Rhode Island’s connection to the Victory Day kiss photograph

On August 14, 1945, George Mendonsa, a Newport native who later lived in Middletown, was photographed celebrating after Japan’s surrender was announced. The image, captured by Alfred Eisenstaedt and later published in Life magazine, became one of the most recognized photographs of the 20th century.

The woman in the nurse’s uniform was Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant who, like Mendonsa, had no idea she was about to become part of history. Mendonsa, who was on leave from serving aboard a destroyer, said the kiss was inspired by his admiration for military nurses who treated the wounded during the war.

Mendonsa lived a long life in Rhode Island, married to his wife for 70 years. He passed away in February 2019 at the age of 95, just two days shy of his 96th birthday. Friedman, who escaped Austria as a teenager during the war, died in 2016 at the age of 92.

Rhode Island’s annual Victory Day is the only legal holiday in the nation dedicated to commemorating the end of World War II.

The event it honors took place on Aug. 14, 1945, when Japan’s surrender was announced in the United States, bringing the war to a close. While originally linked to that date, the holiday is now observed on the second Monday in August.

Contrary to popular belief, Rhode Island’s holiday has never been officially called “V-J Day” (short for “Victory over Japan”).

Since its creation in 1948, the name in state law has always been “Victory Day.”

The Ocean State became the sole state to observe Victory Day in 1975, after Arkansas lawmakers revised their holiday calendar and removed their Aug. 14 commemoration, which it first established in 1949. In exchange, state employees there received their birthdays off.

Despite claims online, Victory Day was never a federal holiday. A 1999 U.S. Senate report on federal observances makes no mention of it, and a 1950 government publication shows only Rhode Island and Arkansas ever marking the occasion.

Rhode Island’s General Assembly established Victory Day in March 1948, nearly three years after World War II ended, through legislation sponsored by state Rep. Richard Windsor, a longtime East Providence Republican.

Rhode Island and Victory Day kiss photograph.