the right side of a two-page spread, facing a montage of three similar celebration shots from Washington, D.C., Kansas City, and Miami. Eisenstaedt later said he was running ahead of the sailor, who was kissing every woman in sight, and snapped only four frames; he chose the one with the best balance. Because neither face is clearly visible, many people have since claimed to be the subjects. In two separate books, Eisenstaedt gave slightly different accounts of the moment, but both emphasized that the contrast between the woman’s white dress and the sailor’s dark uniform made the picture work. He carefully controlled the rights to the photograph, allowing only limited reproductions. Another photographer, Navy photojournalist Victor Jorgensen, captured the same scene from a different angle; his image, titled *Kissing the War Goodbye*, was published in *The New York Times* the next day. Jorgensen’s photograph is darker, shows less of the background, and is in the public domain because he was a federal employee on duty. It clearly places the kiss in front of the Chemical Bank and Trust building, with a Walgreens sign visible. The woman on the left in Jorgensen’s shot has been positively identified as Kay Hughes Dorius of Utah. *Life* initially asked the subjects to come forward but received no replies. In 1980, a woman wrote to Eisenstaedt requesting a copy, prompting the magazine to ask for the man to identify himself; they received multiple claims from both men and women. In 2012, authors Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi concluded, after interviews, photo analysis, and forensic work, that the woman was Greta Zimmer Friedman, who was wearing her dental hygienist uniform. She died at age 92 in 2016. Another claimant, Edith Shain, wrote to Eisenstaedt in 1980 and later cultivated the notoriety of her claim, accepting invitations to attend related events.