Graham bid farewell Tuesday to this massive public art installation, which recreates the iconic Life Magazine photo of a kissing couple who were caught on film during the VJ-Day celebrations in New York’s Times Square on August 14, 1945.
The statue’s removal comes a few days after the 77th anniversary of the end of the War in the Pacific.
The sculpture by Seward Johnson, dubbed “Embracing Peace,” is modeled after the famous 1945 photo of a sailor and nurse kissing in Times Square celebrating the end of World War II. Johnson, 89, died in 2020 while the statue was in Graham.
[See photos below.]


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