Sailor In Iconic V-J Day Times Square Photo Dies At 86
The man who apparently was the male half of one of the most iconic photos of the World War II era died earlier this week at the age of 86:
A Texas man thought to be the US Navy sailor kissing a nurse in an iconic end of World War Two photo has died.
Glenn McDuffie died aged 86 at a nursing home in Dallas on Sunday, his daughter said.
McDuffie’s claim to be the man in the famed VJ day photo was supported by a police forensic artist’s analysis.
Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt took the image as the news of Japan’s surrender filtered through New York’s Times Square on 14 August 1945.
McDuffie had told US media that he was changing subway trains when he heard that Japan had surrendered.
“I was so happy. I ran out in the street,” said McDuffie, who was then 18 and on his way to visit his girlfriend.
“And then I saw that nurse,” he said.
“She saw me hollering and with a big smile on my face… I just went right to her and kissed her.”
The nurse in the photograph was believed to be a woman named Edith Shain, who died in June of 2010 at the age of 91
It’s worth keeping in mind that the iconic picture captures sexual assault. McDuffie didn’t know the nurse; she didn’t consent to the kiss; and according to a later interview, she was freaked out by it.
McDuffie was obviously in the grip of strong emotion, but that’s the point. We men are dangerous in the grip of strong emotion. McDuffie’s imposition on Shain falls short of, say, torturing her to death and wearing her skin, so I’m not saying he’s History’s Greatest Monster; everybody please spare me your strawman rejoinders. But it was still way more invasive than a quick peck on the cheek or an exchange of satisfied smiles. Imagine yourself as Edith Shain for a moment: you are in what is on the precipice of a mob scene and suddenly a strange man is bending you in half with his tongue down your throat. You can’t be sure, at that moment, that you’ll be spared anything in particular.
Even in McDuffie’s recollection he can tell us everything about his own perception of the situation – “with a big smile on my face” – but nothing about hers. Her perspective wasn’t on his radar, at the time or, apparently, afterward. If you say, “Well, they regarded these things differently back then,” you are simply restating the essential problem. We, as men, have to do better.
No, that was Erik Estrada, who’s still very much alive.
Perhaps we should take into account the comments of the woman in question:
Doug, Ms. Shain did have more to say on the matter, in that article and, I believe, elsewhere:
That she eventually achieved a positive perspective on the incident is good. She deserved every happiness in life, as do we all. But at the very least, she cops to embarrassment at that moment and for years.
And again, McDuffie did not know he was kissing Edith Shain. (Assuming, for the moment, McDuffie and Shain were in fact the people in the photo.) He could have been kissing, for all he knew, a former rape victim, a woman deeply averse to sexual contact for religious reasons, or just someone with a constitution that wouldn’t easily absorb that particular shock. McDuffie did not care who he was kissing or what she would feel. This. Remains. The. Problem.
@Jim Henley:
That was very funny and made my day.
Interesting thought. In reality it was assault. In legend it was a celebration. And I’m sure you know the line from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance:
A bit of a non-sequitur as well as not being quite what we hope for from the press. But that’s how it went.
@michael reynolds: I totally get you, yeah.
In David Brinkley’s Washington Goes to War, he describes observing quite a lot of apparently consensual, outright intercourse in downtown DC doorways on V-J Day. Alas or maybe for the best, nobody ever printed those pictures. Decades later I do wonder if all the coupling going on was as consensual as Brinkley assumed. But hopefully.
When I look at the knuckles on Shain’s left hand, which have been in front of us for almost 70 years now, I infer considerable tension. My wife just looked at it and said, “She’s just waiting for it to be over.”
There are Men:
And there are Men:
Please don’t put us all in the same bag…
My old man was on Saipan at that moment happy only to know that he wouldn’t have to fly any more missions. I suspect he would have traded places with that sailor in a NY minute. I know I would have.
ps: different time different circumstances, but after the Cards won the World Series in ’84 (’82?? I forget) I was downtown with a bottle of Jack and I can’t remember how many girls I kissed. I do remember that none of them punched me or kneed me in the groin so either I was a really good kisser or they were as drunk as I.
@ernieyeball: If you want to exalt yourself for your membership in an organization rather than simply remind yourself that we have to meet standards anew each day and we haven’t done that yet, I suppose that says something about your organization.
@OzarkHillbilly: Would you have traded places with Edith Shain? To make it interesting, let’s say McDuffie was gay and you were yourself. Still trade places with Edith Shain?
I fly solo…
Who’s we? And how do you know what I’ve done? You must have a mouse in your pocket.
Take a Walk on the Wild Side
Thank You Lou Reed RIP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wNknGIKkoA&feature=kp
They live on — 25′ tall — in Sarasota, FL
http://shawnphillipsblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/saturday-013.jpg
@ernieyeball: So you are not a member of Promise Keepers? Because you joined this thread pointing to a fraternal organization for some reason. Members of fraternal organizations by definition don’t “fly solo.”
@Jim Henley: You are correct. I am not a member of Penis Keepers…er Promise Keepers. Nor am I crew on a Pirate Ship which is what the Martin Mull ditty “Men” is about, since I have to draw pictures for you.
I referenced both as two extremes on a continuum that might illustrate disparate behaviors in male humans.
I am about 46 years removed from my Sophmore Logic class but isn’t
a sweeping generalization?
So tell me what I, as a man have to do better at that you have first hand evidence of?
@ernieyeball: I would say things 1 and 2 are recognize your own fallibility and the fact that you are embedded in a larger culture. The third thing would be to monitor the unearned archness of your prose, but that’s way down the list.
Fallibility?
has been my Mantra for years.
Culture? I get that with my chicken wings and coffee watching sports on the 55 big screen TVs at the local Buffalo Wild Wings. Since my home is in a college town I have met and mingled with citizens from around the globe at that place. One of the gals that works there now is from Germany. Another gal who just quit is from England.
OUCH! U sure know how to hurt a guy!
As Lenny Bruce once said: “If you can take the hot lead enema, then you can cast the first stone.”
So someone down votes Professor Henley cracking on me.
Thanks!
I’ll try to not let it go to my head…