Life Magazine was an iconic publication bearing witness to the world, from mundane Americana to world shaking events. When I was in law school I visited a book sale at the Wayne PA Public Library and purchased a Life issue showing imagery of Czech soldiers entrenched against the unbending onslaught of Blitzkrieg. That same issue showed imagery of the British PM Neville Chamberlain exiting from an airplane, brandishing the letter signed by Hitler, under the dreadfully mistaken assumption it meant peace. Photographers have been dismissed from most publications today, and this is a great loss. This image was displayed in the November 1945 issue of life, six months after Germany’s surrender. The innocence of the sailor sipping on a soft drink is so simple and poignant. One wonders what memories lay behind the sailor’s piercing eyes.