Tokyo: A university museum in Japan has broken a seven-decade taboo on discussing the dissection of live American prisoners of war by medical personnel.

The museum opened on Saturday in the grounds of Kyushu University, in the city of Fukuoka, and details more than a century of innovation at one of Japan's foremost medical schools.

A B-29 Superfortress that had taken off from the Pacific island of Guam was rammed by a Japanese fighter on May 5, 1945. Credit:Getty Images

But one small section provides details from the Second World War of a darker chapter in the university's history, according to Kyodo News.

A B-29 Superfortress that had taken off from the Pacific island of Guam and completed a bombing run against an airfield near Fukuoka was rammed by a Japanese fighter on May 5, 1945. Local records indicate that 12 of the crew bailed out, but one died when his parachute cords were severed by another fighter and two others were stabbed to death by local people when they landed.