# V-J Day in Times Square V-J Day in Times Square, also known as The Kiss, is Alfred Eisenstaedt's August 14th, 1945 photograph of a U.S. Navy sailor dipping and kissing a woman in a white dress during Times Square celebrations of Japan's surrender[1]. LIFE magazine ran the picture the following week in its Victory Celebrations feature, and it later became the source of decades of identification feuds, anniversary reenactments and parody edits online[4]. ## Origin Eisenstaedt took the V-J Day in Times Square photograph on the afternoon of August 14th, 1945, hours after President Truman announced that Japan had agreed to surrender and ended World War II. The frame ran a week later inside LIFE's Victory Celebrations spread, and the magazine would later call it one of its most recognized images[1]. Neither the sailor nor the woman was named with the original caption, and Eisenstaedt said he never caught their names in the chaos of the celebration, which set up the identity dispute that followed decades later[4]. - **Platform:** LIFE magazine (print) / Wikipedia and news coverage (online afterlife) - **Creator:** Alfred Eisenstaedt - **Date:** 1945 ## Overview V-J Day in Times Square shows a tall sailor with his left arm wrapped around a dental assistant's waist, bending her backward in a kiss while onlookers grin in the background. Eisenstaedt shot it with a Leica camera, firing four frames in quick succession as he chased the sailor through the crowd[1]. Navy photojournalist Victor Jorgensen captured the same embrace from a different angle, and his version ran in The New York Times the next day under the title Kissing the War Goodbye[1]. Jorgensen's photo sits in the public domain, which is why it circulates freely in textbooks, Wikipedia articles and anniversary posts, while Eisenstaedt's copyrighted frame tends to appear through LIFE's licensed archive[4]. The copyright split is a big part of why the Jorgensen angle shows up on most meme reposts even though Eisenstaedt's shot is the one people picture when they hear The Kiss. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is V-J Day in Times Square? V-J Day in Times Square, also called The Kiss, is Alfred Eisenstaedt's August 14th, 1945 photograph of a U.S. Navy sailor kissing a woman in a white dress during Times Square celebrations of Japan's surrender[1]. ### Where did V-J Day in Times Square come from? Eisenstaedt shot the frame for LIFE, which published it the following week in a Victory Celebrations feature; Victor Jorgensen's parallel-angle version ran in The New York Times a day after the kiss[1]. ### What does V-J Day in Times Square mean? The image reads as a visual shorthand for the end of World War II and the American celebration of Japan's surrender, which is why anniversary posts and parodies keep returning to it[4]. ### How do you use V-J Day in Times Square? Online the photo typically appears in August 14th anniversary posts, Times Square reenactments and parody edits that reference the sailor-and-nurse pose, usually using Jorgensen's public-domain angle rather than Eisenstaedt's copyrighted frame[1]. ### Is V-J Day in Times Square still popular? The photo is still one of the most recognized images from World War II, and each new identification claim or death notice brings fresh news coverage, as with Glenn McDuffie's 2014 obituary[5]. ## References 1. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-J_Day_in_Times_Square]() 2. [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-474893/Mystery-sailor-famed-VJ-day-kiss-New-Yorks-Times-Square-identified]() 3. [http://www.usni.org/store/books/aircraft-reference/american-fighters/kissing-sailor]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/v-j-day-in-times-square]() 5. [http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-26588030]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/v-j-day-in-times-square Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library