Pentagon to exhume, identify hundreds of Pearl Harbor victims

More than 70 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the remains of as many as 388 sailors and Marines who died when the USS Oklahoma sank will be exhumed in an attempt to identify them.

The Department of Defense announced Tuesday that the remains, which have been interred in Hawaii since 1950, will be analyzed in a lab using forensic techniques not available in the 1940s. Those who are identified will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors, Reuters reports. "While not all families will receive an individual identification, we will strive to provide resolution to as many families as possible," Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work said in a statement.

After the attack, just 35 crew members were identified and buried. The remains that were found during salvage operations from 1942 to 1944 were interred as "unknowns" at cemeteries around Hawaii, then disinterred in 1947. Requests were made to identify the remains by dental records, but not approved, and by 1950, all of the unidentified remains were interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up