When a Kiss Just Ain't a Kiss

You know the picture. It's one of the most famous ones to come out of WWII, the end of it to be exact. The photographer caught a sailor doing liplock on a nurse in Times Square, to the amusement of others standing in the vicinity. This sums up VJ Day, Victory Over Japan.

Life was to go on after this horrible interruption. The Baby Boomer generation was just a gleam in their parents' eyes.

For years, the sailor's identity has been unknown and more than a few claimed to be the kisser. Now, Houston forensic artist Lois Gibson, after careful analysis of the photograph, has determined him to be Glenn McDuffie, who has for years claimed to be said sailor.

The Chicago Tribune had an editorial on August 7th "The kiss of the unknown sailor"

Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt took it. This was a random pairing of two presumed strangers caught up in the giddy exhilaration and reacting the way people do in such situations, seeking close human contact. We can imagine before Eisentaedt snapped the shutter that the sailor reached for the nurse. She didn't resist. He bent her back, cradled her head and went in for the kiss. Click. History was made."

"Who were they? Nobody will ever know for sure. Eisentaedt never identified them, and he died a dozen years ago."

Apparently, there was a lot of kissing going on in Times Square that day, August 14, 1945.

The woman was Edith Shain, who revealed her secret in 1960. Over 20 men have claimed to be the sailor. Glenn McDuffie is 80 years old and a North Carolina native.

"Call it CSI: The Kiss. But we'd just as soon let it remain a mystery for the ages. The sailor. The nurse. The moment."

"They were--they are--every man and every woman who has ever rejoiced as darkness lifted and peace was at hand."

Thus the Tribune waxes poetically.

Personally, I like to think that this photo wasn't posed and that it was spur of the moment. Also, I hope we never know for sure their identities.

I think it would be something if someone were to cast a sculpture of the kiss and put it in Times Square as near to the actual spot as possible. That would be a fitting monument to WWII as we continue to lose the members of the Greatest Generation.

Come Here, My Darling. --RoadDog