The ‘V-J Day in Occasions Sq.’ picture was seen as depicting a “non-consensual act”
The legendary photograph of a sailor kissing an unsuspecting nurse in Occasions Sq. in NYC throughout celebrations of Japan’s give up in World Warfare II will proceed to brighten the amenities of the US Division of Veteran Affairs (VA), the company’s head Denis McDonough has assured.
McDonough made the assertion on Tuesday shortly after a memo aiming to ban the long-lasting picture started circulating on social media. It was despatched to VA’s regional workplaces by the company’s assistant secretary of well being for operations, RimaAnn Nelson, in late February and claimed that the ‘V-J Day in Occasions Sq.’ photograph depicted a “non-consensual act.”
The kind of habits that was captured by Life journal photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt in New York Metropolis on August 14, 1945 is “inconsistent with the VA’s no-tolerance coverage towards sexual harassment and assault,” Nelson wrote.
The picture, copies of that are displayed on the US Division of Veteran Affairs amenities as an emblem of the conclusion of World Warfare II, can’t serve that function anymore as a result of views on historic occasions “evolve” in society, she defined.
“To foster a extra trauma-informed setting that promotes the psychological security of our workers and the veterans we serve, pictures depicting the ‘V-J Day in Occasions Sq.’ ought to be faraway from all Veterans Well being Administration amenities,” Nelson instructed within the memo.
However the order was apparently overruled by her superior, McDonough, who wrote on X (previously Twitter): “Let me be clear: This picture shouldn’t be banned from VA amenities – and we’ll maintain it in VA amenities.” His submit included the photograph of the identical historic kiss on Occasions Sq., however pictured from a special angle by US Navy photojournalist Victor Jorgensen.
Greta Zimmer Friedman, who’s believed to be the lady in ‘V-J Day in Occasions Sq.,’ mentioned that the kiss between the 2 strangers “wasn’t a romantic occasion… it was a ‘thank God the warfare is over.’”
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“It wasn’t that a lot of a kiss,” Friedman recalled in a 2005 interview for the Veterans Historical past Undertaking. The explanation the sailor “grabbed somebody dressed like a nurse was that he simply felt very grateful to nurses who took care of the wounded,” she defined.
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