Iconic VJ Day ‘Kissing Sailor’ Statue Vandalized With ‘Me Too’

A statue in Sarasota, Florida depicting the iconic V-J Day image from World War II was defaced with “#MeToo” last week.

At least one graffiti artist is taking a fresh look at one of the most emblematic images in American History. Sarasota is home to a statue of a sailor kissing a nurse — the same image from Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photo “V-J Day,” published by Life Magazine in 1945. Last Monday, someone painted the Hashtag “Me Too” onto the nurse’s leg in red.

“At approximately 12:53 am, our Officers were dispatched to the intersection of N Gulfstream Ave & Bayfront Dr reference to an unknown individual spray painting ‘# MeToo’ on the Unconditional Surrender statue,” tweeted the Sarasota Police Department.

In a public statement, the police added that there was no evidence found on the scene, such as spray paint cans, and there was no surveillance footage of the area available. The damage is estimated at $1,000, and Sarasota Public Works will see that it is fixed.

The vandalism came on the day after George Mendonsa, who claimed he was the man in the picture, passed away. Mendonsa had identified himself as the sailor overwhelmed by the U.S.’s victory, though Life Magazine never verified his identity.

Mendonsa passed away last Sunday, his family told the Providence Journal. He lived in an assisted living facility in Middletown, Rhode Island, and he was just two days away from his 96th birthday.

Mendonsa had told his story to reporters many times over the years, and historians Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi worked hard to confirm his identity in their 2012 book The Kissing Sailor.

Mendonsa’s account of the kiss explains why a provocateur might have painted the infamous hashtag on the statue.

In 2015, Mendonsa told CNN that he had been out on his first date with his wife on V Day. The two were in Times Square when news of the allied victory broke, and they streamed out into the street to celebrate with the rest of the city.

“The booze was flying, and I popped quite a few,” Mendonsa recalled. “We’re all drinking and raising hell.”

“So we get into Times Square and the war ends and I see the nurse,” he went on. “I had a few drinks, and it was just plain instinct, I guess. I just grabbed her.”

The nurse was later identified as Greta Zimmer Friedman. She confirmed that she did not know Mendonsa at the time of the photogenic kiss. She passed away as well in 2016.