Louisiana prisoners of war from World War II 82 years after the Bataan Death March

A 20-year-old soldier from Louisiana who died as a prisoner of war during World War II has been reported missing, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Monday.

Joseph C. Murphy, Private in the U.S. Army, served in the 31st Infantry Regiment in the Philippines in 1942. During his service, Japanese troops invaded the Philippines, leading to months of heavy fighting in the region, during which thousands of U.S. and Filipino soldiers were captured. Prisoners of war.

Murphy was among those captured when U.S. soldiers surrendered to Japanese forces on the Bataan Peninsula, according to the DPAA, and was one of tens of thousands of prisoners of war taken to the Death March of Bataan in the spring of 1942. After the 65-mile trek, Murphy and other soldiers were held at Prisoner of War Camp No. 1 in Cabanatuan.

Camp records show Murphy died on October 28, 1942, the DPAA said. According to the DPAA, more than 2,500 prisoners of war died at the camp during World War II. Murphy was buried in a mass grave at the camp.

This grave was exhumed by the American Graves Registration Service after the war. The remains were transferred to a U.S. military mausoleum near Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and in 1947 the agency attempted to identify the remains. Most of those from the mass grave where Murphy was buried were considered unidentifiable and were buried as unknown soldiers at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. Murphy’s name was engraved on the cemetery’s Walls of the Missing.

In 2019, these remains exhumed again by the DPAA. Modern technology was used to identify the remains, including dental and anthropological analyses and mitochondrial DNA analysis. These analyses, along with circumstantial evidence, enabled the DPAA to positively identify Murphy’s remains.

After his whereabouts are determined, a rosette will be placed next to Murphy’s name on the Wall of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. He will be buried in his hometown in Louisiana in early August.