The US’ Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency recently dug up history to identify 100 sailors and Marines killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour 76 years ago. These people died when the ‘USS Oklahoma’ capsized after a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the American naval base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii Territory, on December 7, 1941.
The milestone has been achieved because of researchers who went through a long and complex process of matching the DNA of relatives with the samples of 400 people from a cemetery in Hawaii. Altogether, 429 people were onboard the battleship Oklahoma when it capsized after a bombing that plunged the US into the WWII. Only 35 sailors were identified in the years immediately after.

USS Oklahoma

As researchers managed to identify 100 sailors last week, the US Defence Department expressed hope that it would be possible to identify 80% of Pearl Harbour victims by the end of 2020. The department said in a statement that the agency has family DNA reference samples for 85% of the unaccounted for Marines and sailors. “Many remains buried in Hawaii were commingled with other sailors and Marines. The 388 men – disinterred in 2015 – were buried in 46 plots,” added the Defence Department.
Meanwhile, Howard W Bean returned to Everett in Massachusetts, his native town. Bean – the US Navy Radioman (3rd Class) – was just 27 when he was killed. His reburial took place on Wednesday in Arlington National Cemetery. Many of the 100 people, whose remains have been identified so far, have already been reburied in their own towns. Others were re-interred at the National Memorial Cemetery in the Pacific. The cemetery is located in an extinct volcanic crater in Honolulu.

7:48am, December 7, 1941. Imperial Japanese aircraft suddenly attacked the American naval base, as 353 aircraft – launched from six aircraft carriers – took seven hours to destroy the base completely. All the eight US Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, one mine-layer, apart from destroying 188 American aircraft. Later, Washington confirmed that 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 people were seriously injured.
Former US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe visited Pearl Harbour in 2016. Although the two countries forget bitterness, America decides to identify all the victims of Pearl Harbour attack. Washington wants to identify each and every victim by digging history.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das