NahnCee:

Hendryk – do you have a citation for that story? Especially the part about the suiciding pilot?
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The incident is mentioned in the book Angels Twenty: A Young American Flier a Long Way from Home by Edwards Park who flew in New Guinea and concerns the newsreels of time describing the battle and its casualty free outcome on the american side which he wryly remarks upon and includes as far as I can recall the pilot (a friend of his) finding – in the authors words “a use for that big ol´rusty Iron they carried around”.

Grimmy:
There wasn’t much sniveling over the bleeding out of Japanese soldiers by US and allied warfighters by the time of the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. Guadalcanal had been in progress for some time as had the New Guinea fight, including the epic ANZAC defensive action along the Kokoda Track.
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Yes its true there wasnt much compassion especially with the japanese canibalising the corpses of their australian opponents during the Kokoda Campaign but when you consider having to fight a grimm war in a forgotten part of the world with little resources/support compared to the european theater its small wonder that some of the most remote and primitive airstrips also had high suicide rates.