Forensic expert identifies mariner in famed VJ New York Times Square kiss

It was an impromptu moment that gave rise to one of the most iconic photographs celebrating the end of WWII.

London, Aug 13 : It was an impromptu moment that gave rise to one of the most iconic photographs celebrating the end of WWII.

As news spread that Japan had surrendered, a jubilant US Navy sailor grabbed a passing nurse and locked lips with her for a celebratory kiss that has since found its way on several websites, hoardings and been seen by millions around the globe.

But for more than six decades, the identity of the passionate mariner kissing nurse Edith Shain in New York's Times Square on VJ Day has remained a source of dispute, with at least 10 men claming themselves to be the sailor who smooched her that day.

Now, one of the world's most respected forensic experts has claimed to have settled the debate following an investigation into photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt's famed Life magazine cover shot, which was snapped as news came of the Japanese surrender on August 14, 1945.

According to Lois Gibson - a forensic artist with the Houston Police Department, the sailor is the picture is 80-year-old US Navy veteran Glenn McDuffie, who has fought for years to prove his claim and is now battling lung cancer.

Gibson, who in 2005 was named by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most successful forensic artist due to her uncanny knack for helping Houston police to snare more than 1,000 criminals, compared the pictures using digital imaging techniques and precise measurements of McDuffie's bone structure including his forehead, ears, wrists, knuckles and arms.

"I am positive, its Glenn...What I do is usually a matter of life or death, so I don't mess around when I identify someone," said Gibson.

"I couldn't be happier, this means everything to me. I thought I would die before I ever got anything done about it, that was my biggest fear. People said I wasn't telling the truth, that I was a liar. But all these other guys who claim they're the sailor...well, get them to take a polygraph test. I've taken ten and I passed them all," said McDuffie, who will mark the 62nd anniversary of VJ Day on Tuesday with a salute to the US flag that flies outside his home in a Texas trailer park.

But Carl Muscarello, 81, a retired policeman from Florida, who also claims to be the smooching seafarer in the picture, said Mrs. Shain has identified him as the kissing mariner.

He said Mrs. Shain accepted him as the man who kissed her based on his answers to questions such as where they went out to dinner that night and what he said to her after they kissed.

"I told her we never went out to dinner and I didn't say anything, we just both faded back into the crowd," said Muscarello.

"My whole life has been dedicated to following the truth and I know for a fact I am the sailor. That lady in Houston who said it was McDuffie - that's just her opinion.

"Everybody had somebody in that war - an uncle, a father, a friend - and it was like New Year's Eve that August day when we heard it was over. If you were in uniform, it was likely that if you didn't kiss anybody, somebody would kiss you. So I didn't exactly hold back," he said.

Mrs Shain, now 89, has made a number of public appearances with Muscarello in the past, including posing for a kiss with him in Times Square two years ago.

As of now, she has not commented publicly on the latest findings.

"I spoke to her and told her I'd been positively identified. She was kind of sarcastic, but she was curious enough to tell me to keep in touch," the Daily Mail quoted McDuffie as saying.

Incidentally, though Eisenstaedt was never able to confirm the identity of the sailor before he died in 1995, he did declare that he believed Mrs. Shain to be the woman in his photograph.

ANI