Disabled Japanese Type 97 Chi-Ha Medium tank on the beach at Guadalcanal - December 1942

WARNING - Pictures of human remains

Disabled Japanese Type 97 Chi-Ha Medium tank on the beach at Guadalcanal - December 1942

On February 1, 1943, LIFE magazine published a photograph taken by Ralph Morse during the Guadalcanal campaign showing a severed head that US personnel had supposedly propped up on a disabled Japanese tank.

LIFE received letters of protest from people "in disbelief that US personnel were capable of such brutality toward the enemy." 

The editors responded that "war is unpleasant, cruel, and inhuman. And it is more dangerous to forget this than to be shocked by reminders." 

From a Time Magazine interview with Morse: “The Army had taken over from the Marines,” Morse said setting the scene on Guadalcanal in late 1942, “and I was traveling with a group of soldiers on patrol. In the forests on those islands, you had to walk in a single line.

 The brush was so damn thick that if you didn’t keep your eye on the shoes of the guy in front of you, you were lost. I think it was three or four days of solid walking, but we were fine.” A pause. Then, “We were all young,” he says, a hint of wonder in his voice.

“We came to a big opening on the beach,” Morse says, “and there was a tank with a skull on it, right near the turret. The sergeant leading the patrol looks at it and says, ‘Guys, that skull has been put there for a reason, and the Japanese have probably got mortar shells aimed right at this spot.’ A disgusting scene like that will always draw people in, and the idea, of course, was that any American troops who came along would obviously want to stop and take a look.

“‘Everybody stay away from there,’ the sergeant says, then he turns to me. ‘You,’ he says, ‘go take your picture if you have to, then get out, quick.’ So I went over, got my pictures and ran like hell back to where the patrol had stopped.

LIFE Magazine Archives - Ralph Morse Photographer