sourceshaa.blogg.se

Įugene Sledge relates a few instances of fellow marines extracting gold teeth from the Japanese, including one from an enemy soldier who was still alive.īut the Japanese wasn't dead. Teeth, ears and other such body parts were also taken and were occasionally modified, such as by writing on them or fashioning them into utilities or other artifacts. Trophy skulls are the most notorious of the souvenirs. The taking of so-called "trophies" was widespread enough that, by September 1942, the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet ordered that "No part of the enemy's body may be used as a souvenir", and any American servicemen violating that principle would face "stern disciplinary action". media, to various racist tropes latent in American society, to the depravity of warfare under desperate circumstances, to the inhuman cruelty of Imperial Japanese forces, lust for revenge, or any combination of those factors. Historians have attributed the phenomenon to a campaign of dehumanization of the Japanese in the U.S. Nonetheless, the behavior was hard to prosecute and it continued throughout the war in the Pacific theater, and has resulted in continued discoveries of "trophy skulls" of Japanese combatants in American possession, as well as American and Japanese efforts to repatriate the remains of the Japanese dead.Ī number of firsthand accounts, including those of American servicemen, attest to the taking of body parts as "trophies" from the corpses of Imperial Japanese troops in the Pacific Theater during World War II. military, which issued additional guidance as early as 1942 condemning it specifically. The behavior was officially prohibited by the U.S.

This, compounded by a previous Life magazine picture of a young woman with a skull trophy, was reprinted in the Japanese media and presented as a symbol of American barbarism, causing national shock and outrage. The news was also widely reported to the Japanese public, where the Americans were portrayed as "deranged, primitive, racist and inhuman". Walter in 1944, which Roosevelt later ordered to be returned, calling for its proper burial. Franklin Roosevelt himself was reportedly given a gift of a letter-opener made of a Japanese soldier's arm by U.S.

The phenomenon of "trophy-taking" was widespread enough that discussion of it featured prominently in magazines and newspapers.

Teeth and skulls were the most commonly taken "trophies", although other body parts were also collected. The mutilation of Japanese service personnel included the taking of body parts as "war souvenirs" and " war trophies". Hospital sign warning about neglect of Atabrine treatment, Guinea World War IIĭuring World War II, some members of the United States military mutilated dead Japanese service personnel in the Pacific theater.