Famous V-J Day in Times Square  kissing photo survives call for a ban as debate rages over sailor kissing nurse without consent - so was it a joyful celebration to mark the end of war or sexual assault?

The famous VJ day photo of a solider kissing a nurse that became a symbol of the end of World War II has survived calls for a ban after complaints it was 'offensive' as it showed a 'non-consensual act'.

The image, taken in New York's Times Square, shows the moment a solider grabbed a nurse - who he did not know - and kissed her, as part of celebrations to celebrate Victory over Japan.

It was immortalised on film by photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt who snapped the image for Life Magazine.

Last week, a memo from the US Department of Veteran Affairs was leaked which  instructed employees to 'promptly remove' the historic image and replace it with one deemed less offensive. 

The department has now confirmed the memo has been rescinded, but the event has reignited debate over the image - which some have claimed is a symbol of a 'very public sexual assault'.

The Department of Veteran Affairs has rescinded a memo banning the iconic J-V Day Times Square kiss photo from its buildings

In 2012, they were name as George Mendonsa and Greta Friedman. Greta, a dental nurse, who died in 2016 aged 92, then revealed they hadn't met before and that the kiss 'wasn't romantic'. They are pictured recreating the kiss in 1980

For years, no one knew who the two embracing in the picture were, with many people coming forward claiming to be the people in the picture.

In 2012, they were name as George Mendonsa and Greta Friedman. 

Greta, a dental nurse, who died in 2016 aged 92, then revealed they hadn't met before and that the kiss 'wasn't romantic'.

'It was just as "thank god the war is over" kind of thing,' she told the Library of Congress in 2005.

'It wasn't my choice to be kissed. The guy just came over and kissed or grabbed,' she added.

Alfred added that the picture was 'spontaneous' after her spotted  George walking through Times Square and 'grabbing every female he could and kissing them all'.

However, the pair seemingly remained in touch over the years. 

Freidman's son, Joshua, said his mother and Mendonsa became friends as they got older.

The pair stayed in touch over the years, and reunited in 1980 in Times Square 

 The couple are pictured at the World War II Memorial in 2005

'My mom always had an appreciation for a feminist viewpoint, and understood the premise that you don't have a right to be intimate with a stranger on the street,' Josh Friedman told the NYDN.

'(But) she didn't assign any bad motives to George in that circumstance, that situation, that time.'

Nevertheless, the debate over the photo has raged over the years.

In 2014, Time magazine said that many people consider it 'little more than the documentation of a very public sexual assault,' and in 2019 #MeToo, was graffitied onto a statue on the picture in Florida. 

Others however have continued to celebrate the photo. On the 70th anniversary of V-J day in 2015, hundreds of couples headed to Times Square to recreate the image. 

Various couples have claimed to be the people in the photograph over the years, but George and Greta were finally identified in 2012.

Another angle of the kiss shows George's future wife Rita in the background (shown on the left)

In the late 1970s, nurse Edith Shain wrote Mr Eisenstaedt saying she was the woman in the picture, wandering through Times Square after working at Doctor's Hospital in New York City.

Without indisputable proof, LIFE launched a bid in 1980 to identify the couple, and a flood of war veterans and nurses came forward to claim their kisses were recorded.

But forensic analysis managed to confirm it was Mendosa and Friedman.

Incredibly,  Mendonsa was on a date with his girlfriend, Rita Petry, at Radio City Music Hall on the day.

He was on leave after surviving battles in the Pacific, where he watched nurses care for wounded sailors 

He says he immediately left the theatre with his date and went into a bar nearby where he began 'drinking and raising hell'.

Later, the couple were walking together through Times Square when he saw the nurse coming the other way and decided to give her a kiss.

Another image of that moment, taken by a different photographer from a slightly wider angle, apparently shows Rita smiling in the background.

'A lot of people say, "Well, you grabbed the nurse and you're with a date." I say, "For Chrissake, the war is over!" I remembered what those nurses did out there.'

