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| − | During [[World War II]], some [[United States military]] personnel '''mutilated dead Japanese service personnel''' in the [[Pacific theater]] of operations. The mutilation of Japanese service personnel included the taking of body parts as “war souvenirs†and “war trophiesâ€. Teeth were the most commonly taken objects, but [[skull]]s and other body parts were sometimes also collected. This behaviour was officially considered prohibited by the U.S. Military, but the prohibitions against it were not always enforced by officers in the field. It is not clear how common these behaviors were, nor have its causes been authoritatively determined. | + | During [[World War II]], some personnel of the United States Armed Forces '''mutilated dead Japanese service personnel''' in the [[Pacific theater]]. It has been claimed that most dead [[Japanese]] were desecrated and [[mutilation|mutilated]], for example by urinating on them or shooting the corpses, "re-butchering" them.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=114661059720058|title=H-Net Review: Xavier Guillaume on The GI War against Japan: American Soldiers in Asia and the Pacific during World War II |author=Xavier Guillaume|publisher=[[H-Net]]|date=July, 2003}}</ref> The mutilation of Japanese military personnel included the taking of body parts as "war souvenirs" and "war trophies". Teeth were the most commonly taken objects, but [[skull]]s and other body parts were sometimes also collected. This behavior was officially considered prohibited by the U.S. Military, but the prohibitions against it were not always enforced by officers in the field. |
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| − | ==Trophy taking==
| + | In addition to trophy skulls, teeth, ears and other such objects, taken body parts were occasionally modified, e.g. by writing on them or fashioning them into utilities or other artifacts.<ref name="Harrison">[http://www.science.ulster.ac.uk/psyri/profiles/s_harrison/documents/skulltrophies.pdf]</ref> "U.S. Marines on their way to [[Guadalcanal]] relished the prospect of making necklaces of Japanese gold teeth and "pickling" Japanese ears as keepsakes."<ref>[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0030-8684(199202)61:1%3C53:TOWUTA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O Trophies of War: U.S. Troops and the Mutilation of Japanese War Dead, 1941-1945]</ref> In an air base in New Guinea hunting the last remaining Japanese was a "sort of hobby". The leg-bones of these Japanese were sometimes carved into letter openers and pen-holders.<ref name="Harrison"/> |
| − | Only a minority of US troops collected Japanese body parts as trophies, and it is not possible to determine the percentage who did. However "..their behaviour reflected attitudes which were very widely shared".<ref name="Harrison827"/><ref name=Weingartner56>Weingartner, p.56</ref> In addition to trophy skulls, teeth, ears and other such objects, taken body parts were occasionaly modified, for example by writing on them or fashioning them into utilities or other artifacts.<ref name="Harrison826">[http://www.science.ulster.ac.uk/psyri/profiles/s_harrison/documents/skulltrophies.pdf]</ref> "U.S. Marines on their way to [[Guadalcanal]] relished the prospect of making necklaces of Japanese gold teeth and "pickling" Japanese ears as keepsakes."<ref>{{cite journal | author=James J. Weingartner | url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0030-8684(199202)61:1%3C53:TOWUTA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O | title=Trophies of War: U.S. Troops and the Mutilation of Japanese War Dead, 1941-1945 | journal=[[Pacific Historical Review]] | pages=556 | date=February, 1992 | volume=61 | issue=1 | month=Feb | year=1992}}</ref> In an air base in New Guinea hunting the last remaining Japanese was a “sort of hobbyâ€. The leg-bones of these Japanese were sometimes carved into letter openers and pen-holders,<ref name="Harrison826" /> but this was rare.<ref name="Harrison827" />
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| − | In 1944 the American poet [[Winfield Townley Scott]] was working as a reporter in [[Rhode Island]] when a sailor displayed his skull trophy in the newspaper office. This led to the poem ''The U.S. sailor with the Japanese skull'', which described one method for preparation of skulls (the head is skinned, towed in a net behind a ship to clean and polish it, and in the end scrubbed with [[caustic soda]]).<ref name="Harrison822">Harrison, p.822</ref> In October 1943, the U.S. High Command expressed alarm over recent newspaper articles, for example one where a soldier made a string of beads using Japanese teeth, and another about a soldier with pictures showing the steps in preparing a skull, involving cooking and scraping of the Japanese heads.<ref name="Harrison822"/> [[Charles Lindbergh]] refers in his diary to many instances of Japanese with an ear or nose cut off.<ref name="Harrison822"/> In the case of the skulls however, most were not collected from freshly killed Japanese, most came from already partially or fully skeletonised Japanese bodies.<ref name="Harrison822"/>
