Remains of soldier who died 80 years ago in World War II POW camp identified
The remains of a U.S. soldier who died more than 80 years ago in a Japanese prisoner of war camp have been identified, the military said on Monday.
Army Pfc. Arthur L. Pierce, 26, of Malden, Massachusetts, was captured and held at the camp in the Philippines prior to his death during World War II. Pierce accounted for in July through mitochondrial DNA analysis as well as anthropological analysis and circumstantial evidence, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a statement.
Pierce was a member of the 803rd Engineer Battalion involved in fighting on the Bataan peninsula in 1942. He was among thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members captured and held in POW camps after surviving the 65-mile Bataan Death March, and one of the soldiers who was reported as captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to Japan in the spring of that year.
Pierce was held at the Cabanatuan camp where he and the other POWs endured malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and dysentery. More than 2,500 prisoners died in that camp during the war, according to the DPAA. Pierce died of disease on July 19, 1942, and was buried in a communal grave along with other prisoners who perished, the agency said, citing prison camp and historical records.
Those remains were relocated after the war to a temporary military mausoleum near Manila. Twelve sets of remains were identified in 1947 and the rest, declared unidentifiable, were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. The unknown remains were disinterred in 2018 and sent to a laboratory in Hawaii for further analysis.
The DPAA announced last week that Army Air Forces Pvt. Joseph E. Lescaut, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who also died at Cabanatuan after the Bataan Death March, had also recently been accounted for.
Pierce will be buried in Augusta, Maine, at a future date, the DPAA said. Anyone interested in the memorial arrangements are asked to contact the Army Casualty Office.
