The kiss at war's end: V-J Day in Times Square

On August 14, 1945, New York celebrated Japan's surrender in Times Square. U.S. Navy photographer Victor Jorgensen caught a sailor kissing a woman in white. The archive identifies the location as Times Square, New York City; it does not record the exact time. 1

The National Archives record identifies the frame as 80-G-377094 and NAID 520697; the Commons page also lists Naval Historical Center #520697. It is marked public domain as a U.S. Navy work made in official duties. 1

The photograph matters because it compresses the end of a world war into one street-level gesture: noise, uniforms, strangers, and relief arriving all at once. The original stays beside the colorized version because color can suggest the scene, but it cannot add evidence the negative never recorded.