Some people argued that it was a clear assault and because the law forbade it and women dreaded it, it was a wonder why Americans romanticized it.
There were so many interesting sights all across America on the Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day) as thousands of people celebrated the official end of World War II.
One of the more interesting sights occurred in Times Square on the 14th of August 1945. Two strangers were caught on Alfred Eisenstaedt’s camera, their lips locked in a kiss that would become legendary.
After years of scrutiny and false claims, the duo was identified as dental assistant Greta Zimmer Friedman and sailor George Mendoza.
In commemoration of Alfred Eisenstaedt’s iconic photograph, a statue depicting the pair was raised with the name Unconditional Surrender.
As the years passed, this romantic-looking statue would take center stage in relation to controversies about consent.
For many, this statue represents the joy that filled America’s ambiance on the day of Japan’s surrender. But several others would, over the years, allege that it is a depiction of sexual assault, especially after hearing the words of Greta Zimmer Friedman.
According to Friedman, it wasn’t her choice to be kissed. “The guy just came over and kissed [me]” she stated in 2005 in an interview with the Library of Congress. “It wasn’t my choice to be kissed,” she added.
Following the inspiration of Tarana Burke’s “Me Too” movement in 2006 and its viral spread in 2017, the spotlight was focussed on a number of historical claims of sexual assault. The immortalized V-J Day kiss saw more concentrated attention as people all around America and beyond opened up debates about consent and assault.
Some people argued that it was a clear assault and because the law forbade it and women dreaded it, it was a wonder why Americans romanticized it.
Freidman would die in 2016 at the age of 92, and her son would come out to say that she never viewed that one kiss with any form of negativity having understood the circumstances surrounding the act.
The male counterpart, George Mendoza, who came under fire for kissing a stranger out of the blue, said he thought Friedman was one of the troops. She’d appeared to be a nurse and Mendoza, wild with joy, grabbed her thinking she was one of the nurses that treated wounded soldiers.
On the 17th of February 2019, Mendoza died at the age of 95. His demise occurred only two days before his 96th birthday.
The death of the man in the famous statue was big news, drawing a variety of reactions from all corners. The most interesting reaction to his death came just one day after the news of his demise.
Pictures were released by the Sarasota Police Department on the 18th of February revealing that the famous statue of Friedman and Mendoza had been vandalized.
The unknown culprit had marked the statue with bright red graffiti which ran from the lady’s ankle to her knee. The graffiti clearly stated “#MeToo.”
According to the Sarasota Police Department, because the graffiti smeared a large area, the damage had an estimated cost of $1,000.
Different reactions arose from this rather unfortunate incident. Some groups voiced their anger towards the vandalism, stating that many people who stand against the statue cannot relate to the events of the time that the statue represents.
“The whole country was celebrating the end of the war,” someone posted on Facebook, “the whole country was together in that celebration.”
Someone else stated that sexual assault is terrible, but added that it was not the situation in this case.
“I can assure you this poor man who just died this week was not thinking of sexually assaulting a woman when he found out World War II was over!”
Read another story from us: The End of the Rising Sun – The Japanese Surrender in Color
Some others justified the vandalism, urging the city to take down the statue.
A Facebook user stated that instead of Unconditional Surrender, the statue could be aptly named Involuntary Surrender because it was never Friedman’s intention to kiss the sailor.
However, the City of Sarasota on the morning of Tuesday the 19th of February confirmed that the graffiti had been removed.