For her part, Rita claims she didn't mind, and the couple then tired the knot and stayed married until Mendosa's death.

Greta's granddaughter has since revealed she never felt violated' even though it was a surprise, 

 Caroline Branin, 28, told DailyMail.com that her grandmother viewed the famous photo as a 'celebration of the end of the war.'  

Caroline Branin told DailyMail.com that her grandmother Greta Friedman, who was the nurse in the photo and died in 2016, viewed the iconic photo as a 'celebration of the end of the war'. They are pictured together 

The memo instructed employees to 'promptly remove' the image and replace it with one deemed less offensive

 'She was always very proud of the image and she thought it was two young people celebrating in the street.

'It was really something they were just very happy about. My grandma signed images of the photo up until she died.

'She was proud to be an American citizen. She was a refugee from Austria and so the end of the war marked more to her than for everyday people.

'She never felt it was something inappropriate. It's interesting they tried to reframe historical events in today's values.

'I have a picture in my house that my grandma signed and even George Mendonsa signed it. My grandma stayed in contact with George and she did parades on V-J day with him.

'She never said it was anything she felt was uncomfortable'.

Mendonsa and Friedman returned to Times Square in 1980 to recreate the photograph. By that time they were both happily married to other people, and had not seen each other in 35 years.

Greta Zimmer Friedman: The woman taken by surprised in V-J Day kiss photograph

Greta Zimmer Friedman's name may not ring any bells, but the famous photograph of her being kissed by a sailor in the middle of Times Square celebrating the Japanese surrender in World War II is seen and known by millions.

Friedman was born and raised in Austria. She and her two sisters fled Hitler and the Nazis and came to America in 1939, leaving her parents behind. 

She was 21 years old, living in Queens and working as a dental assistant when she came across George Mendonsa, a drunken sailor stumbling through Times Square amid jubilant crowds after the war ended on August 14, 1945.  

Describing the moment decades later, Friedman said she would never forget her shock when Mendonsa grabbed her and kissed her entirely out-of-the-blue. 

It wasn't until the 1960s that Friedman learned the kiss had been immortalized by Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt when she saw the photo and immediately recognized herself. 

By that time, she had married a doctor, Mischa (Mitty) Friedman, and moved to Maryland, where they raised son Joshua and daughter Mara.

Friedman and Mendonsa were reunited through the photograph and developed a friendship over the years, but that kiss in 1945 was the only one they would ever share.  

She passed away aged 92 at an assisted living facility in Virginia on September 8, 2016. She was laid to rest alongside her late husband in Arlington National Cemetery.

The debate over the photo has been reignited after US VA Secretary Denis McDonough was forced to deny the photo's ban after a leaked memo signed by Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Operations RimaAnn O. Nelson began making the rounds online.

'Let me be clear: This image is not banned from VA facilities - and we will keep it in VA facilities,' McDonough said on Twitter .

When pressed by DailyMail.com, the VA admitted the memo was sent out late last month but had since been rescinded. It's not clear if it was ever approved by McDonough.

It's not Nelson's first time being the subject of backlash over her handling of veteran affairs. 

Back in 2016, after she was made director of the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Arizona lawmakers including John McCain expressed concern over her 'questionable record' in a letter to then- president Barack Obama.

In one letter, they cited a 2011 report that found a St Louis facility under Nelson's watch potentially exposed over 1,800 veterans to HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C.

The report found longstanding issues with dental equipment at the center, but also added that the chances of 'patient-to-patient transmission of a blood-borne infectious disease … was unlikely.' 

Still, the facility notified the nearly over 1,800 patients of the risk. 

In another letter signed by lawmakers including then Democratic rep. Kyrsten Sinema, lawmakers called Nelson's past 'less than impressive.'

The letter read: 'To think that Ms. Nelson, with her less-than-impressive past, is the best possible candidate to provide crucial leadership for the facility equated to "ground zero" of the VA scandal is unequivocally offensive to us and each of the veterans we represent.'