Young woman writes her boyfriend in the Navy a thank-you note for the bleached skull of a Japanese soldier he sent her (LIFE Magazine – May 22, 1944) [1212 x 1600]
>As Niall Ferguson pointed out in his 2006 book, The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West, while discussing this very photograph of young Natalie Nickerson and the Japanese skull: "Allied troops often regarded the Japanese in the same way that Germans regarded Russians—as Untermenschen. Boiling the flesh off enemy skulls to make souvenirs was a not uncommon practice. Ears, bones and teeth were also collected."
>That Japanese troops committed stomach-churning atrocities of their own in the 1930s and 1940s—burying prisoners of war alive or using them for bayonet practice; the mass slaughter and rape of civilians; torturing and executing captured Allied airmen; and on and on—is well documented. In light of those brutal excesses, mailing a single skull to a stateside sweetheart might seem an almost innocent, if rather grisly, undertaking.
>And yet, all these years later, as the visual landscape of warfare grows, improbably, more gruesome than ever—with beheadings and other savageries videotaped and posted online for any and all to see—there remains something oddly unsettling about the sight of an attractive young woman gazing at an "enemy skull" and penning a thank-you note to the (unnamed) beau who sent it.
she doesn’t look all that impressed tbh. "thanks for the random skull. what the hell am I meant to do with this? stage a production of Hamlet?"
Goldeagle1123
A stark juxtaposition that reminds you that all in war do sickening, even evil acts.
Obligatory quote by chief Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz:
>War makes murderers out of otherwise decent people. All wars, and all decent people.
OutsideSpring
I can’t help but be angered by the ignorance of this woman, and the brute who sent this to her. Yes, I know we were in a brutal, all out war with them, but that skull belonged to a living, breathing man, only to become a grisly ornament on a girl’s desk. Disgusting.
bobbytoogodly
This was his warning for her not to cheat
Mamlucky
"Dear Boyfriend,
I get that you’re fighting literal war criminals and war trophies are a thing, but could you please take it down a fucking notch?"
Need2believe
I wanted too say something poetic about this, but the look in her eyes is more than enough
​
​
^(damn)
Sergey_Romanov
That’s just a reminder that "human skin lampshades" were not unique.
allende1973
well this is sickening. Wrong time to be eating I suppose
curiousscribbler
After the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and large numbers of people died, the hospital carefully labelled and kept their cremated remains, which would be enormously important to their families.
And then there’s this.
lameexcuse69
Didn’t you want a paper weight made out of a war crime? Or did I read that wrong?
paulusVR46
Alas, poor taste. A handy paperweight with twin sockets though, so quite ahead of its time, innit?
Zagrosky
This has only been reposted about once per month.
Edzell_Blue
Did her boyfriend get in trouble for that because I’m pretty sure that’s not allowed?
burningwatermelon
The Japanese were well aware of this practice by American troops and played it up in propaganda. Shinto, the native religion of Japan, places more respect on human remains than Western religions, and the thought of the Americans doing this was just as repulsive as Americans thought Japanese treatment of POWs was. When the Japanese government tried to repatriate soldiers’ remains after the war, they found on certain islands after the war that over 60% of the heads had been removed.
![Young woman writes her boyfriend in the Navy a thank-you note for the bleached skull of a Japanese soldier he sent her (LIFE Magazine - May 22, 1944) [1212 x 1600]](https://i.redd.it/esen2dzamne41.jpg)
GlitchedGamer14
>As Niall Ferguson pointed out in his 2006 book, The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West, while discussing this very photograph of young Natalie Nickerson and the Japanese skull: "Allied troops often regarded the Japanese in the same way that Germans regarded Russians—as Untermenschen. Boiling the flesh off enemy skulls to make souvenirs was a not uncommon practice. Ears, bones and teeth were also collected."
>That Japanese troops committed stomach-churning atrocities of their own in the 1930s and 1940s—burying prisoners of war alive or using them for bayonet practice; the mass slaughter and rape of civilians; torturing and executing captured Allied airmen; and on and on—is well documented. In light of those brutal excesses, mailing a single skull to a stateside sweetheart might seem an almost innocent, if rather grisly, undertaking.
>And yet, all these years later, as the visual landscape of warfare grows, improbably, more gruesome than ever—with beheadings and other savageries videotaped and posted online for any and all to see—there remains something oddly unsettling about the sight of an attractive young woman gazing at an "enemy skull" and penning a thank-you note to the (unnamed) beau who sent it.
More context
crimsonbub
she doesn’t look all that impressed tbh. "thanks for the random skull. what the hell am I meant to do with this? stage a production of Hamlet?"
Goldeagle1123
A stark juxtaposition that reminds you that all in war do sickening, even evil acts.
Obligatory quote by chief Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz:
>War makes murderers out of otherwise decent people. All wars, and all decent people.
OutsideSpring
I can’t help but be angered by the ignorance of this woman, and the brute who sent this to her. Yes, I know we were in a brutal, all out war with them, but that skull belonged to a living, breathing man, only to become a grisly ornament on a girl’s desk. Disgusting.
bobbytoogodly
This was his warning for her not to cheat
Mamlucky
"Dear Boyfriend,
I get that you’re fighting literal war criminals and war trophies are a thing, but could you please take it down a fucking notch?"
Need2believe
I wanted too say something poetic about this, but the look in her eyes is more than enough
​
​
^(damn)
Sergey_Romanov
That’s just a reminder that "human skin lampshades" were not unique.
allende1973
well this is sickening. Wrong time to be eating I suppose
curiousscribbler
After the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and large numbers of people died, the hospital carefully labelled and kept their cremated remains, which would be enormously important to their families.
And then there’s this.
lameexcuse69
Didn’t you want a paper weight made out of a war crime? Or did I read that wrong?
paulusVR46
Alas, poor taste. A handy paperweight with twin sockets though, so quite ahead of its time, innit?
Zagrosky
This has only been reposted about once per month.
Edzell_Blue
Did her boyfriend get in trouble for that because I’m pretty sure that’s not allowed?
burningwatermelon
The Japanese were well aware of this practice by American troops and played it up in propaganda. Shinto, the native religion of Japan, places more respect on human remains than Western religions, and the thought of the Americans doing this was just as repulsive as Americans thought Japanese treatment of POWs was. When the Japanese government tried to repatriate soldiers’ remains after the war, they found on certain islands after the war that over 60% of the heads had been removed.