For over a century, photography has been used as a way of telling stories. These stories may be exactly what they appear to be when you first look at an image, or it could be something entirely different from what you see. Author Vicki Goldberg talks about just how much of an impact an image can make, especially over someone’s thoughts and emotions, in her book, “The Power of Photography.” This can greatly change whatever story may be told in a photograph.

On Aug. 15, 1945, the United States declared victory over Japan. This day in history is now known as V-J Day. Across the nation, people of all kinds celebrated this day. Possibly one of the most popular images from V-J Day is just that — an image of celebration.

Alfred Eisentaedt was at Times Square in New York City during the celebration of V-J Day. His most famous image of this day is “V-J Day in Times Square,” which was originally published in “LIFE” magazine. The photo shows a sailor embracing a young nurse in what appears to be a passionate kiss. There are also many people scattered throughout the middle ground and background of the image. You could easily imagine a story for this image. A sailor comes home from war and greets his lover with a passionate kiss. Everyone around them looks happy to see two lovers reunited and are glad the war is over.

Researching the image revealed that no one will probably know the true story behind the image, as there are many people claiming to be the sailor in the image. In fact, Eisentaedt even has two slightly different accounts of documenting the image, one which he claims to have just turned around and saw the scene happening, and another where he says he focused on the nurse and waited for something to happen. There is one thing that matched the two different stories I came across, though. Regardless of who the sailor is, they don’t claim the wife to be their girlfriend, fiancé, wife or anything like that.

In the first account I found, sailor George Mendonsa was in New York City with his girlfriend at the time. His girlfriend would eventually become his wife. But to many people’s surprise, that is not his girlfriend in the photograph. Mendonsa became intoxicated after celebrating the victory. He and his girlfriend were walking through Times Square, when he grabbed a nurse, kissed her and carried on. In this account, Greta Friedman claims to be the nurse in the image. In an interview in 2005, Friedman said, “I’m not sure about the kiss … it was just somebody celebrating. It wasn’t a romantic event.”

The second account I found was of sailor Glenn McDuffie. McDuffie claimed he was getting on a train in New York City at the time of the photography. He learned his brother, who was a prisoner of war, would be returning home. He ran into the street to celebrate, saw the nurse, grabbed her and kissed her. In this account, Edith Shane says she was the nurse. McDuffie then said he carried on with his day. He went back to his train and went to Brooklyn. The kiss was nothing more than celebratory.

How such an iconic image can have so many different stories behind it is beyond me. No matter what the true story is, the deeper meaning is still the same. Looking at it still brings the same emotions and feelings. The image is a celebration of war being over, of freedom and pride in our country, and always should be that.

 

Erin Murtaugh is an undergraduate at Bemidji State University studying elementary education. She can be reached at murtaugh.erin@gmail.com.