That the Unconditional Surrender statue is in Sarasota at all is because of the determination and generosity of naval veteran Jack Curran, whospent $500,000 on the statue, and a few civic leaders who agreed withhim that it represents a defining moment for America’s GreatestGeneration.
The 25-footstatue made its first appearance in Sarasota in November 2005 as a temporary exhibit. It became so popular that a group of localssought to seek its return.
Unconditional Surrender has become the most photographed site inthe city, especially popular with tourists who copy the pose for a photo op. Not since the giant sea horses on the old Lido Casino hasthere been such an iconic backdrop.
The agreement for a permanent display called for Curran to loan the statue to the city of Sarasota for 10 years, after which it would bedonated for display and educational purposes. The Sarasota City Commission at the timeratified theagreement by a 3-2 vote.
The Public Art Committee was and is foursquare against the sculpture, which they do not see as a piece of art. As the chairwoman of thePublic Art Committee was quoted in 2009:“It doesn’t even qualify askitsch ... It is like a giant cartoon image drafted by a computer emulating a famous photograph. It’s not the creation of an artist. It’s an artist
copying a famous image.”
Their protestations notwithstanding, art or not, kitsch or not, the statuehas been heartily embraced by veterans groups and a majority ofSarasotans who are concerned not at all about its artistic merits buttake pleasure in the very sight of it.
Photographs and stories about Sarasota’s larger-than-life statue have been seen throughout the world.
The photo that inspired the statue memorializes the celebratory embrace between Petty Officer George Mendonsa,home on leave fromaction in the South Pacific, and a dental assistant,21-year-old GretaZimmer, though there has been some controversy about whether the embrace was consensual.
He happened to be in the area on a date. She left her office to share inthe joy of the war’s end, but otherwise was minding her own business, on awildly crowded and raucous Times Square Street.
The Alfred Eisenstaedtphoto of the event, snapped on Tuesday, Aug.14, 1945, as well as a lesser-known version taken by Navy photographerLt. Victor Jorgensen, from a different angle, has been termedthe “Kiss heard ’round the world.”
It became an immediate tableau of the end of World War II. Jorgensen’s photo was titled“Kissing The WarGoodbye.” For copyright purposes, Johnson indicated that his statuewas based on Jorgensen’s picture.
Eisenstaedt’s shot was published on the cover of Life Magazine on Aug. 28, 1945; the duo,identified much later, were swept into theannals of history.
And,recently, into controversy as the #MeToo movement took hold. InFebruary 2019, vandals painted #MeToo in red on the nurse’sleg.
For the generations who came after VJ Day, it is difficult to imagine the pervasive impact of World War II on America: More than 1 million US servicepersonnel killed and wounded; food, gas and tire rationing; VictoryGardens to help with food shortages; daily headlines andcomprehensive articles about the progress of the war in newspapers, magazines, the radio, and newsreels; buying war bonds; collectingrubber and metal for the war effort. Add the dreaded telegram fromthe War Department to survivors of those killed in action or missing inaction, sentimental songs, Gold Star Families, war movies, and war-themed advertisements.
Indeed, the war permeated all facets ofAmerican life. The end of it all could not come soon enough.
Mendonsa, who served on the destroyer The Sullivans and was home on his last day of leave, was slated to return to active duty. He had seen the terrorsof the war, and what was on his mind that triumphant daywas thememory of the nurses, “the Angels in White” who had cared unselfishlyfor the wounded and dying soldiers, sailors and Marines he served with.
When he saw that same white uniform, he reacted spontaneously, briefly left his girlfriend (whom he later married), rushed to Zimmer and huggedand kissed her.
In a Patricia Redmond interview archived with the Veterans History Project, Zimmer remembered: “Suddenly, I was grabbed by a sailor. Itwasn’t that much of a kiss. It was more of a jubilant act that he didn’thave to go back.
“I found out later he was so happy that he didn’t have to go back to the Pacific where they had already been through the war.
“The reason he grabbed somebody dressed like a nurseis that he felt so very grateful to the nurses who took care of the wounded.”
After the kiss in Times Square, the pair did not meet again until both of their identities were proven. They reunited in Times Square in 1980 torecreate the famous moment, sans the kiss, and again in 2012.
According to the New York Post, “In recent years, bloggers and other critics have tried to use the VJ Day kiss as an example of sexual assault,a stance Mendonsa and Friedman adamantly opposed.”
George said he was proud to be associated with a photograph that issynonymous with the end of World War II.
Eisenstaedt was probably Life’s most famous photographer, noted forusing the small 35mm Leica camera instead of the large box camera.
His wartime photos covered everything from the rise of Hitler to the fall of Japan. He died on Aug.23, 1995.
Seward Johnson, the grandson of Johnson &Johnson co-founderRobert Johnson, known for his cast bronze sculptures of people doingeveryday things as well as larger-than-life works. He said of hiscreations, “People often revisit their favorites. They become likefriends.”He died in Key West at age 89 on March 10, 2020.
Mendonsa, a fisherman like his father, died just two days short of his96th birthday on Feb.17, 2019. His wife, Rita Petry who is smilingin the background of the Eisenstaedt photo, died in 2019. They werehappily married for 70 years.
Gretta married Mischa Friedman and had two children. She went on to become a designer and artist. She died Sept.8, 2016, age 92, and isburied in Arlington Cemetery.
Jack Curran died on Dec.22, 2015. He was 94. Accordingto an article in the Herald-Tribune, his longtime friend James Hardensaid Curran was one of the most congenial people he ever met. “Hiswife [Margaret] just loved it. So that’s why he bought it.”
Unconditional Surrender is in the news again because it has become necessary to move it to complete road construction in the area.
The question soon to be decided by the City Commission: Will the statue be moved to an out of the way location, or replaced where it brings joyto a great many – and, of course, offers an iconic photo opportunity?
Sarasota historian Jeff LaHurd can be reached atjlahurd60@yahoo.com.
