Military and Oral History Conference:
Between Memory and History
Skulls of Our Grandfathers: The Social Life of Pacific War Trophies
Lucas Erickson, Independent Scholar
Trophy taking in modern warfare, and specifically the taking of human remains as trophies, is often a hidden history. In the Pacific War, there existed a culture of unrestrained trophy taking among American soldiers that expanded the normal boundaries of trophy taking to include human remains such as skulls, teeth, and other body parts. During and after the war, these objects were displayed and celebrated both publicly and privately, and were in demand by certain segments of American society.
This study examines the post-war social life of trophy skulls obtained in the Pacific War. For instance, many of these objects were incorporated into public Halloween displays, a practice that continues amongst some veterans and their descendants to this day. This study uses oral history as a primary method of gathering memories from veterans and their children and grandchildren. Because these trophies have been widely considered taboo, they and the reasons for taking them have been buried in the historical record. Oral history, complemented by other personal documents like journals, photographs and letters, help to uncover the hidden history of these objects.
Few academic studies mention taking human remains as trophies in the Pacific War, let alone address it directly. This study contributes a much-needed perspective on the social life of these objects in order to better understand how veterans remember their actions in the Pacific War. It also speaks to how those memories have translated to generational and collective memory as well as reverence for the role of the U.S. in World War Two.