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| George A. Mendonsa, the sailor and the nurse Greta Z. Friedman holding their iconic photograph. |
George Mendonsa, the sailor kissing nurse Greta Zimmer Friedman in the iconic "V-J Day in Times Square" photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt has died Sunday at an assisted living facility in Middletown, Rhode Island just two days short of his 96th birthday, according to his family members.
Known to most as simply "The Kiss", the famous photo shows people celebrating in the streets of New York City on August 14th, 1945 and Mendonsa kissing a random woman, Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant in a nurse's uniform after the news that Japan has surrendered to the United States on "Victory over Japan Day" or "V-J Day".
According to Providence Journal's conversation with Mendonsa's daughter, Sharon Molleur, "[H]e and her mother, who had been married more than 70 years, lived in an assisted living facility in Middletown. Molleur said she got a call at 1:30 a.m. Sunday saying that he had fallen and, moments later, had a seizure and died."
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| Famous photojournalist Eisenstadt with his iconic photo. |
Eisenstaedt did not get the identity of his subjects and several have claimed to be the iconic couple but Mendonsa has maintained for 74 years that he was the sailor in the photo.
Though he was never able to convince Life magazine which published the photo, thanks to new facial recognition technology and experts in photography and forensic anthropology, all the other sailors have been ruled out.
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| George Mendonsa holds one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century at his Middletown, Rhode Island home in 2012. |
George A. Mendonsa leaves behind a wife, Rita, daughter, Sharon Molleur and son, Ron Mendonsa, who lives in Florida.
You can donate to the Rhode Island Veteran's Home in Bristol in his honour.
Friedman who fled Austria at 15-years-old during the war and passed away at the age of 92 at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia in 2016.
Photograher Alfred Eisenstaedt died on August 23, 1995 in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts. He was 96.
A London-based blogger had a viral article in 2012 titled "The Kissing Sailor, or “The Selective Blindness of Rape Culture”
In 2016, the New York Daily News published an article "How a celebrated image marking V-J Day in Times Square has taken on a sinister shade" in which they accused the photo of being an example of "sexual assault."
Upon the sad news of Mendonsa's death, such articles have once again resurfaced from sources like ABCnews4 and even Condé Nast India…
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