American mutilation of Japanese war dead in World War II

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 mutilated, for example by urinating on them or shooting the corpses, "re-butchering" them. 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 skulls 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.

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. "U.S. Marines on their way to Guadalcanal relished the prospect of making necklaces of Japanese gold teeth and "pickling" Japanese ears as keepsakes." 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.

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. 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".

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.

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.

References

• Dower "War without mercy: race and power in the Pacific War" (pages 64-66)

External links

• One War Is Enough War Correspondent EDGAR L. JONES 1946
• American troops 'murdered Japanese PoWs'
• The US Sailor with the Japanese Skull by Winfield Townley Scott
• Eerie Souvenirs From the Vietnam War Washington Post July 3, 2007 By Michelle Boorstein]
• 2002 Virginia Festival of the Book: Trophy Skulls
• War against subhumans: comparisons between the German War against the Soviet Union and the American war against Japan, 1941-1945 The Historian 3/22/1996, Weingartner, James
• Racism in Japanese in U.S. wartime propaganda The Historian 6/22/1994 Brcak, Nancy; Pavia, John R.
• MACABRE MYSTERY Coroner tries to find origin of skull found during raid by deputies The Pueblo Chieftain Online.
• Skull from WWII casualty to be buried in grave for Japanese unknown soldiers Stars and Stripes
• HNET review of Peter Schrijvers. The GI War against Japan: American Soldiers in Asia and the Pacific during World War II.
• The May 1944 Life Magazine picture of the week (Image)