Tarawa shows difficulties of finding war missing

Forensic anthropologist Gregory Fox and his team sifted dirt on the remote Pacific atoll of Tarawa at what they thought might be graves of U.S. Marines and sailors killed in one of World War II's most savage battles.
They unearthed instead a mass grave of Japanese soldiers killed in the 1943 battle, along with a forgotten local cemetery.


Tarawa shows difficulties of finding war missing

 

Actually, the graves they were searching for were from guys who were recovered and buried in a number of cemeteries on the island. Somehow, the maps showing the locations of many graves did not match the locations of the markers and when these graves were excavated after the war the remains of about 500 who were buried were never located. This latest expedition was an attempt to locate those who were buried but not repatriated after the war.

 

*bump* for an update-
"The remains of 36 unidentified US Marines found at a Second World War battlefield in Japan have been brought home after 72 years.
The soldiers' remains were found on the remote Pacific atoll of Tarawa - an island chain which set the stage for one of the conflict's bloodiest battles - claiming more than 6,000 lives over three days.
They were recovered by a group called History Flight and were flown to Pearl Harbour where a ceremony was carried out yesterday to mark their repatriation.
The recovery was the product of a multi-million-dollar, nine-year research project.
History Flight, a non-profit organization 'committed to keeping World War II aviation history alive' is now working with the military to identify the remains.
Once this has been completed, they will be given to the soldiers' families.
The Marines invaded Japanese-held Tarawa Atoll in November 1943 where more than 1,000 Americans died and the entire Japanese garrison of 4,500 was obliterated over a three-day battle.
Japanese machine-gun fire killed scores of Americans when their boats got stuck on the reef at low tide during the US amphibious assault."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3175807/Remains-36-unidentified-Marines-killed-remote-Japanese-island-bloody-Second-World-War-battle-recovered-returned-America-72-years.html#ixzz3h6N0gMgA

 

Been reading about it a while now. The Marine Corps has been putting out a lot about it on it's Facebook page.



A good picture from the page.

 

As vicious as Tarawa was. As deep as the hatred between the Japanese and the US Marines went. One thing that shows that we grew as a people out of that war is to see Japanese soldiers training beside, and being mentored today by US Marines.

Here's some video of Marines and JGSDF training together at 29 Palms. May we never repeat our past mistakes. Amtracks were first used in the assault role at Tarawa, seeing present day Japanese soldiers practicing assaulting in Marine Corps amtracks is almost sureal, given our history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaGHGaEssp4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v4L1bpj9SE