Using human flesh as raw materials for hot pot and barbecue, a group of people who are not as good as birds and beasts eat with relish, and can't stop praising the deliciousness, such a heartbreaking scene, do you dare to imagine?
But in fact, this scene really happened in Japan during World War II!
The Japanese army had a last carnival before surrendering, killing 8 American prisoners in succession, and then "sharing and eating"!
Even George H.W. Bush, who later became president of the United States, almost became what the Japanese army called a "good meal," and the entire flight team died at the hands of the Japanese army, except for him.
Because this kind of behavior was so cruel and bloody, this incident has been blocked, and the elder Bush has also kept silent about it, until 2003, when a documentary book of the incident was published, and the world knows what kind of insults, torture, and abuse these captives endured in the first place......
And this is what shocked the world - the Chichijima incident!
Today, let's go back to the early spring of 1945 and learn about this crazy incident together!
1. Chichijima
Chichijima is an island located about 980 kilometers southeast of Tokyo and the main island of the famous Ogasawara Islands.
As early as 1921, Japan began to build forts and other military facilities on Chichijima, and with the entry of the United States into World War II and the outbreak of the Pacific War, Japan wanted to build it into a fortress in the Western Pacific to contain the United States!
On Chichijima, the Japanese army stationed six army companies and one naval air force with a total strength of more than 13,550 troops, almost as long as Iwo Jima, Japan's largest naval base at the time.
However, by the time Chichijima was fully completed, the Pacific War was coming to an end, and the Japanese were losing ground against the U.S. forces in the Mariana Islands and Palau, and soon the Ogasawara Islands, located between the Mariana Islands and the Japanese mainland, where Chichijima is located, became the number one target for U.S. attacks.
In order to prevent the Mariana Islands' operational information from being transmitted to the Japanese mainland through Chichijima, the U.S. military decided to destroy the wireless facilities on Chichijima.
During the period from November 1944 to March 1945, the U.S. military sent air forces one after another to strike at Chichijima, but it was strongly responded to by the Japanese army.
On this day, the young pilot George and his two companions, White and Delaney, also received an order to bomb Chichijima, so at 7:15 a.m. that day, George took off from the aircraft carrier and flew to Chichijima, but as soon as they entered the skies over Chichijima, they were hit by Japanese fire.
The two companions parachuted urgently, and after George blew up the mission target - the island's communication facilities, the plane also circled and crashed to the sea, at the critical moment, George struggled to open the hatch, struggled to climb out of the cockpit, jumped over, and landed on the vast sea by parachute.
George hurriedly opened the inflatable life raft, and by this time he had already seen the Japanese soldiers behind him send several small boats to arrest him. George shuddered, paddling desperately away from Chichijima. It wasn't until three hours later, exhausted, that he was rescued by the US submarine Fin Whale, which was patrolling nearby, and finally escaped.
After being rescued, George learned from his colleagues that White and Delaney, who had gone on a mission with him, had not returned, and George simply thought that they had parachuted in time and should still be alive, but they had just become prisoners of the Japanese army, and according to the Geneva Treaty at the time, prisoners of war should have been treated reasonably.
After judging that White and Draeney were still alive, George finally slept peacefully, but what he never imagined was that sometimes it was better to be alive than to be sacrificed, and White and Draeney would experience such a terrible abuse until they became a meal on the plate of the Japanese army......
2. A feast of human flesh
In fact, from February 1945, when the U.S. forces began to attack Iwo Jima, the Japanese troops on Chichijima, which was only 275 kilometers away from Iwo Jima, had already had a premonition that the end was approaching and everyone was in danger, especially the commander of the army garrison on the island, Major General Yoshio Tachibana. Finally, he decided to "settle" all the prisoners of war before the large-scale attack of the American army on Chichijima.
Filled with hatred for the U.S. military and fear of impending catastrophe, Yoshio Tachibana chose to dehumanize the captives – turning them into his own appetizers.
He soon put it into practice, and on February 23, 1945, two pilots captured five days earlier, 19-year-old Mauffle Marchand and Second Lieutenant Grady York, were executed at a cemetery on Chichijima. The next day, the Japanese dug up Marchand's liver, cut off one of his thighs, and cut out a thigh meat 1 foot long, 4 inches wide, weighing about 2.7 kilograms, and sent it to Yoshio Tachibana's headquarters.
At the behest of Yoshio Tachibana, Marchand's thigh meat is mixed with fish, vegetables, noodles and other ingredients to make a hearty sukiyabe. All the Japanese officers present ate very happily and got drunk, and Yoshio Tachibana even got carried away and asked for "another bowl"!
However, Marchand's tragic fate was only the beginning of this series of cannibalism.
After Yoshio Tachibana's "human meat feast" ended, the captain of the Army's 308th Company, who had killed people and eaten meat on the Chinese battlefield, told Shizuo Yoshii of the Navy about the incident.
