It was an impromptu moment that gave rise to one of the 20th century’s most iconic photographs. As a jubilant US sailor heard that the Second World War had ended, he grabbed a passing nurse for a celebratory kiss that was immortalised in a snapshot of postwar euphoria.

But for more than six decades the identity of the amorous mariner caught spreading his favours in Times Square, New York, on VJ-Day has been a source of dispute, with at least ten men claiming to have been the one who smooched Edith Shain.

Now a respected forensic artist claims to have settled the debate after an investigation into Alfred Eisenstaedt’s famous Life magazine cover shot, which was snapped as news came of the Japanese surrender on August 14, 1945. According to Lois Gibson, of the Houston Police Department, the man behind the mystery is Glenn McDuffie, an 80-year-old US Navy veteran who has striven for years to prove his claim and is now fighting lung cancer.

“I couldn’t be happier – this means everything to me,” Mr McDuffie said. “I thought I would die before I ever got anything done about it. That was my biggest fear.”

Mr McDuffie, who will mark the 62nd anniversary of VJ-Day tomorrow with a salute to the US flag that flies outside his home in a Texas trailer park, added: “People said I wasn’t telling the truth, that I was a liar. But all these other guys who claim they’re the sailor . . . well, get them to take a polygraph test. I’ve taken ten and I passed them all.”

Carl Muscarello, 81, a retired policeman from Florida, is among those who still claim to be the smooching seafarer in the picture. “My whole life has been dedicated to following the truth and I know for a fact I am the sailor. That lady in Houston who said it was McDuffie – that’s just her opinion,” he complained. “Everybody had somebody in that war – an uncle, a father, a friend – and it was like New Year’s Eve that August day when we heard it was over. If you were in uniform, it was likely that if you didn’t kiss anybody, somebody would kiss you. So I didn’t exactly hold back.”

It was Mr Muscarello who appeared to have been accepted by Mrs Shain, based on his answers to questions such as where they went out to dinner that night and what he said to her after they kissed. “I told her we never went out to dinner and I didn’t say anything, we just both faded back into the crowd,” he said.

Mrs Shain is now 89 and has made a number of public appearances with him in the past, including posing for a kiss with him in Times Square two years ago.

Mr McDuffie, however, complains that he has been spurned by her over the years and the only chance he has had to recreate the clinch was when he dressed up in a sailor’s uniform and locked lips with a pillow for 100 new photographs taken as part of the investigation by Mrs Gibson, who in 2005 was named by Guinness World Records as the most successful forensic artist globally after she helped Houston police to catch more than 1,000 criminals.

She compared the pictures using digital imaging techniques and precise measurements of the bone structure, including Mr McDuffie’s forehead, ears, wrists, knuckles and arms. “I am positive it’s Glenn. What I do is usually a matter of life or death, so I don’t mess around when I identify someone,” she told the Houston Chronicle.

Eisenstaedt was never able to confirm the identity of the sailor before he died in 1995, but did declare that he believed Mrs Shain, who was a nurse at New York hospital at the time, to be the woman in his photograph. Mrs Shain had joined the euphoric throng that spilt into the streets as news that the war had ended crackled over the radio. Mr McDuffie, who was 18 and stationed in Brooklyn, claims that he had just emerged from a Subway station on Times Square and had not heard the news.

“This lady said, ‘Sailor, I’m so happy for you’ and I said, ‘For what?’ ” he recalled. “She said, ‘The war’s over and you can go home’. Well, I ran out in the street jumping and hollering. The lady turned around and held out her arms to me and I took her and kissed her.” He added: “I know Edith Shain was the woman I kissed because she had the biggest mouth of anybody I’ve ever kissed in my life – it went from ear to ear. I’ll never forget it.”

Mrs Shain, who now lives in Los Angeles, has not commented publicly on the latest findings.

“I spoke to her and told her I’d been positively identified,” Mr McDuffie said. “She was kind of sarcastic, but she was curious enough to tell me to keep in touch.”

Victory in Japan

— VJ-Day, August 15, 1945, is the day the Allies celebrated the defeat of Japan. Official surrender came on September 2

— President Truman said: “This is the day when fascism finally dies, as we always knew it would”

— The US, UK and Australia celebrated with a two-day holiday

— 233,000 babies were born in the US nine months later

Source: Times archive, Americanheritage.com

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?