| + | There is some disagreement between historians over what the more common forms of 'trophy hunting' undertaken by U.S. personnel were. [[John W. Dower]] states that ears were the most common form of trophy which was taken, and skulls and bones were less commonly collected. In particular he states that "skulls were not popular trophies" as they were difficult to carry and the process for removing the flesh was offensive.<ref name=Dower65>Dower, p. 65</ref> In contrast, [[Niall Ferguson]] states that "boiling the flesh off enemy [Japanese] skulls to make souvenirs was a not uncommon practice. Ears, bones and teeth were also collected".<ref name=Ferguson546>{{cite book |title=The War of the World. History's Age of Hatred |last=Ferguson |first=Niall |authorlink=Niall Ferguson |year=2007 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=London |isbn=9780141013824 }}, p. 546</ref> |
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| − | ===Extent of practice===
| + | Eric Bergerud explains the attitudes which lead to this behavior by noting that the Marines who fought on Guadalcanal were aware of Japanese atrocities against the [[Battle of Wake Island|defenders of Wake Island]], which included the beheading of several Marines, and the [[Bataan Death March]] prior to the start of the campaign.<ref>{{cite book |title=Touched with Fire. The Land War in the South Pacific |last=Bergerud |first=Eric |year=1997 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=New York |isbn=01402.46967 }}, p. 407</ref> |
| − | Most U.S. servicemen in the Pacific did not mutilate Japanese corpses. The majority had some knowledge that these practices were occurring, however, and "accepted them as inevitable under the circumstances".<ref name="Dower66">{{cite book |title=War Without Mercy. Race and Power in the Pacific War |last=Dower |first=John W. |authorlink=John W. Dower |year=1986 |publisher=Faber and Faber |location=London |isbn=0571146058 }}, p. 66</ref> The incidence of soldiers collecting Japanese body parts occurred on "a scale large enough to concern the Allied military authorities throughout the conflict and was widely reported and commented on in the American and Japanese wartime press", however.<ref>Harrison, p.818</ref> The degree of acceptance of the practice varied between units. Taking of teeth was generally accepted by [[enlisted men]] and also by officers, while acceptance for taking other body parts varied greatly.<ref name="Harrison827">Harrison, p.827</ref>
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| − | There is some disagreement between historians over what the more common forms of 'trophy hunting' undertaken by U.S. personnel were. [[John W. Dower]] states that ears were the most common form of trophy which was taken, and skulls and bones were less commonly collected. In particular he states that "skulls were not popular trophies" as they were difficult to carry and the process for removing the flesh was offensive.<ref name=Dower65>Dower, p. 65</ref> This view is supported by Simon Harrison.<ref name="Harrison827" /> In contrast, [[Niall Ferguson]] states that "boiling the flesh off enemy [Japanese] skulls to make souvenirs was a not uncommon practice. Ears, bones and teeth were also collected".<ref name=Ferguson546>{{cite book |title=The War of the World. History's Age of Hatred |last=Ferguson |first=Niall |authorlink=Niall Ferguson |year=2007 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=London |isbn=9780141013824 }}, p. 546</ref>
| + | Many Australian soldiers also mutilated Japanese bodies, most commonly by taking gold teeth from corpses. "The vast majority of Australians found such behaviour abhorrent", however, and it was considered a crime by the [[Australian Army]] and officially discouraged.<ref>{{cite book |title=Fighting the Enemy. Australian Soldiers and their Adversaries in World War II |last=Johnston |first=Mark |year=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Melbourne |isbn=0521782228 }} p.82</ref> |
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| − | The collection of Japanese body parts began quite early in the campaign, prompting a September 1942 order for disciplinary action against such souvenir taking.<ref name="Harrison827" /> Harrison concludes that since this was the first real opportunity to take such items (the [[battle of Guadalcanal]]), "Clearly, the collection of body parts on a scale large enough to concern the military authorities had started as soon as the first living or dead Japanese bodies were encountered."<ref name="Harrison827" /> Eric Bergerud explains the attitudes which lead to this behavior by noting that the Marines who fought on Guadalcanal were aware of Japanese atrocities against the [[Battle of Wake Island|defenders of Wake Island]], which included the beheading of several Marines, and the [[Bataan Death March]] prior to the start of the campaign.<ref>{{cite book |title=Touched with Fire. The Land War in the South Pacific |last=Bergerud |first=Eric |year=1997 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=New York |isbn=01402.46967 }}, p. 407</ref> When Charles Lindbergh passed through customs at Hawaii in 1944 it was controlled if he was carrying bones.{{Vague|date=March 2008}} This was because of the large number of souvenir bones discovered in customs, also including “green†(uncured) skulls.<ref name=Harrison828 />
