You probably recognize this photo. It was taken by photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt right after Japan surrendered in World War 2. Alfred recalls:

“I was walking through the crowds on V-J Day, looking for pictures. I noticed a sailor coming my way. He was grabbing every female he could find and kissing them all — young girls and old ladies alike. Then I noticed the nurse, standing in that enormous crowd. I focused on her, and just as I’d hoped, the sailor came along, grabbed the nurse, and bent down to kiss her.”

Did the nurse mind? No, she didn’t!

“This guy grabbed me and we kissed,” Edith Shain told the journalists in 2008. “And then I turned one way and he turned the other. There was no way to know who he was, but I didn’t mind because he was someone who had fought for me.”

At certain moments in our…