The Best of LIFE: 37 Years in Pictures

Sailor Kissing a Nurse i n Times Square, VJ Day, 1945

On August 14, 1945 — VJ Day — a jubilant sailor plants a kiss on a nurse in Times Square to celebrate the Allies' long- awaited World War II victory over Japan.

Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

1945 | On August 14, 1945 — VJ Day — a jubilant sailor plants a kiss on a nurse in Times Square to celebrate the Allies’ long- awaited World War II victory over Japan. Originally published (not as a cover shot, as most people assume today, but as just one in a series of “VJ Day victory celebration” images featured in the middle of the magazine) in the August 27, 1945, issue of LIFE.

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