A US Pacific War veteran sent me a collection of photos showing 'trophies', photographed and distributed to whoever wanted to buy them.He expresses contempt for the practise but this was the reality of war in the SW Pacific,especially in the rear areas among some support personal.
This is not a reflection on the general US servicemen,but more the brutuality of war and the dehumanisation of the enemy that occurred in the Pacific War.All armies have their bad eggs(thats why we have Military Police) and some made profit from this trade.
This first one is tame,but photo links will follow for others considered offensive.
Life Magazine,May 22 1944
Arizona war worker writes her Navy boyfriend a thank-you note for the Jap skull he sent her.
Defense worker N. Nickolson writes to her sweetheart thanking him for his letter and "souvenir." This skull of a Japanese soldier bears the inscription: "Here is a good Jap -- a dead one!"
'Trophies' SW Pacific
'Trophies' SW Pacific
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"Skull stewing--skulls supposedly worth $35 in cash or trade from merchant marine sailors"
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/v ... tewing.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/v ... tewing.jpg
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Michael Emrys
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In these times it can be hard to credit the depth of hatred with which the Japanese servicemen were held. It was a mix of righteous indignation (Americans were still relatively insulated from the savagery of modern warfare, and so shocked by what they regarded as "bad behavior", i.e., the attack on Pearl Harbor), racism, a measure of transferred frustration deriving from the Depression, and maybe a number of other things, including an ancient but oft-repressed blood lust. Fortunately, once the Japanese surrendered as a nation, the occupying Americans for the most part treated them with reasonable decency, although I have a qualm or two about some of the executions following the war crimes trials. In the case of Yamashita, for instance, that seems somehow just vindictive.
A quote from the veteran that had these:
...these photos reflect the respect that many Marines had for the Japanese dead.(None).In my experience I did not see any of this.It is surely "rear echelon" behaviour.Some frontline troops would go through Japanese clothing in search for souvenirs,but I saw no abuse of Japanese bodies.
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David C. Clarke
- In memoriam
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- Location: U.S. of A.
Photo from another Marine veteran,mass grave:
His buddy's coments:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/v ... grave2.jpgA little history - and facts as I remember them -- I took this (and many others) with my Brownie Kodak all prohibited, of course. Anyhow, this is on Saipan, up where the Army 27 th Div and Marines stopped the last charge I believe on the plains of Garapan, but it could have been Sharon Kanoa - Saipan. 44, if memory serves. After the charge I saw machine gunners dead, slumped over their guns with maybe a wheelbarrow of brass under them - while the 27th did not enjoy a great reputation they stood and held their ground there, to the end. So did we.
There was some 25 / 30 of these hastily bulldozer dug graves with some 30 to 50 sons of Nippon I suppose resting to this day - -- you can see the utter desolation of the palm trees in the background. I'll let you imagine the odor - like Tarawa - One of the Japanese wears a U S helmet there in the foreground.
His buddy's coments:
When talking to him he seemed to think that this type of burial was demeaning to the dead. He didn't know that the Marines on Tarawa were buried the same way.
The aviator Charles A. Lindberg, who worked as civilian employee in the Pacific along with the American troops during WW2, wrote some notes about these and similar barbaric habits of some Allied soldiers in his "The Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh", Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1970; they are reported in this Japanese page (but in English language): http://www.jiyuu-shikan.org/e/db3a.html.
In fairness war is an abnormal situation and some men will regret abnormally.US troops did not torture prisoners behind the frontlines.The abuse of body parts by some shows contempt but how do you explain the skull of a Turkish soldier found in Australia a few years ago?Brought home from Gallipoli in my view by one tormented,sick soul.
http://www.eurekatimes.net/Australian%2 ... turkey.htm
Lindbergh's agenda of supporting Fascism also needs to be considered:
http://www.ety.com/berlin/lindberg.htm
http://www.eurekatimes.net/Australian%2 ... turkey.htm
Lindbergh's agenda of supporting Fascism also needs to be considered:
http://www.ety.com/berlin/lindberg.htm
It seemed impossible that men - civilized men - could degenerate to such a level. Yet they had. ...it was we, Americans, who had done such things, we who claimed to stand for something different. We, who claimed that the German was defiling humanity in his treatment of the Jew, were doing the same thing in our treatment of the Jap.