Today was V-J Day, which produced the iconic photo of a sailor celebrating the end of the war by kissing a nurse. The image still resonates and has been reenacted by zombies, vampires, The Watchmen, The Simpsons and many, many drunks. Examples can be found here
From the article:
“On August 14, 1945, President Harry Truman took to the airwaves to announce that Japan had accepted the terms of surrender and that the war was over. The news sparked spontaneous celebrations across the United States, including in Times Square where photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captured a joyous sailor kissing a passing nurse. First published in Life magazine as part of a pictorial titled Victory, Eisenstaedt’s V-J Day in Times Square has since become one of the most iconic images of the Second World War.”
Victory Day is still a holiday here in RI (and HI too). One of our residents (not sure of his current status) is the most likely, but not conclusively decided, man in the picture. It’s just one of those iconic photographs that tells so much about its time. And it may be a symbol of joyous relief in victory for a long time to come.
Yeah, that’s George. But there are other claimants still. TheWiki Articlesays George was identified by the Naval War College. But he’s from Rhode Island, so of course they would say that
That’s a pretty cool link (in the OP, with various recreations of the iconic image). As a married guy, I note with interest the bit about the sailor actually being out on a date with his future wife, who appears over his shoulder in the picture and is not the kissee. Apparently, she was a good sport about it.
Secretary Denis McDonough acted hours after a copy of a memo from a VA assistant undersecretary requesting the photo’s removal from all VA health facilities was shared on social media. The memo had said the photo “depicts a non-consensual act” and is inconsistent with the department’s sexual harassment policy.
Yes, apparently the “nurse” (I believe she was actually a dental assistant) was not amused by being ambushed like this, although she had to go along to get along. Everything the Greatest Generation did was o.k., right?
Except for taking place 75 years earlier. There’s a lot of things we don’t do now that were commonplace 75 years ago. The soccer coach should have realized that, it’s unfair to liken this man back then to someone now who is expected to know better and adhere to social standards that did not exist then. That’s not to justify the action of either man, simply to put those actions in reasonable perspective. Such behavior was not regularly condemned 75 years ago but is now, that’s the lesson to be taken.
Seventy five years ago it was not OK to grab and kiss a woman. There is a reason old films are filled with women slapping men for doing such a thing. I’m trying to think of a time when its been OK to grab and kiss a woman without some form of consent. The problem being that before women were people, they were some other man’s property - her father, her husband, her brother - and you didn’t take liberties with someone else’s property. And, in fact, women will tell you that there are still men who feel entitled to you unless you can state you belong to some other man - “I have a boyfriend” is still used to get out of unwanted attention.
If you read the WaPo piece above, you’ll see that following the close of the war, this behavior was fairly common, and was tolerated due to what our “brave young boys” had been through. But tolerated for a few days at the end of the war isn’t the same as “not regularly condemned.” Its a little like rioting after your team wins the Superbowl and torching someone’s car - you are probably going to get away with it - that isn’t the same as it being OK.
I never said it was OK. I am saying times have changed and precisely that the photo and the historic reaction to it illustrate a change for the better over time. That’s how to relate it to the recent soccer coach incident mentioned in the post I was responding too.
It’s not “woke.” “Woke” would be some manifesto proclaiming that the Allied victory in WWII was merely a victory for the Patriarchy, no different than if the Axis had won, and that kiss was only a matter of degrees different from the Soviets assaults on German women and girls.
It was wrong but not recognized as a non-consensual kiss at the time. Now we know so now we should do the right thing. That’s not “woke,” it’s just common decency.
Or if you want to explain it as errant exuberance, no real harm, then there’s an action described by Anthony Burgess in A Vision of Battlements during a post-VE celebration, in the same spirit as the kiss, even less harmful, but just as unacceptable as a memorial
A drunken British soldier stands on the bar, urinates into his pint, and downs it in one go
