Ashley Sehen English 1102- 062 Concept Draft

The idea for my Historical Inquiry Project is from the photograph Kissing the War Goodbye taken by Alfred Eisenstaedts on August 14, 1945. There is not much of a story for the photograph other than the sailor that is kissing the nurse in the photo was running around Time Square, NY kissing random women in excitement that Japan had just surrender to the United States. At the time the photograph was taken World War 2 was ending. World War 2 was between the Allies and Axis powers. The Allies were made up of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union while the Axis powers were made up of Japan, Germany, and Italy. One of the causes of World War 2 was the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1941 the Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto Commander of Japanese Combined Fleet planned a secret attack on the United States for Oahu a little island in Hawaii. The admiral s plan was to be so secretive and overwhelming that the United States would not be able to fight back which is exactly what happened on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. However on December 8, 1941 just a few hours after the attack President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan which is what entered the United States into World War 2. For years the Allies fought against the Axis powers till 1945. Two main incidents leading to Japan surrendering in the war was on August 6, 1945 American Air Force dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima a Japanese city and then again on August 9, 1945 the Air Force dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city Nagasaki, both of these leading to 120,000 civilian deaths. Finally on August 14, 1945 Japan agreed to surrender to the Allie powers which resulted in the event of the photograph Kissing the War Goodbye . Since there is not much of a story for such a famous photograph for my project I would like to make the possible story for the photo. I would like to have the two people in the photograph know each other and actually be in love as the photo portrays. I would like to use the events from World War 2 to base their story off of and have this photograph represent not only the war ending but that the couple is finally reunited after the war.