Nurse Recalls Famous Times Square Kiss by Sailor 60 Years Later After V-J Day
deb...@comcast.net
V-J Day
By Pat Milton Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 11, 2005
NEW YORK (AP) - A kiss is just a kiss - but not this kiss.
The photograph of the exuberant kiss by a sailor on the lips of a
surprised nurse in Times Square remains, 60 years later, an iconic
image of the day World War II ended.
"It was a very long kiss," Edith Cullen Shain, who says she is the
nurse in the photo, recalled Thursday. "It was like a dance step, the
way he laid me over in his arms."
Shain said she closed her eyes and never looked at the sailor.
"I just got lost in the moment," said Shain, now an 87-year-old
great-grandmother from Santa Monica, Calif.
To Shain's delight, a life-size color sculpture by J. Seward Johnson
based on the photograph was unveiled Thursday in bustling Times Square.
It will be displayed through Monday.
Shain recalled the pandemonium on Aug. 15, 1945, V-J Day, the day of
victory for the Allied forces over Japan, when people grabbed anyone
and hugged and kissed each other.
"I let him kiss me because he had been in war and he fought for me,"
Shain said of the sailor. "I only wish now I had had a conversation
with him or asked his name."
Unbeknownst to Shain, the smooch was snapped by Life magazine
photographer Alfred Eisenstadt. It was featured in the magazine the
following week.
Shain, then 27, said she recognized herself when she saw the photograph
but didn't tell anyone because she was "too embarrassed."
Soon after the photo ran, she moved to California, married twice and
had three children. She gave up nursing and taught kindergarten for 30
years.
In 1979, she told Eisenstadt in a letter that she was the nurse in his
photo. She said Eisenstadt, who died in 1999, flew out to California to
interview her and confirmed that she was indeed the nurse.
But the sailor's identity remains a mystery.
More than 20 men have come forward through the years claiming to be the
kisser. One went so far as to have digital images of his face taken to
create a 3-D model, which was then aged and transferred to the face on
a copy of the kiss photograph - and he claimed it was a match.
But Shain, who said she was kissed by only one sailor that day, thinks
he will never be identified.
"There were so many people kissing," she said, "I think they all
believe they are right."
The Kentucky Wizard
news:zAWKe.4303$Wi6....@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net
>
>
> One of the best war stories (and pic) ever--it always is when the
> soldiers finally come home--where they belong.
>
Hey Roy, I bet you can still remember the first time a sailor kissed you as
well, can't you?
--
© The Wiz ®
«¤»¥«¤»¥«¤»
Brad Ferguson
<deb...@comcast.net> wrote:
> "It was a very long kiss," Edith Cullen Shain, who says she is the
> nurse in the photo, recalled Thursday.
She's not the only one who claims to be the woman in the photo, but it
really doesn't matter, anyway. The real star of the photo is Alfred
Eisenstadt.
--
FREE JUDITH MILLER
deb...@comcast.net
By ALEX KUFFNER
The Providence Journal
05-AUG-05
NEWPORT, R.I. -- The photo has become that rarest of things, an image
that needs no explanation.
Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstadt snapped the shot of the
young sailor, ecstatic with news that World War II was finally over,
kissing the pretty nurse in the middle of Times Square on Aug. 14,
1945.
Thirteen days later, Life first published the photo that would become
an enduring symbol of the joy and relief felt by a nation at the end of
the war.
Eisenstadt called it simply "V-J Day" and didn't identify the sailor or
the nurse in the pages of the magazine.
Years later, a woman from Santa Monica, Calif., named Edith Shain
announced that she was the nurse, and Eisenstadt offered confirmation.
The identity of the sailor hasn't been settled so easily.
George Mendonsa, an 82-year-old retired fisherman who lives in
Middletown, R.I., has insisted for decades that he's the man in the
photo. But many others have also laid claim to the kiss, and Life has
yet to offer any clarification.
Now, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of V-J Day, Mendonsa believes
he has the evidence that proves he is right.
"I can sit here and shoot my mouth off, but that doesn't mean
anything," Mendonsa said Thursday in the den of the raised ranch he
shares with his wife of 59 years. "I can show you the proof."
It can be found, he says, in a study conducted by the Mitsubishi
Electric Research Laboratories, of Cambridge, Mass., which used the
latest in 3-D face-scanning technology to try and settle the mystery
once and for all.
A team of volunteers from the Naval War College, in Newport, R.I.,
contacted the lab last year after hearing about a computer program that
its scientists designed to "age" missing children and fugitive
criminals.
The team was led by retired Navy Capt. Jerry O'Donnell, Mendonsa's
neighbor since 1999. He'd heard the older man's tale and was intrigued
by what he said.
"There are a lot of people in history who claimed to be the kissing
sailor, but nobody has come up with any hard evidence," said O'Donnell.
"We decided we wanted to use cutting-edge technology to find the
answer."
So on a winter day this year, Mendonsa went to the Mitsubishi lab. In
less than a minute, more than 4,000 digital images of Mendonsa were
taken, which were then used to create a 3-D model of his face.
The lab was then able to "de-age" the present-day Mendonsa and transfer
his face to a copy of Eisenstadt's photo from 1945.
The man in the original photo and his counterpart in the reproduction
appear nearly identical.
For legal reasons, the lab can't say for certain that Mendonsa is the
sailor, but O'Donnell is convinced. "We have enough evidence to
conclude that George is guilty of stealing that kiss," he said.
Mendonsa said he didn't know about the photo until August 1980, when
Life published an article celebrating the 35th anniversary of when it
was taken.
A friend saw the article and the accompanying photo and called
Mendonsa.
"He asked me where I was the day the war ended," said Mendonsa. "I said
Times Square. He said, 'I know it's you.' "
Mendonsa has told the story of that day countless times since then.
Sitting at his desk, surrounded by framed copies of the photo and old
issues of Life, he falls into an easy rhythm when asked to describe it
once again.
On leave from The Sullivans, the Navy destroyer he'd been serving on in
the Pacific, he had a date with the former Rita Petry, whom he would
marry a year and a half later.
In the middle of a show at Radio City Music Hall came the announcement
that Japan had surrendered. The couple followed the crowd into Times
Square, stopping for a beer or two along the way.
Mendonsa says that when he saw the nurse, it brought back memories of
all the other nurses he'd seen caring for wounded sailors during his
three years in the Navy.
"So I grabbed her," he said. "I'd been drinking, and I got caught up in
all the excitement. Times Square was wild that day."
The August 1980 issue of Life identified Shain as the nurse. A note
from the editor asked the man in the photo to step forward. Mendonsa
did. So did nine others.
Life published their stories that October, but didn't choose any one as
the most credible. An article said that only Eisenstadt could determine
who the sailor was, but he'd died months earlier.
Still, Mendonsa hasn't abandoned his quest to have Life acknowledge it
was him.
Mendonsa says he's not interested in financial compensation. He only
wants recognition for what he believes is his small place in history.
"That photo's known all around the world as a symbol of the end of
World War II," Mendonsa said. "I was there."