Religion: Honor After Death

Most Americans were horrified to learn that among the souvenirs which U.S. servicemen have sent back from the South Pacific there have been a few Japanese soldiers’ skulls. They were also shocked to read last week (in Drew Pearson’s Merry-go-Round), that Pennsylvania’s Representative Francis Walter presented Franklin Roosevelt “with a letter-opener made from the forearm of a Jap soldier killed in the Pacific. He apologized for so small a part of the Jap’s anatomy. F.D.R. did not touch it but lit a cigaret.”

Last month the St. Louis Register, official weekly of the Missouri Roman Catholic Archdiocese, sternly warned Catholics (through its Ask and Learn column) not to accept such souvenirs. Question: “A friend of mine has received the skull of a Japanese from his son in the Pacific. The son’s wife allows her small children to play with it. Is this right?” Answer: “No. Church law declares that persons who violate the bodies of the dead, with a view to . . . any evil purpose, shall be punished with a personal interdict (Canon 2328). The honor due to the human body after death should indicate that the skull should be decently buried. The fact that it is a portion of the body of an enemy of this country makes no difference.”