Top: Alfred Eisenstaedt / Time-Life Pictures / Getty Images; Bottom: George Mendonsa many men who came forward claiming to be the sailor. I never appreciated how Life handled the issue and to this day they’ ve never confirmed that I’ m the guy. But a number of experts and compelling evidence attest to me being the sailor in that photograph.
I’ ve actually been on the air with some of these other guys who have come out claiming themselves to be the sailor and I can eliminate every single one of them. None of them could prove where the spot was in Times Square where the nurse was kissed. At least one said,“ Oh, I came up out of the subway and I saw the nurse and I grabbed her.” Well, where I did kiss that girl, there’ s no subway station there. And I eliminated them all. None of them had solid proof they could be the sailor in that photo.
Here’ s the evidence I’ ve got: I have two rather unique spots on either arm. It’ s a kind of birth mark and a bump underneath the skin. Richard Benson, a former dean of art and professor of photography at Yale was able to identify this mark on my left arm from the photo. Another professor, Dr. Norman Sauer of Michigan State University, who is a nationally recognized forensic pathologist, identified me based on an in-depth physical characteristic analysis compared to the famous photograph. Additionally, The Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab in Cambridge, MA, used Department of Defense awarded face recognition technology to ultimately decide I was the guy.
I also have unusually large hands. They’ re fisherman hands, enlarged from pulling up nets. My mother also had large hands. In fact, it was one of the first features of mine that I noticed when I saw the picture. I saw my hands.
Later, my wife Rita, she starts looking at the photo one day and said,“ You know, that girl’ s face over the sailor’ s right shoulder? I think that’ s me!”
I said,“ No, that’ s not you. You were on the other side.”
She got disgusted with me that I
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wasn’ t supporting her so one day I went to the old photos we had in the house and dug up some photos of her the same year.
I thought,“ She can be identified. I’ ve got the photos right here.” So if you look at the photo, you can identify Rita as well.
The truth is, the photo has been worth so much more to me than any notoriety I’ ve received. My father was born in Madeira Island, Portugal, and came to America in 1910. In Portugal during those years, to form the Portuguese Army, they would take a son out of each family. So my father’ s youngest brother was appointed by the family to go into the Portuguese Army to fulfill the family obligation. Two other kids from the village went along with him to Africa and after a period of time they returned, but my uncle was not with them. My father asked the other kids how they came back and where his brother was but he
never found out. For years and years, my father would get a tip that maybe his brother was in Venezuela, since a lot of young guys were leaving Madeira in poverty and going all over to South America. I can remember my father, every once in a while getting excited and following a tip, but he was never able to trace him anywhere.
Then, after the war, when my picture was circulating all over the world, I got a phone call one night and a guy on the other end of the line said,“ Are you George Mendonsa?”
“ Yeah,” I said. Then he asks me if I’ m Portuguese and I responded“ yes” again.
“ Where were your people from?” he asked.
“ My people were from Madeira, Portugal.”
Then he said,“ I think we’ re related. My father is in Venezuela and his name was Mendonsa.”
My father tried for 75 years to find his brother and he never found him. Now this photo is circulating in the newspapers in Venezuela with my name in the photo. My cousins saw that photo and that article
IN A SECOND, ORIGINALLY UNPUBLISHED PHOTO, THE FUTURE RITA MENDONSA CAN BE SEEN DIRECTLY AND MORE FULLY. ALONG WITH THE SPOTS ON THE SAILOR’ S HAND, HIS HAIRLINE, AND SEVERAL OTHER DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS, RITA’ S PRESENCE IN THE PHOTO PROVED KEY IN IDENTIFYING GEORGE AS THE SAILOR. OF THE SEVERAL WOMEN WHO BELIEVED THEMSELVES TO BE THE NURSE, ONLY GRETA FRIEDMAN WAS TALL ENOUGH TO MATCH UP WITH GEORGE.
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