VJ Day kiss photo will stay on display as memo requesting removal is reversed

The famous photo depicts a sailor kissing a nurse in New York’s Times Square on VJ Day (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

The US veterans affairs (VA) secretary has reversed a department memo that aimed to ban VA displays of the famous VJ Day in Times Square photograph of a navy sailor kissing a woman on the streets of New York at the end of the Second World War.

Secretary Denis McDonough acted hours after a copy of a memo from a VA assistant undersecretary requesting the photo’s removal from all VA health facilities was shared on social media.