For more than half a century after the attack on Pearl Harbor the remains from many of the victims of the attack were difficult if not impossible to identify.
Many families of the victims of the attack on Pearl Harbor did not receive the remains of their loved ones to bury. By the time the bodies of many of the men on board the USS Oklahoma could be salvaged their bones were intermingled and unidentifiable. They were buried in a mass grave in Hawaii.
In the 1950s the military disinterred the remains and attempted to identify them using dental records, but that proved a mostly fruitless task and the remains were reburied.
Now a new effort to identify the remains is underway. The Washington Post reported on this story in “After 74 years, Bones from Pearl Harbor Tomb Ship May be Identified.”
The remains have again been exhumed and shipped to a warehouse in Nebraska where scientists believe they can use DNA testing to identify the remains.
It is always difficult when a loved one passes away. Wakes and funerals offer an important opportunity for grieving family members to find closure, which allows them to get on with their own lives and wrap up the affairs of the estate.
Relatives of the victims of the attack that sparked World War II may receive a sense of closure if the bodies of loved ones are return.
Reference: Washington Post (Dec. 6, 2015) “Post reported on this story in “After 74 years, Bones from Pearl Harbor Tomb Ship May be Identified.”
