The US military plans to exhume the remains of 388 Americans killed in the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, in an unprecedented attempt to identify troops using DNA testing.
The effort will focus on sailors and marines from the USS Oklahoma who could never be identified, more than seven decades since the surprise attack that launched America’s entry into the second world war.
The ship sank when it was struck by Japanese torpedoes in the Pearl Harbor attack, killing 429 sailors and marines. Remains of most of the crew could not be identified and were eventually interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
Under the Pentagon’s decision, the remains of 388 unidentified crew from Oklahoma will be disinterred from the cemetery and transferred to a Defense Department laboratory in Hawaii.
Article provided by the Guardian
