A WW2 Celebration Kiss or a Moment of Shock?

I still love this photo, but for a completely different reason than passion and romance …

Take a good long look at this photograph you have probably seen a million times throughout your life. I wasn’t aware until recently, but apparently, there are a couple of different photographed angles of this historical moment on August 14, 1945, in Times Square. This view shows a hidden story many don’t know.

Until I began researching WW2 this past summer for my novel Last One Home , I saw this image as a symbol of love and raw emotion—a soldier returning from the brutalities of war. When I write scenes full of emotion, I’ll often study comparable photographs to analyze every detail. It’s not only helpful for research, but I find it interesting to see how someone is gripping or clutching at another, how tightly closed their eyes are, and if the dimples on their cheeks are showing. Then, of course, the body language of the other person involved often speaks a different side of the story. It isn’t necessary to study this image to feel the portrayed desire and longing from the sailor’s point of view. The woman dressed in white, however, I see something different—something much less than desire.

Nothing about this image is authentic except the look on the woman’s face to the left of the “passionate couple.”

You may have heard stories on how this sailor, George Mendonsa, didn’t know the dental assistant (confused for a nurse he thought he had worked alongside), Greta Friedman. Joy of hearing the news about the war ending led to a moment of excitement (possibly incited by a few alcoholic beverages). In the 40s, men could get away with the “boys will be boys” routine, but this kiss—this documented photo would be a permanent brand to a misunderstood and misrepresented iconic moment in time.

And George’s future wife … she was watching the kiss from just a few feet away.  

If this is news to you, you read the statement above correctly. The woman, Rita Petry, circled in red [above] married George Mendonsa a year after this photo was taken. When I first read about this interesting fact across a few different articles, I didn’t miss the part that mentioned George and Rita (the onlooker) were already dating at this time. In fact, they were on a date when the news broke out about the war ending, which sparked sailors across the vicinity of Time’s Square to run around with glee, kissing the girls walking by. 

Sure, it was a moment to celebrate, and I can’t imagine the relief and joy they must have felt to be free from the burden of war … but my heart aches for Rita. 

She was interviewed over the years, claiming the kiss never bothered her, and that it was just an act of impulse as well as intoxication. Beyond a profound amount of maturity, I can understand avoiding any assumptions of the public thinking she was living a life of jealousy, but this photograph is everywhere; it’s famous and symbolic, and Rita had to see it throughout the entire seventy years she spent married to this famous sailor, George Mendonsa.

To ease Rita’s potential hurt feelings about the unexpected moment, Greta Friedman, the dental assistant, went on record to say, “It wasn’t that much of a kiss. It was more of a jubilant act that he didn’t have to go back [to war].”  cited by  CNN

I suppose Rita must have been loyal to her word for not caring about the kiss if they stuck together for seventy years of marriage. I imagine their lives were full of beautiful memories hidden from the public, unlike this moment, but a part of me would always feel an ache at the sight of this picture. Though I suppose this photo could also represent a lesson of true love: When we love someone, we accept their mistakes and flaws and overlook the moments that don’t hold a flame to the ones that create a lifetime of happiness.

While digesting this news for the first time, I was disappointed and referring to the “good-old-fashioned” romance stories as fictional tales. I was worried about tarnishing the symbolism of this beloved photo. But, after thinking about it a little more, I found a different focal point in this image. Rita’s face marks a raw truth we don’t often see in people. This image will forever remind me that a woman can be stronger than a man in a weak moment of opportunity, especially for the sake of understanding the trials and tribulations of surviving a war. Would I condone this type of behavior? No. But can I understand Rita’s point of view? Sure. They weren’t engaged yet, but it takes a confident woman to wave her hand at this photo and tell the world she couldn’t care less about an insignificant act captured on film. I’m sure George came to learn how lucky he was to have a woman as incredible as Rita.

Photo Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/