It is, arguably, the single most famous still image of the 20th century: a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square on V-J Day in August 1945.

That simple, straightforward description of the scene, however, hardly begins to capture not only the spontaneity, energy and sheer exuberance shining from Alfred Eisentaedt’s photograph, but the significance of the picture as a kind of cultural — indeed a totemic — artifact. “V-J Day in Times Square” is not merely the one image that captures what it felt like in America when it was finally announced, after half-a-decade of global conflict, that Japan had surrendered and that the War in the Pacific — and thus the Second World War itself — was effectively ended. Instead, for countless people, Eisentaedt’s photograph captures at least part of what the people of a nation at war experience when war, any war, is over.

On the anniversary of that August 14th afternoon 67 years ago, LIFE.com presents not only Eisenstaedt’s storied photograph — and one marvelous photo of the man himself in the midst of the hoopla, at left — but pictures taken around the country by other LIFE photographers, as well, as word spread that Japan had surrendered.

(The ceremony officially, fully ending the war would not take place for another few weeks, when Japanese representatives signed the documents of surrender aboard the the USS Missouri battleship in Tokyo bay on Sept. 2, 1945.)

It’s worth remembering, however, that while the joy and relief that surged through the entire country — and across much of the globe, or certainly across those parts of it allied with America — the celebrations in many major cities were hardly all sweetness and light. In fact, as several of the images and captions here make clear, some of the tumult unleashed by word of Japan’s surrender quickly (and perhaps inevitably) devolved into what can only be described as riots.

Booze flowed, inhibitions were cast off, there were probably as many fists thrown as kisses planted; in other words, once the inconceivable had actually been confirmed and it was clear that the century’s deadliest, most devastating war was finally over, Americans who for years had become accustomed to almost ceaseless news of death and loss were not quite ready for a somber, restrained reaction to the surrender. That would come, of course. There would be, in the coming months and years, a more considered, reflective response to the war and to the enemies America had fought so brutally, and at such cost, for so long.

But in the giddy and even chaotic first few hours after the announcement, people naturally took to the streets of cities and towns all over the country. And while some of the merriment was no doubt of a quieter, G-rated variety, it’s hardly surprising that countless grown men and women seized the opportunity for cathartic revelry, giving vent to joy and relief as well as to the pent-up anxieties, fears, sorrows and anger of the previous several years.

In other words: the nation let loose.

That sort of revelry is not always very pretty. Sometimes it can be downright alarming, and even ugly. But to pretend it doesn’t happen (especially when a record of it happening exists right before one’s eyes) does a disservice to history, and to the memories of the men and the women killed and wounded in the war, and those who lived to mark its long-hoped-for end.

Finally, two small but significant pieces of information related to Eisenstaedt’s rightfully famous “Kiss in Times Square” might come — especially when taken together — as a real surprise to fans of both photography and of LIFE magazine in general.

First, it’s worth noting that, contrary to what countless people have long believed, the photo of the sailor kissing the nurse did not appear on the cover of LIFE. It did warrant a full page of its own inside the magazine (page 27 of the August 27, 1945, issue, to be exact) but was simply part of a larger, multi-page feature titled, simply, “Victory Celebrations.”

Quite closely tied to that first point is the fact that while the conclusion of the Second World War might be something LIFE magazine, of all publications, could be expected to feature on its cover for weeks on end, the magazine’s editors clearly had other ideas. In fact, not only did Eisensteadt’s Times Square photo not make the cover of the August 27th issue, but no image related to the war, or the peace, graced the cover. Instead the magazine carried a striking photograph of a ballet dancer. An underwater ballet dancer.

War is over! the picture seems to say. After years of brutal, global slaughter, our lives — in all their frivolous, mysterious beauty — can finally begin again.

Amen to that.

Credits: Eisenstaedt in Times Square, William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images; LIFE cover, Walter Sanders—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images