2차세계대전 당시 일본군은 포로의 ‘인육’ 먹으며 술 파티를 벌였다 - George HW Bush

아시아의 해방과 평화를 목놓아 외치며 전쟁을 일으킨 전범 국가 일본.

세계를 정복하겠다던 일본의 패기는 지난 1945년 8월 6일, 히로시마에 떨어진 원자폭탄 한 방에 꺾이고 말았다.

이후 2차세계대전 패전국이 돼버린 일본은 전범 재판을 받아야 했다.

일본이 전쟁을 통해 저지른 살상과 악행이 낱낱이 세상에 밝혀지게 됐고, 그 잔혹함에 전 세계는 충격을 금치 못했다.

특히나 그중에서 가장 끔찍한 사건이 있었는데, 다름 아닌 ‘치치지마 식인 사건’이다.

태평양 전쟁 당시 미국은 일본과 힘겨루기를 벌이며 전략적 요충지를 봉쇄하기 위한 대대적인 작전에 나섰다.

격전지는 바로 일본 본토에서 1000km 동남쪽에 위치한 오가사와라 제도였다.

그중에서 가장 큰 섬인 치치지마 섬. 그곳은 일본 본토에서 태평양으로 진출하는 요충지이자 중요한 보급로였다.

지난 1944년 9월 2일, 미 해군은 치치지마 섬 폭격을 개시하며 일본군의 보급로를 차단하기 위한 전투를 시작했다.

그런데 이 전투에서 미 해군의 전투기가 일본의 대공포에 맞아 추락하고 말았고, 기적적으로 9명의 미군이 바다에 떨어져 목숨을 부지했다.

9명의 미군 중 8명은 일본군에 포로로 생포 당했으며 오직 1명만이 유일하게 생환했다.

당시 치치지마 섬에 주둔하고 있던 부대의 최고 지휘관 다치바나 요시오는 병사들에게 충격적인 명령을 내렸다.

“군의관은 포로들의 장기를 적출하고, 병사들은 처형된 미군들의 인육을 요리해 먹을 것”

대개 전쟁 상황에서 식량이 매우 부족해 긴박할 때는 종종 인육을 먹었던 것으로 기록돼 있다. 과거 소련군, 독일군도 보급로가 차단돼 식량문제가 심각할 경우 인육으로 버텼다고 알려졌다.

그런데 치치지마 섬의 상황은 달랐다. 주요 보급로 중 하나였던 치치지마 섬에는 오히려 일본 본토보다 식량이 풍부한 상황이었다.

다치바나 요시아는 식량이 풍부한데도 병사들의 사기 진작과 승리 의식 고취를 위해 인육을 먹으라고 명령한 것이다.

© 제공: 톱스타뉴스 온라인 커뮤니티

이에 따라 일본군은 포로의 인육으로 만든 요리를 안주 삼아 술 파티를 벌인 것으로 알려져 있다. 야만의 극치를 보여주는 대목이다.

일본이 패망한 이후 전범 재판에서는 다치바나 요시아를 포함한 관련 지휘관들이 모두 포로 생체해부, 식인 등의 만행을 저지른 혐의로 법정에 서게 됐다.

재판에서 다치바나의 당번병은 그가 포로의 인육을 먹으면서 “맛있다, 한 접시 추가!”라고 말했다고 증언해 전범 재판장을 싸늘하게 만들었다고 기록돼 있다.

결국 다치바나를 포함한 일본군 지휘관 5명은 사형을 선고받으며 최후를 맞이했다. 인류 역사상 전무후무한 식인 사건을 남겨놓은 채로.

한편, 전투기가 격추당해 바다에 떨어진 미군 9명 중 유일하게 생환한 1명은 바로 미국의 제41대 대통령인 조지 허버트 워커 부시(George H. W. Bush)였다.

그가 대통령을 역임하던 당시인 80년대 후반과 90년대 초반 미국은 아시아, 특히 일본과의 관계를 긴밀히 유지하던 시기였다.

일본과 협력관계를 유지하며 수많은 사업을 체결하고 교류했지만 사적으로는 정말로 일본을 혐오할 수밖에 없었다고 인터뷰를 통해 밝힌 바 있다.

안윤지 기자 Reporter@TopStarNews.co.kr

George HW Bush narrowly escaped comrades' fate of being killed and eaten by Japanese captors

George HW Bush was the only one of nine pilots to escape after being shot down by the Japanese in 1944 Credit: REUTERS/Donna Carson

 

The former President George HW Bush narrowly escaped being beheaded and eaten by Japanese soldiers when he was shot down over the Pacific in the Second World War, a shocking new history published in America has revealed.

