In August 1945, it was till after the Japanese announced their defeat, that the lights in Times Square came on. The lights came on subsequent to an earlier four-year blackout.
As the world watched with joy; Mayor LaGuardia announced the surrender of the Japanese forces.
The New Yorkers were photographed while they headed off to the Square to celebrate the coming period of peace, and hope. Amongst the images captured by Alfred Eisenstaedt was that of an unknown young couple kissing.
In the photograph was a U.S. Navy sailor holding and kissing a strange woman dressed up in a white dress. Eisenstaedt, a photographer, captured varieties of events that transpired at Times Square during the anxious public expectations of the announcement of the end of the war with Japan. The announcement was to be made by U.S President Harry S. Truman at seven o’clock.
Eisenstaedt mentioned that he did not have an opportunity to get the names and details of the young couple owing to the fact that he was photographing fast-changing events during the course of the celebrations.
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Despite the fact that the photograph did not clearly show the face of either person captured, quite a number of people have argued to be the couples captured at 5:51 pm with a Leica Illa Camera.
On the other hand, Victor Jorgensen a U.S. Navy photojournalist caught sight of another view of the same scene, which was printed in the New York Times the next day. Jorgensen named his photograph “Kissing the War Goodbye,” different from the Eisenstaedt photograph, which is protected by copyright law, the Navy photograph by Victor Jorgensen remains in the public field as it was produced by a federal government employee on official duty.
The unknown couple photographed after some years were discovered to be American sailor, George Mendonsa and nurse, Greta Zimmer Friedman who was 21 years old on the day victory was announced, August 14, 1945.
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