Confusing/Shocking Article

What was this article based on? The book by Daniel Barenblatt, “A Plague Upon Humanity”? If so, what has been the reception of the book in academic circles? In other words, what are the sources for this article and how reliable are they?

Unit 731 is hardly a “secret”, whatever the Daily Mail might try and suggest. Any decent-sized bookstore in Japan would probably carry a book or two about it. Some, of course, trying to deny it, but there are plenty of works out there that do not.

This is the best known case of canabalizing prisoners by the Japanese Army: http://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/welch_naval_MCs.pdf (from International Journal of Naval History)

“In some instances precedent in military or international law failed to cover alleged crimes. One such instance is accusations of cannibalism. Lieutenant General Joshio Tachibana, Imperial Japanese Army, and 11 other Japanese military personnel were tried for the beheadings of two American airmen in August, 1944, on Chichi Jima in the Bonin Islands. They were beheaded on Tachibana’s orders. One of the executed airmen, a U.S. Navy radioman third class, was dissected and his “flesh and viscera” eaten by Japanese
military personnel. The U. S. also tried Vice Admiral Mori and a Major Matoba for murder in the deaths of five U. S. airmen, in February, 1945. Major Matoba confessed to cannibalism. However, military and international law had no provisions for punishment for cannibalism per se. They were accused of murder and “prevention of honorable burial.”

“US Tribunal sentenced to death Vice Admiral Mori and major Motoba for execution of five American pilots. Major Motoba pleaded guilty and admitted that he ate Americans because he hate them. Mori and Motoba were sentenced for “manslaughter and preventing of honourable burial”, but not for cannibalism…

Tanaka explained cannibalism of dead Japanese soldiers by their collegues as form of bonding and mystical ritual preserving the dead.
Consumption of Allied soldiers was explained as form of gaining power and combatting battle stress.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fires_on_the_Plain

Fires on the Plain, a story of the defeat of the Japanese forces in the Philippines, has canablism as a major part of the plot. I can’t recommend this book enough.