The book, Flyboys, is the result of historical detective work by James Bradley, whose father was among the marines later photographed raising the flag over the island of Iwo Jima.

Lt George Bush, then a 20-year-old pilot, was among nine airmen who escaped from their planes after being shot down during bombing raids on Chichi Jima, a tiny island 700 miles south of Tokyo, in September 1944 - and was the only one to evade capture by the Japanese.

The horrific fate of the other eight "flyboys" was established in subsequent war crimes trials on the island of Guam, but details were sealed in top secret files in Washington to spare their families distress.

Mr Bradley has established that they were tortured, beaten and then executed, either by beheading with swords or by multiple stab-wounds from bayonets and sharpened bamboo stakes. Four were then butchered by the island garrison's surgeons and their livers and meat from their thighs eaten by senior Japanese officers.

The future president escaped a similar fate because he ditched his plane further from the island than the other crews, and managed to scramble on to a liferaft. American planes launched a hail of fire at Japanese boats which set out to capture him, driving them back, and he was eventually rescued by a US submarine.

There was no disgust, shock or horror. He's a veteran of a different generationJames Bradley

When the black hull of the USS Finback surfaced in front of him, he thought he was hallucinating, he told Mr Bradley in a television film made to coincide with the publication of Flyboys. He had been vomiting, bleeding from a head wound, and weeping with fear. He said only four words to his rescuers: "Happy to be aboard."

Mr Bush's part in the raid - for which he won the Distinguished Flying Cross - has long been known to Americans. Not known until now was the grim fate of his downed comrades - none from his own plane - who swam ashore.

Mr Bradley pieced together the horrific truth from secret transcripts of the war crimes trials, given to him by a former officer and lawyer who was an official witness at the time, and the testimony of surviving Japanese veterans.

A radio operator, Marve Mershon, was marched to a freshly dug grave, blindfolded, and made to kneel for beheading by sword, testified a Japanese soldier, named as Iwakawa, at the war crimes trial. "When the flyer was struck, he did not cry out, but made a slight groan."

The next day a Japanese officer, Major Sueo Matoba, decided to include American flesh in a sake-fuelled feast he laid on for officers including the commander-in-chief on the island, Gen Yoshio Tachibana. Both men were later tried and executed for war crimes.

Downed pilot George Bush is rescued by the Navy submarine, USS Finback on September 2, 1944 Credit: Photoshot

A Japanese medical orderly who helped the surgeon prepare the ingredients said: "Dr Teraki cut open the chest and took out the liver. I removed a piece of flesh from the flyer's thigh, weighing about six pounds and measuring four inches wide, about a foot long."

Another crewman, Floyd Hall, met a similar fate. Adml Kinizo Mori, the senior naval officer on Chichi Jima, told the court that Major Matoba brought "a delicacy" to a party at his quarters - a specially prepared dish of Floyd Hall's liver.

According to Adml Mori, Matoba told him: "I had it pierced with bamboo sticks and cooked with soy sauce and vegetables." They ate it in "very small pieces", believing it "good medicine for the stomach", the admiral recalled.

US Navy pilot George Bush sits in the cockpit of an Avenger fighter aircraft, c. 1943-45 Credit: Caters

A third victim of cannibalism, Jimmy Dye, had been put to work as a translator when, several weeks later, Capt Shizuo Yoshii - who was later tried and executed - called for his liver to be served at a party for fellow officers. Parts of a fourth airman, Warren Earl Vaughn, were also eaten and the remaining four were executed, one by being clubbed to death.

The parents of all the airmen are now dead, but Mr Bradley contacted all their families. "The first reaction was a stunned silence, a hush. But I think that at last knowing how these men died, however horrible their deaths, has allowed closure and in a word I heard from them, healing," he said.

Mr Bush's first reaction was also to say nothing. "There was a lot of head-shaking, a lot of silence," the author told The Telegraph. "There was no disgust, shock or horror. He's a veteran of a different generation."

The former president returned to Chichi Jima with Mr Bradley for the first time since his rescue for the CNN documentary broadcast last week. Mr Bush looked sombre but never visibly upset, and ventured into the water in a modern liferaft to re-create his experience.

He recalled that while on the submarine he asked himself why he had survived. "Why had I been spared and what did God have in store for me? In my own view there's got to be some kind of destiny and I was being spared for something on Earth." Earlier he had told Mr Bradley: "I think about those guys all the time."

This article was originally published on October 26, 2003