"EVERYTHING IS A FLEETING MOMENT."
This statue, titled “Unconditional Surrender,” features a larger-than-life sized figure of a World War II sailor kissing a nurse. It was created by J. Seward Johnson and is a three-dimensional interpretation in color of Alfred Eisenstadt’s black and white photograph taken in Times Square on Aug. 14, 1945, the day World War II ended.

The 25-foot statue was temporarily at 44th and Broadway in New York before coming to San Diego. It will be here for at least the next few months. The woman in the kiss, Edith Shain, was on hand early in February for the unveiling. George Mendonsa, an 82-year-old retired fisherman who lives in Middletown, R.I., has insisted for decades that he’s the man in the photo. Some others have laid claim to the kiss.

In 1987, eight years before his death, Eisenstadt told an interviewer, “There was so much ecstasy, it was unbelievable what was going on.” I photographed sailors and everybody kissing each other... The next day I heard I had a remarkable picture. I didn’t even know. For me, everything was a fleeting moment.”