Return of Japanese (?) Skulls from Berkeley Put on Hold

by Robert Koehler on September 2, 2009

It appears the return of what are believed to be the skulls and bones of Japanese killed during the Battle of Saipan from the storage shelves of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology on the UC Berkeley campus to Japan has been put on hold because, well, nobody’s quite sure if they’re actually Japanese:

Although its card catalogs list some of the Saipan remains as “Japanese who committed suicide during the American invasion,” UC anthropologists can only verify that the remains are of East Asian origin.

Japan isn’t keen to repatriate the skulls and bones of non-Japanese.

As you know, Saipan — as a Japanese colony — was home to a considerable number of Koreans, so it would be interesting to know if the Korean consulate has taken an interest in this matter.

(HT to Oranckay)

Tagged as: Saipan

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Uri Onara September 3, 2009 at 3:06 am: As soon as I saw the story, I figured they very well could be Korean bones. Of course at the time they were Japanese as well.
2 WangKon936 September 3, 2009 at 4:12 am: That was a nice gesture by Emperor Akihito.

So, these guys committed suicide? Well, I hope it wasn’t any Koreans unless it was idiots like this guy.
3 WangKon936 September 3, 2009 at 4:17 am: This guy (and his buddies) was a lot more sensible.
4 WangKon936 September 3, 2009 at 4:32 am: Kyoungjong Yang’s story below:

http://search.hankooki.com/weeks/weeks_view.php?terms=%C6%F7%B7%CE&path=hankooki1%2Fwhan%2F200212%2Fw2002120614100061510.htm