Boy what a kiss that was to remember !

"George Mendonsa, a World War II veteran whose claim of being a sailor kissing a nurse in an iconic image was verified using facial recognition technology, died early Sunday, his daughter said. He was 95.

Mendonsa was living in an assisted living facility in Middletown, Rhode Island, and had been suffering from severe congestive heart failure, daughter Sharon Molleur told NBC News. He would have turned 96 on Tuesday, she added.

Mendonsa, a retired fisherman, had maintained for years that he was the sailor locking lips in a picture taken on Aug. 14, 1945, by Alfred Eisenstaedt and published in Life magazine as a scene from "V-J Day in Times Square." On that day, Americans crowded the streets to celebrate the Japanese surrender to the Allies and the end of the war.

The photo has become one of the most enduring images of the 20th century. But when it was published in Life, there was no caption confirming the identities of the pair ...

Mendonsa told Verria that he was on leave in Manhattan when the end of the war was announced, and he was so swept up in the moment that when he saw a young nurse he felt compelled to kiss her.

Neither Mendonsa nor the nurse — whose identity was similarly unknown, but was later confirmed to be Greta Zimmer Friedman, of Virginia — knew at the time that the random kiss was captured for posterity. Friedman died in 2016 at age 92.

Molleur said her father never gave up his claim to being in the photo, and lived proudly with the legacy that has lived on in giant statues and recreations.

"He was very proud of his service and the picture and what it stood for," Molleur said. "Always, for many, many years later, it was an important part of his life."

Another piece of Americana left for the history annals. :)

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/george-mendonsa-navy-veteran-identified-kissing-sailor-wwii-photo-dies-n972761

I actually met Mendosa and the woman from the photo, Greta Zimmer (Friedman), when they came to a lab where I worked. One of my colleagues did a high-tech imaging session with them to prove that they were the ones in the iconic VJ-day photograph.

They seemed to enjoy the fame.

Their kiss is the stuff dreams are made of!

;)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2019 04:07PM by Amyjo.

and lawsuits . . .

People actually sued over who was in the photo? Or for the right to use said photo?

When I lived in NYC back in the 80s I made a practice of asking people of a certain age where they were, and what they were doing during WWII. I heard so many fascinating stories. You would have the most mild-mannered people who did these amazing things, and you never would have known about it if you hadn't asked them.

That would be fascinating. What an interesting study that must have been. You could write a book about their experiences! Really. :)

Photo of first f*ck after end of WWII hasn't been made public, at least not as of now....

My mom was a nurse (but not THE nurse) celebrating in Times Square that day.

I bet she breathed a huge sigh of relief when that war ended and all the soldiers got to come home. Let's see in 1945 my dad was still wrapping up his stint in the military with wife #2. By then he was moving from Cali to Massachusetts where he spent the next few years before moving back to Idaho.

He was in the Navy as a military policeman, stateside though. He didn't see any combat.

I really appreciated getting my mom's perspective on things. Shortly after 9/11, I asked her about her feelings compared to how she felt after the Pearl Harbor invasion. I remember one day she was looking at her high school yearbooks, and she sighed about how many of the guys she knew were killed in the war.

My parents didn't meet until a few years after the war (it was the second marriage for both of them). My dad survived 50 bombing missions over Europe. I'm sorry to say that it was late in his life before I really appreciated the danger he was in, and the commitment he made.

To survive 50 bombing missions over Europe is pretty amazing in itself. Your dad is a bona fide war hero IMHO.

Thank you.

I appreciate anyone who has, or does, serve in the military, but I have a special place in my heart for those who answered the call during WWII. No matter where, or how, they served, they’re all heroes in my eyes.

Two of my distant cousins who lived through WWII were Dutch Resistance Fighters living in Amsterdam. Their family was friends with Otto Frank and Anne Frank's family. Their father was one of the expert witnesses to authenticate the Diary of Anne Frank following the Holocaust. His own daughter, one of the Dutch Resistance Fighters, saved him from the concentration camp after his arrest by Nazis. She saved quite a few people working as a resistance fighter during the war. At the very end of the war in Amsterdam she was credited for getting the Germans to lay down their guns.

May 7, 1945 was the day the war ended in Holland. The last battle between the Dutch and German soldiers took place on a train platform in Amsterdam. 17 Germans lay mortally wounded, and two Dutch soldiers on the train platform that day. Hors and Isa were present. Hors was in Dutch uniform, and Isa was dressed in a crisp, white nurse's uniform as part of her disguise. As she marched up and down between the two rows of soldiers telling them to lay down their weapons for the war was now over!

The Germans were nervous and asked her which side was she on? Isa answered them, "The side of peace." She was credited for single-handedly getting the German soldiers to lay down their weapons once and for all who were present on the train platform that day.

These two cousins were missing from my Israeli cousin's Jewish family tree until I found them doing online research. I was able to add them for him, before he died a couple years ago. :)

Isa and Hors family spent Sundays with Anne Frank's family before the war. Their families were very close, and had moved to Amsterdam from Germany in 1933 where they lived in the same neighborhood.

I was a very young child living in London when WW2 ended. I have great memories of singing and dancing in the streets with lots of beer and huge bonfires in the roadway. The fighting was over but the rationing and shortages went on for many more years.