My wife's father was in the USN during the war, serving on board a destroyer escort throughout the South Pacific and she told me one time, the ship was anchored near some islands and some local natives came on board holding some gunny sacks. Her Dad was watching from above along the railings, when the natives opened up their sacks and rolled several Japanese heads on the deck..for he said they were collecting like $25 a piece for each head they had brought in from the jungle. He said this was something you never forget..anybody else heard other stories like this???..use to think this was simply propaganda or big Navy talk but after hearing it from him..I have no doubt it happened. But wondered who gave the orders for these bounties??? and where did they get the money to pay these natives..petty cash???..just curious tonight.
I don't know about your FIL's story, but there were reportedly headhunters and/or cannibals in the South Pacific. I recall a discussion about that here a while back. Do a search for "headhunters" and you should be able to find it. I seem to recall that it involved the island of Bougainville.
Considering how bad the Japanese treated the Pacific Islanders, for I have read millions were either killed or exploited for labor by them, that part of it was revenge and part was their native tribal customs, especially around Borneo with the Lun Dayak tribe. Still researching about what happened on board her Dad's ship, for her brother has more information about his ship and maybe even some of his journals, discovering the log book would be helpful. But just curious if the USN placed bounties on the Japanese and if so, where did this originate from..certainly a interesting topic.
I have heard/read some accounts of 'collecting' ears in Indochina where OSS and Anglo-French intell spec ops operated, but again can not point to official documentation.
..they didn't have money on ships? ...I thought I remember reading about natives going out to hunt/kill/etc the Japanese. ...maybe the natives thought they could get some $$$--but there was not an official ''order'' given by a US official?
If it was done, I doubt it was an official policy of the USN. I did come across a Wikipedia article which might suggest that, like many war stories, it is partially true. It seems American servicemen would collect skulls of Japanese soldiers and, in some cases, send home as souvenirs. A quote from the Wiki article: "In September 1942, the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet mandated strong disciplinary action against any soldier who took enemy body parts as souvenirs. But such trophy-hunting persisted: Life published a photograph in its issue of May 22, 1944, of a young woman posing with the autographed skull sent to her by her Navy boyfriend. There was public outrage in the US in response." In theory, he may have witnessed sailors purchasing the skulls from natives as souvenirs and, over time, the story evolved to the story you heard.
