The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia - Smithsonian ...

8 4 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o h i s t o ry a n d t e c h n o l o g yFigure 3. The U.S. Army’s “Censorship Guide” for the Pacific Theater of Operationsoutlined the proper response to references to and photographs of atrocities in soldiers’ lettershome. It also advised censors to be on the lookout for body parts, such as gold teethand polished skulls, in parcels. Courtesy National Archives, College Park, Md.Say, next fight I get into I’ll get enough gold teethto make you a necklace. I had about 10 but lostthem. The Japs have some good dental work. Yousee them lying around and just kick their teethout. Some fellows have dozens. I think I’ll getsome and keep them and if I ever get married I’llhave my old lady a ring made out of them.” 8Another officer described the “souvenirs” collected byMarines on Guadalcanal, “A couple had Jap skulls theyhad boiled out. Others had small socks of gold toothfillings. Bottles of pickled ears were reported and Japoccupation money was commoner than Aussie stuff.” 9Among items discovered by censors in soldiers’ parcelswas a polished skull with shells for eyes designed for useas an ashtray. 10 Such desecrations were so frequent thatthe “Censorship Guide” for the Pacific theater of operationsincluded instructions for dealing with packages thatcontained skulls and similar trophies (Figure 3). Furthermore,in monthly operating reports, “Skulls”—later“Atrocities” —was one of thirteen categories of commonviolations enumerated. In January 1944, for example,censors found more mentions of such atrocities than ofthe results of enemy action. 11