Woman in iconic VJ Day Times Square kiss photo dies at 92

Friedman was a 21-year-old dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform August 14, 1945, known as V-J Day, the day the Japanese surrendered.

As Japan surrendered to the United States on August 14, 1945, also known as the V-J Day, people of NY city were seen celebrating the news in the streets, bars and restaurants.

Ms Friedman herself said she was not even aware of the photo until the 1960s when she saw a book by the man who took the photo, renowned photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt.

The truth behind the image was revealed including the couple being complete strangers, having never met before. Just then, George Mendonsa, who was on a date with an actual nurse named Rita Petry, had spotted Friedman.

Another angle of the famous kiss between George Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer, taken by U.S. Navy photographer Lt. Victor Jorgensen.

The photograph was published a week later in Life magazine among many photographs of celebrations around the United States that were presented in a twelve-page section titled “Victory Celebrations”.

In a 2005 interview with the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project, the Austrian-born Friedman said she later designed dolls’ clothes, worked in summer theater and became a book restorer. “It was just somebody celebrating. It wasnt a romantic event”.

Friedman did not shy away from the photo or her role in it, her son said, adding that he said he believed she understood the argument that it was an assault but did not necessarily view it that way.

Alfred Eisenstaedt took the photo as people spilled into the New York City streets to celebrate VJ Day. The Zimmer parents were killed in the Holocaust, Mr. Friedman said.

Friedman, who had been living at an assisted living facility in northern Virginia, died September 8, CBS reported, quoting her son, Joseph Friedman.

Friedman will be laid to rest alongside her husband in Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery.

Many people claimed to be the embracing couple caught in a clinch, but it was only in the 1980s that the true identity of Friedman and Mendosa became public.

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