| + | ==Notes== |
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| − | On February 1, 1943, ''Life'' magazine published a famous photograph by Ralph Morse which showed the charred, open-mouthed, decapitated head of a Japanese soldier killed by U.S Marines during the [[Guadalcanal campaign]], and propped up below the gun turret of a tank by Marines. The caption read as follows: "A Japanese soldier's skull is propped up on a burned-out Jap tank by U.S. troops." ''Life'' received letters of protest from mothers who had sons in the war and others "in disbelief that American soldiers were capable of such brutality toward the enemy." The editors of ''Life'' explained that "war is unpleasant, cruel, and inhuman. And it is more dangerous to forget this than to be shocked by reminders." Indeed, remarkably, ''Life'' received more than twice as many protest letters over a photograph of a mistreated cat in the same issue than they did over the photo of the severed head of the Japanese soldier.{{Fact|date=June 2008}}
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| − | In 1984 Japanese soldiers remains were repatriated from the [[Mariana Islands]]. Roughly 60 percent were missing their skulls.<ref name=Harrison828>Harrison, p.828</ref>
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| − | ==Motives==
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| − | ===Dehumanization===
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| − | In the U.S. there was a widely held view that the Japanese were less than human.<ref name=Weingartner54>Weingartner, p.54</ref> This view was caused by the popular anger at the Japanese [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|surprise attack on Pearl Harbor]] amplifying pre-war racial prejudices.<ref name="Ferguson546" /> The U.S. media helped propagate this view of the Japanese, for example describing them as “yellow verminâ€.<ref name=Weingartner54 />. In an official U.S. Navy film Japanese troops were described as “living, snarling ratsâ€.<ref>Weingartner, p.54. Japanese were alternatively described and depicted as “mad dogsâ€, “yellow verminâ€, termites, apes, monkeys, insects, reptiles and bats etc.</ref> The mixture of racism, dehumanizing [[propaganda]], and real and imagined [[Japanese war crimes|Japanese atrocities]] led to intense loathing of the Japanese.<ref name=Weingartner54 /> Despite the impact of this propaganda, U.S. Army opinion surveys found that the high degree of hatred towards the Japanese expressed by soldiers in training typically declined dramatically once the men entered combat.<ref name="Spector411">{{cite book|last=Spector|first=Ronald H.|title=Eagle Against the Sun. The American War with Japan|publisher=Cassel & Co|location=London|date=1984|isbn=0304359793}}, p. 411</ref>
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| − | The combination of Japanese soldiers' reluctance to surrender and hostile American attitudes to Japanese contributed to the fact that only 604 Japanese captives were held in Allied POW camps by October 1944.<ref>Weingartner, p.55.</ref> (For a discussion of Allied soldiers "standard practice"<ref>{{cite journal| author=[[Niall Ferguson]] | title=Prisoner Taking and Prisoner Killing in the Age of Total War: Towards a Political Economy of Military Defeat | pages=181 | journal=War in History | volume=11 | date=2004}}</ref> of killing Japanese prisoners and Japanese attempting to surrender see [[Allied war crimes during World War II]].) [[Niall Ferguson]] states in ''Prisoner Taking and Prisoner Killing in the Age of Total War'': "To the historian who has specialized in German history, this is one of the most troubling aspects of the Second World War: the fact that Allied troops often regarded the Japanese in the same way that Germans regarded Russians – as [[Untermensch]]en."<ref>Ferguson, p. 182</ref> Since the Japanese were regarded as animals it is not surprising that the Japanese remains were treated in the same way as animal remains.<ref name=Weingartner54 />
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| − | Simon Harrison comes to the conclusion in his paper “Skull trophies of the Pacific War: transgressive objects of remembrance†that the small minority of U.S. personnel who collected Japanese skulls did so as they came from a society which placed much value in hunting as a symbol of masculinity, combined with a de-humanization of the enemy.
