Investigating WWII-era photo of woman posing with skull of ‘Japanese soldier’

Over the years, online users have shared a World War II-era photo allegedly showing a female war worker in Arizona writing a thank-you note to her Navy boyfriend for sending her a signed Japanese soldier’s skull.

For example, on March 20, 2025, a Facebook user posted (archived) the picture with the caption, “A young woman writing a thank you note to her boyfriend in the Navy for the skull of a Japanese soldier that he sent her, 1944.” Numerous users also shared the same picture and similar captions on Facebook in early May, as well as in previous weeks on Instagram and X.

(Forbidden Stories/Facebook)

The May 22, 1944, issue of Life magazine — archived by Google Books — featured the original printing of the photo of the woman and skull. In the issue, the image received the distinction of “picture of the week,” and was captioned: “Arizona war worker writes her Navy boyfriend a thank you note for the Jap skull he sent her.” The magazine also featured the following additional information on the preceding page, identifying the woman as Natalie Nickerson:

When he said goodbye two years ago to Natalie Nickerson, 20, a war worker of Phoenix, Arizona, a big, handsome Navy lieutenant promised her a Jap. Last week, Natalie received a human skull, autographed by her lieutenant and 13 friends, and inscribed: “This is a good Jap — a dead one picked up on the New Guinea beach.” Natalie, surprised at the gift, named it Tojo. The armed forces disapprove strongly of this sort of thing.

Time magazine later credited the picture to photographer Ralph Crane alongside reporting a brief history of war atrocities.

To learn more, Snopes called Jennifer Paine Welwood and Wingate Paine II, two children of Nickerson — later Natalie Nickerson Paine, after marrying photographer Wingate Paine in 1949. Both children recalled their mother’s successful modeling career in New York City that followed World War II. Welwood said she remembered being “completely horrified” by her mother’s photo. Wingate Paine II added that he regarded the picture as a “propaganda photo” and recalled his mother later “felt regretful” about her participation in it.

“From what I understood, from what she told me many, many years ago, because I had seen the photo, I’ve seen actually the Life magazine copy, that this had been basically a photo shoot and that, it was, it was a whole posed thing, and she did not have a boyfriend in the Pacific,” Wingate Paine II said. “And she felt, you know, she felt, I don’t know. I can’t really put words in her mouth. She felt regretful that she had allowed herself to be put into the situation. But, in those [times], you know, it was war and Japan was the enemy. And I’m sure as a young woman, she was persuaded that this would be good for her career.”

Regarding the whereabouts of the skull, Welwood said, “I have no idea. And who knows if that was even genuine or some kind of a prop?”

The life of Natalie Nickerson Paine

Over the decades, newspaper stories archived on Newspapers.com featured articles mentioning Natalie Nickerson Paine. After graduating in 1940 from Phoenix Union High School in Arizona, she moved to New York City to try to become a model, with one newspaper mentioning her height as 5 feet 10 inches. Within a year, she returned home.

“I tried at the modeling agencies — Conover and Powers were the two big ones then — and didn’t get anywhere,” she told the Arizona Republic. “Then the war came and I came back to Phoenix and found a patriotic job, operating a drill press job at AiResearch on the graveyard shift. I had a whale of a time, too, even though I had grease clear up to my elbows all night long.” Wingate Paine II also told us his mother made altimeters for B-17 bombers. (Garrett AiResearch was a manufacturer of turboprop engines and turbochargers, and a pioneer in numerous aerospace technologies.)

After World War II, she headed back to New York to try modeling once more. “After the war, I decided to try New York again — but this time when the agencies still turned me down, I went out on my own, contacting photographers personally for bookings and was soon highly successful.” The Republic said she soon “established herself as one of America’s 10 top models.” Wingate Paine II, her son, told us, “She went on to become the highest-paid model in fashion model in the world. She was the first to ever earn $40 an hour.” (Snopes did not locate sources to independently verify this claim.)

The caption for a photo published with one November 1945 article read, “HOLIDAY VISITORS HERE: Among the many Thanksgiving holiday visitors in Phoenix last week were lovely Natalie Nickerson, one of the country’s 10 top models, and her brother, Capt. William A. Nickerson, much decorated marine pilot now on terminal leave from the service, who were guests of their mother, Mrs. Vivian Nickerson, 1221 North First street.”

 25 Nov 1945, Sun, The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona) Newspapers.com

In 1946, she served as Eileen Ford’s top model for the Ford Model Agency, per The Daily Beast.

On Jan. 21, 1949, she married Wingate Paine, a photographer who previously captured pictures of her modeling work, with subsequent mentions of her name appearing as Mrs. Wingate Paine. The Republic said Wingate Paine was “one of the leading fashion and commercial photographers in New York.” A later article said she appeared in photographs for both Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. Wingate Paine II and his sister, Jeanette (later Jennifer), appear with their mother in the newspaper photo below:

 08 Sep 1958, Mon, The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona) Newspapers.com

Subsequent newspaper articles documented her efforts to found the Plaza Five modeling agency and save New York’s old Metropolitan Opera House from demolition. None of the newspaper articles mentioned the skull photo.

The Republic published her obituary in March 2003, saying she “died peacefully after a long illness.” Among other noteworthy moments from her life, her obituary said that, in the 1960s, she “began serving as the director of medical research for a non-profit foundation dedicated to detoxifying heroin addicts, a position she held until the time of her death.”

For further reading, we previously reported about other rumors concerning Life magazine, including eyebrow-raising vintage ads about body shaving razors and coffee.

Sources