In September 1944, nine American pilots were shot down during bombing raids on Chichijima, the largest island in the Bonin chain. Eight were captured. The ninth, who evaded capture, was 20-year-old George H. W. Bush.
The eight captured airmen — Lloyd Woellhof, Grady York, James Dye, Glenn Frazier Jr., Marvell Mershon, Floyd Hall, Warren Earl Vaughn, and Warren Hindenlang — were beaten and tortured before being beheaded on the orders of Lieutenant General Yoshio Tachibana. Japanese officers then ate parts of the bodies of four of the men. Vice Admiral Mori Kunizo, who commanded the air base, "was of the belief that consumption of human liver had medical benefits."
Because military and international law "did not specifically deal with cannibalism," the perpetrators were tried for murder and "prevention of honorable burial." Of 30 Japanese soldiers prosecuted, four officers — including Tachibana — were found guilty and hanged. All enlisted men were released within eight years.
