Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: American Mutilation of Japanese War Dead, Headhunting, Scalping, Mimizuka, Skull Cup, Anthropodermic Bibliopegy, Human Trophy Collecting, Kangling. Excerpt: 1945 image of a Japanese soldier's decapitated head hung on a tree branch, presumably by American soldiers. During World War II , some United States military personnel mutilated dead Japanese service personnel in the Pacific theater of operations. The mutilation of Japanese service personnel included the taking of body parts as "war souvenirs" and "war trophies ". Teeth were the most commonly taken objects, but skulls and other body parts were sometimes also collected. This behavior was officially prohibited by the U.S. Military. It is not clear how common these behaviors were, nor have its causes been authoritatively determined. Trophy taking Front line warning sign using a Japanese soldier's skull on Peleliu In addition to trophy skulls, teeth, ears and other such objects, taken body parts were occasionally modified, for example by writing on them or fashioning them into utilities or other artifacts. "U.S. Marines on their way to Guadalcanal relished the prospect of making necklaces of Japanese gold teeth and "pickling" Japanese ears as keepsakes." In an air base in New Guinea hunting the last remaining Japanese was a "sort of hobby". The leg-bones of these Japanese were sometimes carved into letter openers and pen-holders, but this was rare. Eugene Sledge , private, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, also relates a few instances of fellow Marines extracting gold teeth from the Japanese, including one from a wounded Japanese. Since the Japanese was struggling the Marine tried to facilitate the extraction by slashing the victim's cheeks from ear to ear and kneeling on his chin. He was promptly shou...