Sunday, August 16, 2009

Skeletons in the Closet

In a bizarre story, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that UC Berkeley is holding Japanese skulls and other bones from World War Two, and has used them in osteology research. They were taken from Saipan by a U.S. Navy Lt. Commander, who kept them in a private collection until 1974. At that time they were donated to the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the university.

Apparently this story has just come to light, and so far there has been no comment from the Japanese government. But I assume they won't be too happy and will demand that the remains be returned. If a museum at a Japanese university was found to be holding skulls and bones of American citizens removed from Corregidor after its surrender in 1942, there would probably be a big outcry.

No comments:

Post a Comment