The Japanese used human fl£sh as food during World War II

The Japanese used human fl£sh as food during World War II

The Japanese used human fl£sh as food during World War II

While the Japanese had excellent airplanes, ships, torpedoes, generalship and discipline in the WWII, logistics was never their core competence, and the ordinary senrin was poorly fed, poorly supplied and poorly cared about. They often needed to forage for extra morsels for their rice portions.

One of the nasty public secrets of the WWII is that the Japanese soldiers were almost constantly on amphetamines. Amphetamines, known as shabu in the Japanese parlance, were something which was to make the senrin into superhuman soldiers - they removed unnecessary physiological needs such as eating, sleeping, resting and sometimes breathing.

Unfortunately amphetamines also tend to numb emotions and conscience, and make their user an emotionally handicapped pseudo-psychopath. Most other armies quickly withdrew amphetamines (Pervitin, Dexedrine, Benzedrine) once they realized its side effects, but the Japanese high command actually considered the side effects as something desired.

You do the math.

Yes, cannibalism happened, and the most well known must be the Chichijima incident The Japanese flak on Chichijima Island had shot down four USN TBM Avenger bombers, and nine pilots had parachuted. Eight of them landed on Chichijima, where they were captured, beheaded, gutted and prepared for food. The ninth, a certain Lt/JG G.H.W. Bush, off USS San Jacinto, drifted off to the sea where he was rescued by submarine USS Finback.