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Starvation
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This article is taken in its entirety from
The American forces, in bypassing Truk, left only the meager resources of the lagoon to support almost 50,000 people, including 14,300 Army troops, 9,800 naval personnel, 14,200 construction workers, 1,600 civilians, 9,100 Trukese, 970 Nauruans, and several other nationalities. All of them were cut off, isolated and slowly starving. Severe pressure was placed on an already inadequate food supply once supply lines from the homeland were cut. After August 1944 no ships were able to get through to Truk from the Japanese homeland, and except for a few visits by submarines the garrison was isolated. It was impossible to obtain the quantity of fish from the lagoon in necessary volume to feed the islands' population due to the massive destruction of fish resulting from the bombing and pollution. There was also a shortage of fishing equipment and cold storage facilities to preserve a food supply in the tropics. The only relief was a Japanese flying boat carrying a few supplies that got through once a month during the period of the full moon.
On September 21st, the I-362 delivered one and a half tons of food rations, a few aircraft parts and repair materials, some dynamite fuses, and a small amount of medical supplies and mail. This submarine was followed by the I-363 on October 21st, bringing essentially the same commodities plus seeds for self-sustenance. The I-365 entered on November 15th bound for Mereyon and left only mail and medical supplies. Only three more subs got through to the naval base before the end of the war: the I-371 on January 18, 1945; the I-366 on February 13th; and the I-367 on May 4th. The cargo of each was essentially the same as those which preceded them. The submarines that visited Truk after August 1944 were all later destroyed elsewhere.
For those ashore hunger would be a constant companion. Their diet would consist mainly of sweet potatoes and taro mixed with the rice the submarines delivered. This would occasionally be supplemented with small rations of vegetables and fish, both of which were in increasingly short supply. Every available plot of land on the mountainous islands was planted in sweet potatoes to be eaten with bananas, coconut and breadfruit when in season. Since there was no livestock, fresh protein was not available except for a decreasing supply of fish dynamited from the lagoon. For both the Trukese and Japanese deaths from malnutrition and avitaminosis reached several hundred each month. Rats were everywhere and, when captured by the soldiers, were eaten. Rat-bite fever went unrecognized. Flies covered everything, and the use of “night soil” to fertilize garden patches made matters worse.
Cannibalism is not the rare and unnatural act in nature one might suspect. While there are few animals which will feed on its own species, there is abundant evidence that early man, shortly after he became a carnivore, consumed the flesh of his own kind. When man first acquired a taste for meat, his basic instincts were probably not so repelled by the act of devouring human flesh. Later, during his long evolution toward a civilized state this revolting and repugnant act was prohibited by society. In those primitive societies where cannibalism was practiced to any degree, it was usually confined to some ritual connected with the defeat of an enemy. When cannibalism has occurred in modern times, it is usually when basic animal instincts for survival are so aroused, as in the case of starvation, that man feels the need to sustain his own life by eating the flesh of another.
When one is first deprived of food, the head aches and the mind cannot concentrate on anything but the desire for sustenance. After the first thirty-six to forty-eight hours, the hunger abates and the body begins to feed upon itself. Weight loss is rapid as the resources within are consumed, and hunger pains lessen while mental and physical energy diminish. After a while, the stomach become bloated as a result of weakened muscles, the rib cage becomes visible, teeth loosen, black hair turns brown, and bowel movement ceases. When hunger again returns, death by starvation is not far off - and one can slowly go insane over an obsession with food.
War can not only devastate the food supply of a countryside and surrounding sea, but the death and desolation which follows in its wake can also lay to ruin the very foundation of civilized societies. Its callous and brutal disregard for life of all form scratches the thin veneer of human society, built upon centuries of intellectual and cultural attainment, and often releases the beast in man with all his savage instincts. The first overpowering instinct becomes one of survival at any cost, and the basic drive to satiate hunger takes the form of an overwhelming obsession for food. This undisciplined drive controls the mind, and all reason and the codes of moral and spiritual conduct are abandoned.
The misery and torment of extreme hunger, when the moral and physical condition degenerates to its lowest level, brings with it a ravenous craving for food that wipes away inhibitions and forces men to succumb to the ghoulish act of anthropophagy.
