Blog Post 4 (Annie Deitz)

 

Many people recognize this photo as "that one picture of the sailor dude kissing the lady after World War Two ended."

As iconic and popular as it is, few people actually know much about this picture, so before I began answering the prompt for this week's blog post I thought I would enlighten you.

The picture was taken August 14th, 1945- a date possibly better known as the official end of World War Two. The photographer of this picture, Alfred Eisenstaedt, a Jewish journalist for Life magazine from Germany, scoured Times Square on that Tuesday morning. The woman in this photo, Greta Zimmer, dental assistant living in Manhattan , ran to Times Square on her lunch break in search of a newspaper that would tell her whether or not the fighting in the Pacific theatre had ended. The man, George Mendonsa, Petty Officer First Class on the last day of his leave, went to see a movie with his girlfriend Rita Petri, completely unaware of the rumors concerning the end of the war.

As George and his girlfriend reached Manhattan and were informed of the news, they joined in the celebration; drinking and partying along with the rest of the crowd. As he became more drunk on the booze and high on the excitement, George began to wander Times Square, leaving his girlfriend in the dust. Alfred, seeing the navy officer , followed him in hopes of a picture. George locked his eyes on Greta, who looked like the nurses that served alongside him in the war. In a drunken haze, George decided to march up to her and kiss her, taking her completely by surprise. The kiss was captured by Alfred, who had finally gotten his prized photo.

This pictures symbolizes the end of World War Two and the dawn of a new America. It captured the end of a period of fear for most people in the world and the celebration of new life and a new born world. A heavy load had been lifted off of the planet's back, and it changed American life forever. World War Two ending how it did, and when it did, will continue to effect people forever.

Around Greta and George, Americans crowded Times Square, celebrating the end of the war for hours on end. A new aura of peace, happiness, and excitement prevailed across the nation, and across the world. The planet had just taken a giant sigh of relief and was about to release a "whoop" of elation. George, and millions of other men and women like him, would not have to go to the battlefield the next day to participate in another seemingly endless battle for life. Rations and mass production and stress on the home front would be alleviated. Evil had been contained and the good reigned victorious. Everything, for the first time in six years, was going to be okay.

Well, probably not for George, his girlfriend probably was not too happy when she picked up a copy of Life magazine and saw her love making out with some random chick on the cover.

But for everyone else, this picture represented a new age, an age of peace, an age of happiness, an age to start over. This photograph captures the time when a whole nation's mood changed from monotonous and tired to enthusiastic and young.


Here's the link where I found the background story of the picture, in case anyone wants to read about it more in depth:
http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/2012-07/story-behind-famous-kiss