Dancing and Kissing as Times Square Marks VJ Day Anniversary

To mark the 70th anniversary of VJ Day and the iconic Times Square kiss between a sailor and a nurse, droves of tourists and locals flocked to the scene of the embrace on August 14 to reenact the renowned photograph. On this day 70 years ago, the Japanese surrendered to the US and its allies. This footage shows dancers recreating celebratory dances, and couples reenacting the kiss.

The photograph of the kiss was snapped by Alfred Eisenstaedt in Times Square on VJ Day, which is officially August 15 in the US. The kissing couple in the photograph was actually not a couple. Sailor George Mendonsa was on a first date with his future wife when the news broke that the war had ended so the two ran to Times Square to celebrate. Mendonsa, slightly intoxicated, saw a woman nearby in what he thought was a nurse’s uniform and ran to give her a passionate kiss. The woman, Greta Zimmer, was in fact not a nurse but a dental’s assistant, according to the New York Post. Credit: YouTube/Laura Giromini Arrigoni