The Baby Left on VJ Day: How a Forgotten Wartime Mystery Finally Found Its Answer
Written by: America Through Time
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Published on
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Time to read 2 min
How historian David Kruh unexpectedly uncovered the mystery of “Little Mister Victory,” a baby abandoned on Boston Common during the jubilant celebrations of VJ Day in 1945.
One of the first questions I get asked about Little Mister Victory is how I found this incredible story.
The truth is it found me.
In 1995 I had gone to the Boston Public Library to research an article on what it was like to be in Boston on VJ Day, August 15, 1945. From the early editions of our six daily newspapers, I could see Bostonians really knew how to party. It was, by all accounts, a glorious bacchanal. As I loaded a reel of microfilm for August 16th, I remember thinking about how much fun I was having with this story.
Joy and relief are abundant in this screenshot from the Army Signal Corps film taken in downtown Boston on VJ Day. (National Archives)
Then I saw his picture on the front page of the Boston American, being held by a nurse at Boston City Hospital. The caption read “Little Mister Victory – This chubby little baby…was abandoned on the Boston Common while thousands of merrymakers celebrated the Japanese surrender.”
My next thought was…well, I’ll keep this family friendly. The next best word to describe this moment was gobsmacked. How, with all of my reading and research on Boston history, had I never heard this story? A thousand questions swirled in my head…
From the front page of the Boston Record, August 15, 1945, this is nurse Eileen Resmini of Boston City Hospital holding Little Mister Victory the evening of his abandonment. (Print courtesy of the Ryan family)
What ever happened to that baby? Did the mother ever come back to claim him? Was he ever told how he shared the front page of several newspapers with news about the end of World War Two?
Failing to find the answer in any Boston paper or police archives, I moved on to other projects…but I never forgot him.
Years after my first encounter with Little Mister Victory, a “happy accident” would lead to connecting with Tina Drzal, the daughter of that baby. (Yea…gobsmacked, again.) From our friendship came our resolve to solve the mystery; who was the woman who abandoned her father?
We are grateful to the folks at America Through Time for the opportunity to tell the story of our search and how several more “happy accidents” would lead us to the shocking answer.
An uncredited Boston Record photographer captured Sergeant (and grandfather) John Tesoraro cradling Little Mister Victory at Boston City Hospital the evening of the baby’s abandonment. (Courtesy Boston Herald)
Excellent book! It was such a good read, that I couldn't put it down. There were great stories with lots of interesting facts. Barry's writing style makes the reading informative and interesting. And each story includes amazing photographs that brought me right there to the scene of the action.
