As Time Goes By

Letters of Note has an interesting post about the iconic photo V-J Day in Times Square, taken by the photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt on the day of the surrender of Japan during the Second World War.

It seems that, in 1979, Edith Shain – the nurse in the photo – wrote to the photographer disclosing her identity and Letters of Note carries a transcript of her letter. While providing a fascinating insight into the background of the photo from Edith Shain’s point of view, the following sentence caught my eye:

I had left Doctors’ Hospital and wanted to be part of the celebration but the amorous sailor and a subsequent soldier motivated a retreat into the next opening of the subway.

Perhaps this is the humourless feminist side of me coming to the fore, but I couldn’t help but think that, even on a day of national celebration around the ending of an international armed conflict, there was still no truce in the street harassment war.

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Fair use image via Wikipedia

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Thanks to Kirsty for posting the link on Twitter.