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The Kissing Sailor Photo Essay

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The Kissing Sailor Photo Essay
1945 August 14th President Harry S Truman had just declared victory over Japan. America was overjoyed at the news that the bloodiest war in history was finally coming to an end. This caused for huge celebrations all over the US. This moment was captured perfectly when Alfred Eisenstaedt took the famous picture of the sailor kissing the nurse in Time Square. The Kissing Sailor photo shows the excitement toward the end of the war and reminds americans why they should get out of war.

The identity of the two people in the photo remained unknown for a very long time. The photo was printed on TIME magazine in 1945 and the mystery of the people wasn't solved until 2012 when a book was written. The Sailor in the photo was revealed to be George mendonsa. “I had just come back from the philippines” George said. “My ship had seen a lot of action. We were sent back to the States until the army could get strong enough.” (Maureen Callahan). He witnessed the horrid events of war first hand. Taking his mind off the war he was seeing a movie with his date when he heard knocking on the door. The stranger turned on the lights and said “The war is over, and the Japanese have surrendered” (Maureen Callahan). This was the greatest thing he ever heard and it's …show more content…
The war lasted almost 6 years and America wanted nothing more than to see it end. When the war did end Life magazine thought there was no better way to show people than this photo. So Life magazine published the photo giving it its own full page marking the end of the war. When the photo was published it sold great and gave people relief. When other countries who saw the photo it showed them “what it felt like in America when it was announced” (Ben Cosgrove). The whole world knew about America's achievement. With the photo becoming so popular “Everyone who saw the picture wanted to know more about the nurse and sailor” (Lawrence
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