United States: In a recent announcement made by federal authorities, they said the remains of a missing World War II soldier belonging to Oregon had been recovered and would be sent back to the state for burial.
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According to the Department of Defence statement, the remnants belonged to a US Army Private William Calkins, 20, post exhumed found along with other unknown soldiers buried at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines, as CBS News reported.
The department’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which has been tasked to recover prisoners of war and service members who went missing in action, has explained that Calkins was captured after the US troops in Bataan province yielded to Japanese forces.
The agency, along with the clippings of multiple Oregon newspapers, said, “Word has been received in Salem that Pvt. William E. Calkins, formerly employed by the Perfection Bowling alleys, is a prisoner of war.”
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As per the reports, Calkins was buried along with other prisoners in a ‘Common Grave 704.’ Post-war, his remains were exhumed from the camp and were relocated to the Philippine capital, where they were buried as “unknowns” at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
Furthermore, an effort was made in 2018 to identify the unknown remains associated with Common Grave 704 by sending the exhumed remains to a laboratory. The scientists there performed DNA analysis, as well as other techniques, to identify Calkins’ remains.
As per the DPAA reports, the prisoners who were located at Cabanatuan POW Camp #1 had to go through horrific conditions, where death rates rose owing to a lack of medicine and food.
According to the agency, “Because so many men were dying, burial parties worked every day. Each morning, the men would gather at the morgue and organize into teams to begin the march to the cemetery. The camp adopted a mass internment system, burying all that died in one day in one common grave,” as CBS News reported.
“The burial party would deliver the dead to the cemetery and then dig the mass grave for the next day,” as it continued.