Shizuo Yoshii was very envious and decided to do the same to the prisoners held by the navy, in order to prevent the meat from being fresh, he even assigned a military doctor to go to the execution site, and directly remove the liver after executing the prisoners!
On the afternoon of February 28, 19-year-old US military radioman James Day was beheaded by Shizuo Yoshii, and his body was dissected by military doctors, and the liver was removed.
On March 14, 1945, the U.S. military declared the Battle of Iwo Jima victorious, a move that directly angered the Japanese troops on Chichijima.
On March 17, Shizuo Yoshii sent 24-year-old U.S. Navy Lieutenant Warren Vaughn from Nobuaki Iwatake, a Japanese-American who was guarding American prisoners of war, and beheaded him in front of 150 sailors.
Immediately after the execution, Shizuo Yoshii had the military doctor disassemble Vaughn's body, and the liver was used to make dinner that day, and the rest was cut again to make soup and drink.
On March 25, 24-year-old U.S. pilot Floyd Hall was also executed, but in fact, his fate was decided by the Japanese as early as March 9, 16 days earlier, and the Japanese even issued an order:
1. The brigade wanted to eat the meat of the American pilot, Lieutenant Hall
2. The lieutenant shall be responsible for the rationing of this meat
3. Sakabe's military doctor should participate in the execution and have his liver and gallbladder removed
Showa 20 March 9 9 p.m. Captain of the army Shosa's end of the field
On the day of the execution, Lieutenant Hall was taken to a bomb crater outside the guard room, where he ordered three soldiers to execute him, but they all refused on the grounds that it was "derelict to reputation." Eventually, under his duress, a military chief surnamed Nakamura cut off Hall's head with a saber.
He then ordered his soldiers to train Hall's body with bayonets. Then, all the health soldiers stepped forward and were responsible for dissecting Hall, cutting off Hall's liver, wrapping it in cellophane, and cutting off Hall's left leg, and finally getting a total of about 3.6 kilograms of thigh meat, which was sent to the command post of Yong at the end of the field.
That evening, at the end of the day, Yuu held a banquet to entertain the guests, and the chopped liver of Hall was skewered with bamboo skewers, vegetables and soy sauce to make a Japanese-style skewer. During the banquet, the Japanese officers exchanged glasses and feasted, which was simply inhumane and outrageous!
There were also a small number of officers who refused to eat people, and they sneered at them and drove them out.
So, did these crazy Japanese soldiers get retribution in the end?
3. Military courts
Although the Japanese troops on Chichijima had always feared an attack by the U.S. military, in fact, until the Japanese surrendered on August 15 of that year, the U.S. forces did not force Chichijima.
On September 3, Yoshio Tachibana signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of Japan. After the surrender, U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Presley Richie asked him about the whereabouts of the captured pilots, but Yoshio Tachibana kept flashing his words, saying that the American troops had been killed by the time they were shot down.
According to post-war statistics, the death rate of prisoners of war held in Chichijima was as high as 75%, far higher than the Japanese average of 27.1% at the time.
Through extensive investigation and evidence collection, the U.S. military finally analyzed what happened to their pilots on Chichijima. Soon, several Japanese officers who organized cannibalism were arrested.
On August 5, 1946, the Guam War Criminals Trial presided over by the U.S. Navy began, and a total of 25 Japanese soldiers were indicted as cannibalistic defendants.
Perhaps no one could have imagined that the Japanese would be so mad, and there is not even a provision in the Geneva Convention that says how to punish cannibalism! In the end, the court could only prosecute for "homicide" and "destroying the body and preventing it from being buried with dignity".
However, the court still underestimated the shamelessness of Yoshio Tachibana and others, and they were ashamed to say that there was a difference between Eastern and Western cultures, and that eating corpses in Eastern countries was acceptable to the public, and they also quibbled that the food on Chichijima Island was insufficient, and they were forced to make this decision.
However, in fact, unlike the Japanese-occupied islands in Southeast Asia such as New Guinea, where Chichijima was starved and starved, the transportation lines between Chichijima and the Japanese mainland were always smooth, so until the Japanese surrendered, the defenders of the island were constantly supplied with vegetables, meat, and even alcohol.
The most direct evidence is that Yoshio Tachibana and a group of Japanese officers were raised fat and strong at this time!
In the end, the Guam court convicted the five main culprits, including Yoshio Tachibana, Isamu Shiba, and Shizuo Yoshii, were sentenced to death by hanging. Among them, Yoshio Tachibana was stripped of his clothes before he was hanged, leaving only a pair of pants as a sign of humiliation.
And it was only at this time that the lucky saved pilot George, the 41st President of the United States, George H.W. Bush, learned what had happened to his companions......
It is really hard to imagine that the Japanese army, which has entered a civilized society and is no longer a barbarian, would do such a vicious incident that exterminates human nature!
People can't help but sigh that some evil is likely to be stereotyped in the genetic bloodline!