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| − | ===Brutalization===
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| − | Many writers and veterans state that the body parts trophy and souvenir taking was a side effect of the brutalizing effects of a harsh campaign.<ref name="Harrison823">Harrison, p.823</ref>
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| − | Harrison argues that while brutalization could explain part of the mutilations, this explanation does not explain the servicemen who already before shipping off for the Pacific proclaimed their intention to acquire such objects.<ref name="Harrison824">Harrison, p.824</ref> He believes that it also does not explain the many cases of servicemen collecting the objects as gifts for people back home.<ref name="Harrison824" /> Harrison concludes that there is no evidence that the average serviceman collecting this type of souvenirs was suffering from "[[combat fatigue]]". They were normal men who felt this was what their loved ones wanted them to collect for them.<ref name="Harrison825">Harrison, p.825</ref> Skulls were sometimes also collected as souvenirs by non-combat personnel.<ref name="Harrison823">Harrison, p.823</ref> Skulls and teeth were also sometimes traded amongst personnel.<ref name="Harrison823">Harrison, p.823</ref>
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| − | ===Revenge===
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| − | According to Bergerud U.S. troops who mutilated the bodies of their Japanese opponents were also motivated by a desire to seek revenge against Japanese atrocities. For instance, Bergerud states that the U.S. Marines on Guadacanal were aware that the Japanese had committed atrocities against the Marine defenders of [[Wake Island]] prior to the start of the campaign<ref> Bergerud, p.407</ref> and first began taking ears from Japanese corpses after photos of the mutilated bodies of Marines on Wake Island were found in Japanese engineers' personal effects.<ref> Bergerud, p.411</ref> Weingartner believes that these actions were premeditated, however, and states that U.S. Marines were openly declaring their intent to "pickle" Japanese ears already while en-route to Guadacanal.<ref>{{cite journal | author=James J. Weingartner | url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0030-8684(199202)61:1%3C53:TOWUTA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O | title=Trophies of War: U.S. Troops and the Mutilation of Japanese War Dead, 1941-1945 | journal=[[Pacific Historical Review]] | pages=556 | date=February, 1992 | volume=61 | issue=1 | month=Feb | year=1992}}</ref>
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| − | ==U.S. reaction==
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| − | “Stern disciplinary action†against human remains souvenir taking was ordered by the Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet as early as September 1942.<ref name="Harrison827" /> In October 1943 General [[George C. Marshall]] radioed General [[Douglas MacArthur]] about “his concern over current reports of atrocities committed by American soldiersâ€.<ref name=Weingartner57>Weingartner, p.57</ref> In January 1944 JCS issued a directive against the taking of Japanese body parts.<ref name=Weingartner57 /> Directives of this type may have been effective in some areas, "but they seem to have been implemented only partially and unevenly by local commanders".<ref name="Harrison827" />
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| − | In May 1944 ''[[Life Magazine]]'' published a photo of an American girl with a Japanese skull sent to her by her naval officer boyfriend.<ref>The image depicts a young blond at a desk gazing at a skull. The caption says “When he said goodbye two years ago to Natalie Nickerson, 20, a war worker of Phoenix, Ariz., a big, handsome Navy lieutenant promised her a Jap. Last week Natalie received a human skull, autographed by her lieutenant and 13 friends, and inscribed: "This is a good Jap – a dead one picked up on the New Guinea beach." Natalie, surprised at the gift, named it [[Hideki Tojo|Tojo]]. The armed forces disapprove strongly of this sort of thing.</ref> The letters ''Life'' received from its readers in response to this photo were "overwhelmingly condemnatory"<ref name=Weingartner58>Weingartner, p.58</ref> and the Army directed its Bureau of Public Relations to inform U.S. publishers that “the publication of such stories would be likely to encourage the enemy to take reprisals against American dead and prisoners of war.â€<ref>Weingartner, p.60</ref> The junior officer who had sent the skull was also traced and officially reprimanded.<ref name="Harrison825"/>
