Is This The Real KISS Statue Couple?

A new book claims that a Frederick, Maryland, woman is the nurse in the iconic Unconditional Surrender photo, which was replicated into several statues including the one that will return to Sarasota this summer.

In the book, The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind The Photo that Ended World War II, author Lawrence Verria writes that he believes that Greta Friedman is the nurse. The book is published by the Naval Institute Press.

Verria told WHAG, a Hagerstown, Maryland NBC affiliate, that the woman is undeniably Friedman: 

"Of the three people that came forward, Greta Friedman was the only one that it could possibly be," said Verria, "Her height is correct, her body build is correct, her hairdo is correct based on pictures from that time period."

Verria said he used forensic analysis and other modern technology to verify the identities.

The Life photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt has been replicated numerous times over, including the ever controversial as it's being repaired following damages from a collision.

Friedman told WUSA, a Washington D.C. CBS affiliate, that the moment was as spontaneous as the photograph appeared:

"I did not see him approach. He just grabbed," Friedman told 9News Now.

Friedman was working several blocks away when dental patients came to her office with rumors that Japan was about to surrender.

Her lunch break began at one o'clock and she knew where she wanted to go.

"I thought, well, the best place to go to find out what it is, is Times Square, because of the building and the lighted sign ( which flashed news on the building's exterior ) and when I got there I saw "VJ" and I don't remember if there were other words along with it, and I didn't stay too long because I had to go back," she said.

As she began that return trip to the office, she was grabbed by a sailor who, as did so many other men in uniform that day, planted a kiss on a total stranger."

The sailor is also believed to be Rhode Island's George Mendosa, who told news outlets over the weekend that he "always believed Friedman was the nurse," according to WJLA, a Washington D.C. ABC affiliate.

Mendosa said he thought she was a nurse, but was actually wearing a dental assistant's unfirm, he told WUSA.

The photographer didn't believe Friedman either years later during a recreation of the shot, Friedman told the Frederick News-Post:

"Three and a half decades after Eisenstaedt captured the moment in Times Square, Friedman said she and Mendonsa were invited back to New York in 1980 for a photo shoot where it all began. Once again, she got a shock -- this time from the photographer.

"He said he was sorry that he believed the wrong person," she said.

Friedman keeps some copies of the original photo, but she generally remains mum about the experience.

"I don't go around with a big pin on my chest," she said."

Ft. Lauderdale resident Carl Muscarello maintains he was the sailor in the photograph over the years as well, and was recently featured in Diamonds Along the Highway on PBS station WEDU. Both Muscarello and Mendosa claim in interviews with the media that they both had a few drinks before going out on the streets, so there's that factor, too. 

Also, Edith Shain, a native of Tarrytown, New York, had claimed she was the nurse, and died in 2010.

Is the debate over or are you convinced of the identity of the sailor and the nurse, or dental assistant? You'll have to wait until August when the statue returns to Sarasota to get a better look.

CHIME IN: Which story do you believe? And will you read the book to find out?