Nurse of Times Square Photo Fame Led NYC Veterans Day Parade

11 Nov 2008

When Japan's surrender was announced, the crowd gathered at New York City's Times Square bursted into a wild celebration. Photographer Victor Jorgensen, at the right place at the right time, took a photograph of an United States Navy sailor kissing a nurse, and that photograph became one of the iconic images relating to the war.

The nurse in the photograph was possibly Edith Shain, now 90. She returned to Times Square today to lead a group of WW2 veterans in New York City's Veterans Day Parade. When asked about the day when the photograph was taken, she said that "[t]he end of the war was a wonderful experience, and that photo represents all those feelings", said Shain. "[T]his guy grabbed me and we kissed, and then I turned one way and he turned the other. There was no way to know who he was, but I didn't mind because he was someone who had fought for me."

The photographer Jorgenson traveled with the US Navy during WW2 and took pictures for the military. Another famous photograph of his was taken in the forward elevator well of carrier USS Monterey, in which the future US President Gerald Ford was playing basketball with his comrades.

For more information:

BBC: 'WWII photo nurse' leads parade
WW2DB: Jorgenson's photo of the Times Square kiss
WW2DB: Jorgenson's photo of Gerald Ford aboard USS Monterey
WW2DB: Japan's Surrender



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