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| − | The ''Life'' photo also led to the U.S. Military to take further action against the mutilation of Japanese corpses. In a memorandum dated June 13, 1944, the Army [[JAG]] asserted that such “such atrocious and brutal policies†in addition to being repugnant also were violations of the laws of war, and recommended the distribution to all commanders of a directive pointing out that “the maltreatment of enemy war dead was a blatant violation of the 1929 Geneva Convention on the sick and wounded, which provided that: After every engagement, the belligerent who remains in possession of the field shall take measures to search for wounded and the dead and to protect them from robbery and ill treatment.†Such practises were in addition also in violation of the unwritten customary rules of land warfare and could lead to the death penalty.<ref name=Weingartner59>Weingartner, p.59</ref> The Navy JAG mirrored that opinion one week later, and also added that “the atrocious conduct of which some U.S. servicemen were guilty could lead to retaliation by the Japanese which would be justified under international lawâ€.<ref name=Weingartner59 />
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| − | On [[13 June]] [[1944]] the press reported that President Roosevelt had been presented with a letter-opener made out of a Japanese soldiers arm bone by Congressman Walter.<ref name="Harrison825"/> Several weeks later it was reported that it had been given back with the explanation that the President did not want this type of object and recommended it be buried instead. In doing so, Roosevelt was acting in response to the concerns which had been expressed by the military authorities and some of the civilian population, including church leaders.<ref name="Harrison825"/>
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| − | In October 1944 the Right Rev. [[Henry St. George Tucker (bishop)|Henry St. George Tucker]], the [[List of Presiding Bishops in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America]], issued a statement which deplored "'isolated' acts of desecration with respect to the bodies of slain Japanese soldiers and appealed to American soldiers as a group to discourage such actions on the part of individuals."<ref>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Tucker Deplores Desecration of Foe; Mutilation of Japanese Bodies Contrary to Spirit of Army, He Says of 'Isolated' Cases |url= |work= |publisher=[[The New York Times]] |date=1944-10-14 |accessdate=2008-05-11 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The Morals of Victory |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,932499,00.html?promoid=googlep |work= |publisher=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=1944-10-23 |accessdate=2008-05-11 }}</ref>
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| − | == Japanese reaction ==
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| − | News that President Roosevelt had been given a bone letter opener by a congressman were widely reported in Japan. The Americans were portrayed as “deranged, primitive, racist and inhumanâ€. This reporting was compounded by the previous May 22, 1944 ''[[Life Magazine]]'' picture of the week publication of a young woman with a skull trophy.<ref name=Harrison833>Harrison, p.833</ref> Hoyt in "Japan’s war: the great Pacific conflict" argues that the Allied practice of mutilating the Japanese dead and taking pieces of them home was exploited by Japanese [[propaganda]] very effectively, and "contributed to a preference to death over surrender and occupation, shown, for example, in the mass civilian suicides on Saipan and Okinawa after the Allied landings"<ref name=Harrison833 />
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| − | ==Context==
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| − | All WWII remains discovered in the U.S. attributable to an ethnicity are of Japanese origins, none come from Europe.<ref name="Harrison826" /> The practice{{Fact|date=May 2008}} of taking skull trophies was resumed during the [[Vietnam War]].
