This is a fascinating story. Most are aware of the first story, but there’s more to the story. Taken in 1945, this photo became famous. Fast forward 76 years, and the question for today: Would this be considered sexual assault resulting in a lawsuit against the United States Navy and a criminal charge against the sailor? The initial questions are the legal ones that interest me. I’m interested in it as an attorney.
But I’m adding a second photo now because I found out something I didn’t know initially. While the sailor and woman have been identified, the second picture, which is a close-up of another taken by the same photographer, shows a woman named Rita Petry. Rita was there to meet the sailor, George Mendonsa, for a date. They later married. Still, a shaky start to a date. Doing the math, they would marry about two years later.
As an aside, the nurse who was not really a nurse but has long been identified as such is Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant. Greta’s parents died in a Nazi concentration camp.
Back to Rita, through 2015, the last time I could find anything on this, she and George had been married for 68 years. There were other sailors claiming to be the kisser (and a couple of women claiming to be the kissee), but George and Greta met years later and confirmed it was the two of them, so I’ll go with it being George and Greta despite the controversy simply because I like the story and it does have credibility.
Greta later said, “It wasn’t a romantic event.” It was just an event of ‘thank God the war is over’ kind of thing.” She repeatedly emphasized it was a jubilant, impulsive celebration in the moment of victory, not a love story. She and Mendonsa later became friends, appeared together at events, and exchanged Christmas cards, but she never framed the kiss as a mutual romance.
There are people who take offense, probably the ones who tried to ban Baby It’s Cold Outside. It has to be put into the context of the time, August 1945? And the aftermath needs to be considered and their later friendship after reuniting.
They reenacted the kiss in 1980 for a Life magazine reunion in Times Square on the 35th anniversary of V-J Day.
The photo was featured in Life Magazine, but it was not the only celebratory kiss that day.