Acute hunger is the general rule in war for the vanquished when the land is ravaged and the food supply is destroyed. It can also occur in populations as a result of crop failures and the attending famine, at which time man has been known to devour anything suitable for sustenance. Under such conditions, either as a result of hunger or because of an unnatural craving for meat, the carnivorous desire has sometimes become overwhelming, with the ghastly result that civilized men have become cannibals less than ten days after they were deprived of an omnivorous diet. In such a state, one becomes hollow-eyed, weak and lethargic and flesh of one's own species has sometimes become grim reality.
The repugnant act, while uncorroborated, is rumored to have occurred in Truk during the dark days of 1944. The loathsome and heinous act is alleged to have been the result of a theft of a potato.
It was months since the first attack and the Japanese on Truk were slowly starving. Those lucky enough to catch a rate or lizard at least found some nourishment. The Trukese were also slowly dying of hunger. Unknown to Pueni Muato, who at the age of thirty-four was Assistant Police Chief for the local government on Moen, his brother Nekiroch, and Nuter Weinei could no longer bear the dull, sustained ache of empty stomachs, which already were beginning to protrude. They had disappeared from the village of Penia and sneaked away to a field where they had planted potatoes for the Japanese. Even though it was their family's land, everyone had been warned by the Japanese not to eat anything growing on the land. Now they were creeping under the cover of darkness to “steal” food from their farm near the communication center. Nuter had bent over to hide from the Japanese standing on watch, but it was too late. Both men had been seen, and a shot rang out killing Nuter instantly. The Japanese rushed to Nekiroch and held him at gunpoint beside Nuter's body. The Japanese guard was then joined y another and they took Neikiroch away.
The next morning Pueni realized that his brother had not returned home the night before. He asked other family members of his whereabouts, but none knew anything about his disappearance. Later the next evening a friend of Pueni who worked at the hospital on Moen told Pueni that Nekiroch had been taken to the hospital and that the Japanese had said he was ill. Several more days passed and Pueni was still unable to learn of the brother's condition. Neither he nor any member of his family was permitted to visit the stricken relative.
A week later, as Pueni was sitting outside his house in the cool of the evening, he saw a friend bicycle up the path. It was the Japanese lieutenant who had befriended Pueni and often visited his house to obtain tuba. Pueni inquired whether the lieutenant knew of the condition of his sick brother and was somewhat puzzled at the reply. “We are friends and if I told you what happened to your brother you would probably not give me any more tuba. Besides if the authorities found out I told you, we would probably both be shot.” The Japanese officer got his tuba and rode off on the bicycle.
The next day Pueni decided he would visit his brother at the Moen Branch of the 150th Infantry Army Hospital, one of two medical facilities on the island. The Army hospital was not as large as the main facility situated on Dublon; this branch had 120 beds and was staffed by 313 military personnel. There were no civilian doctors or nurses, but several Trukese worked there doing odd jobs and Pueni knew most of them.
The hospital was well-equipped with medicine and had facilities for operating and for conducting medical tests. The most prevalent diseases treated were malnutrition, beri-beri, tuberculosis, amoebic dysentery, paratyphoid A, Weil's disease, dengue and battle-dropsy. No malaria, typhus or cholera were evident on the island.
Upon entering the hospital, Pueni approached the non-rated medical staff at the reception and information office and asked if he could see Nekiroch. After a few moments, the Japanese attendant returned and said that he could not - no visitors were allowed! Pueni was distraught - what could have happened to Nekiroch? He was not ill the evening he left the house, only hungry like everyone else. On the way home he wondered what he would tell his family. Shortly after arriving at the village, he happened to meet a friend who worked at the hospital and he inquired of his brother. What he learned sent him into a state of shock. First he was swept with bitter hatred and disgust and then overwhelmed with grief.
Nekiroch, he learned, had been used as a teaching aid. While it is not known if an anesthetic was used, he was placed on an operating table and his stomach cut open and the contents examined. Then it was sewn closed. Next his arm was amputated and then with sutures the severed humerus bone on the left arm was rejoined in its original position. After this surgical butchery, his foot was removed at the ankle in a similar operation. His body unable to stand the shock, Nekiroch died on the operating table.
Overcome with sorrow, Pueni pointed out that “Nekiroch had been gone for several days, and if he was dead, why didn't the Japanese return his remains to the family for proper burial?” The reply was so shocking and revolting that Pueni was stunned. The rumor circulating around the hospital after Nekiroch's death was that the remains had been dismembered; they were then distributed and eaten!
NOTE: The story of Nekiroch is undoubtedly true. When the first War Claims were paid in the late 1970's, his family received compensation for this hideous crime.
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