Yoshio Tachibana
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| “ | Lieutenant General Joshio Tachibana, Imperial Japanese Army, and 11 other Japanese military personnel were tried for the beheadings of American airmen in August, 1944, on Chichi Jima in the Bonin Islands. They were beheaded on Tachibana's orders. One of the executed airmen, a U. S. Navy radioman third class, was dissected and his "flesh and viscera" eaten by Japanese military personnel. | „ |
| ~ Jeanie M. Welch, University of North Carolina |
Lieutenant General Yoshio Tachibana (24 February 1890 - 24 September 1947) was a military commander for the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He was in charge of a military garrison on the Pacific island of Chichijima in 1945 when the war ended.
Due to supplies on island running low, and despite the troops being in no immediate danger of starvation, eight captured American pilots were, over a period of several months, tortured and beheaded on Tachibana's orders. The bodies were then dissected and eaten by the senior officers.
After the war ended, Tachibana and his staff were deported to Guam, where they stood trial for war crimes. Tachibana and four other defendants were sentenced to death by hanging for killing and eating the POWs. He was executed on September 24, 1947.