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| − | Many Australian soldiers also mutilated Japanese bodies, most commonly by taking gold teeth from corpses. "The vast majority of Australians found such behaviour abhorrent", however, and it was considered a crime by the [[Australian Army]] and officially discouraged.<ref>{{cite book |title=Fighting the Enemy. Australian Soldiers and their Adversaries in World War II |last=Johnston |first=Mark |year=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Melbourne |isbn=0521782228 }} p.82</ref> In another similarity to the U.S. Army, Australian troops almost never mutilated the bodies of the German and Italian soldiers they faced in [[North Africa]] and [[Greece]]. Australian soldiers "unusually murderous behavior" towards their Japanese opponents was caused by racism, a lack of understanding of Japanese military culture and, most significantly, a desire to take revenge against the murder and mutilation of Australian prisoners and native New Guineans during the [[Battle of Milne Bay]] and subsequent battles.<ref>Johnston, pp. 84–100</ref>
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| − | ==Contemporary==
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| − | Skulls from the Vietnam War and from WWII keep turning up in the U.S., sometimes returned by former servicemen or their relatives, or discovered by police. According to Harrison, contrarily to the situation in average head-hunting societies the trophies do not fit in in the American society. While the taking of the objects was socially accepted at the time, after the war, when the Japanese in time became seen as fully human again, the objects for the most part became seen as unacceptable and unsuitable for display. Therefore in time they and the practice that had generated them were largely forgotten.<ref name=Harrison828 />
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| | ==References== | | ==References== |
| − | {{reflist|2}}
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| − | ==Further reading==
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| − | *Paul Fussell "Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War"
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| − | *Bourke "An Intimate History of Killing" (pages 37-43)
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| | *Dower "War without mercy: race and power in the Pacific War" (pages 64-66) | | *Dower "War without mercy: race and power in the Pacific War" (pages 64-66) |
| − | *Fussel "Thank God for the Atom Bomb and other essays" (pages 45-52)
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| − | *Aldrich "The Faraway War: Personal diaries of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific"
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| − | *Hoyt "Japan's war: the great Pacific conflict"
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| − | *{{cite book | title=The Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh | author=[[Charles A. Lindbergh]] | publisher= Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. | date=1970 | url=http://www.jiyuu-shikan.org/e/pacific3.html}}
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| | ==External links== | | ==External links== |
In addition to trophy skulls, teeth, ears and other such objects, taken body parts were occasionally modified, e.g. by writing on them or fashioning them into utilities or other artifacts.[2] "U.S. Marines on their way to Guadalcanal relished the prospect of making necklaces of Japanese gold teeth and "pickling" Japanese ears as keepsakes."[3] In an air base in New Guinea hunting the last remaining Japanese was a "sort of hobby". The leg-bones of these Japanese were sometimes carved into letter openers and pen-holders.[2]
There is some disagreement between historians over what the more common forms of 'trophy hunting' undertaken by U.S. personnel were. John W. Dower states that ears were the most common form of trophy which was taken, and skulls and bones were less commonly collected. In particular he states that "skulls were not popular trophies" as they were difficult to carry and the process for removing the flesh was offensive.[4] In contrast, Niall Ferguson states that "boiling the flesh off enemy [Japanese] skulls to make souvenirs was a not uncommon practice. Ears, bones and teeth were also collected".[5]
Eric Bergerud explains the attitudes which lead to this behavior by noting that the Marines who fought on Guadalcanal were aware of Japanese atrocities against the defenders of Wake Island, which included the beheading of several Marines, and the Bataan Death March prior to the start of the campaign.[6]
Many Australian soldiers also mutilated Japanese bodies, most commonly by taking gold teeth from corpses. "The vast majority of Australians found such behaviour abhorrent", however, and it was considered a crime by the Australian Army and officially discouraged.[7]
