What was the occupation of Greta Zimmer Friedman in the famous V-J Day kiss photograph?

Greta Zimmer Friedman was a dental assistant in the famous V-J Day kiss photograph.

Friedman was the woman in white whom a sailor kissed in Alfred Eisenstaedt’s image in Times Square on 14 August 1945. For many years, the woman was widely assumed to be a nurse because of her white clothing. Friedman later explained that she was wearing a white dental-assistant uniform.

The picture captured a spontaneous moment during New York’s celebrations after news of Japan’s surrender spread. Friedman said the sailor grabbed her suddenly, and she did not know him beforehand. Her account helped correct the common identification of the woman as a nurse.

Several men claimed to be the sailor, and the sailor’s identity remains less certain than Friedman’s. The photograph therefore illustrates both the emotional atmosphere of V-J Day and the difficulty of identifying people in an unplanned historical image.