A quiet, patient effort by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has reignited hope for families haunted by a war that never truly ended for them.
The work centers on remains once buried as unknowns and the sailors and soldiers who died aboard Japanese hell ships sunk by American forces. The objective is simple and profound: bring the fallen home to their loved ones and restore their proper place in history.
The story centers on Pvt. Bennett H. Waters, who served with the 17th Bombardment Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group on the Bataan peninsula.
He began his journey as a prisoner of war when Imperial Japan invaded the Philippines on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor.
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He “survived the Bataan Death March; he survived more than three years of prison camp cruelty; and he would survive the sinking by U.S. aircraft on Dec. 14, 1944, of the unmarked Japanese transport Oryoku Maru, which had been taking him and more than 1,600 other POWs to Japan’s home islands to work as slave labor.” Yet he did not survive the second attack that would claim him, when the Enoura Maru was hit on January 9, 1945.
Waters’ remains were returned to his southeast Georgia hometown of Blackshear with a military escort from his great-great nephew, Army Sgt. Andrew Walsh, for interment with full military honors on April 4. Walsh recalled to First Coast News that bringing home “Uncle Hubert,” as he was known, was “an important moment for me but not only me, but for my whole family.”
The family’s reverence runs through generations, as Waters’ mother had already prepared a tombstone and a plot at the Blackshear City Cemetery, a sign of a homecoming anticipated long before the actual event.
The identification effort is part of a broader resurgence in locating and verifying the remains of POWs who died in captivity or aboard hell ships that transported prisoners to work camps across the empire.
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In Waters’ case, his identity was confirmed through a blend of dental and anthropological analysis and, increasingly, next generation DNA sequencing.
These techniques allow researchers to connect decades-old remains to living relatives who can provide critical genetic links across generations.
The project also shines a light on other POWs who endured similar fates. Pfc. Weber S. Underwood, 25, of the 28th Materiel Squadron, 20th Air Base Group, is another name added to the list of identifications.
He survived the Bataan Death March but died while assigned to the Tayabas Road work detail.
The brutal work detail, conducted by the Japanese army, forced POWs to build a strategic jungle road in Tayabas Province, where the remains of 35 POWs were recovered after the war.
These stories connect a brutal past to ongoing discoveries.
The DPAA has described the scope of the effort, noting that it disinterred 761 unknowns from the Manila American Cemetery, with most of those since 2017 as the operation accelerated.
Of the 464 Cabanatuan POW Camp unknowns already disinterred, at least 142 have been identified.
The ongoing work has expanded to the hell ships, where 430 unknowns were disinterred in Fiscal 2023, with the Manila and Punchbowl cemeteries and the DPAA Lab continuing to pursue identifications.
The work rests on a straightforward premise: every name matters, every family deserves closure. DPAA forensic specialists, guided by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System, use a combination of dental analysis, anthropology, circumstantial evidence, and DNA sequencing to confirm identities.
The mission is more than science; it is a duty to honor those who did not come home and to acknowledge the sacrifices of their families.
At an April briefing in Thailand, DPAA Director Kelly McKeague announced the organization’s most ambitious underwater mission to date. The target is the Oryoku Maru wreck site, where an estimated 250 or more missing Americans may lie in the hold of the ship.
“When the ship was sunk, it limped back into Subic Bay and it sank there. And we began this effort three years ago to underwater investigate the site and the wreckage from the standpoint of trying to understand what it was, what the ship looked like,” McKeague said.
The mission reflects a broader commitment to veterans and to the enduring promise that no one is forgotten.
This work is not just a scientific or historical undertaking; it is a reaffirmation of national resolve. The efforts align with a vision of leadership that prioritizes those who bore the cost of conflict.
In the ongoing narrative of American resilience, President Trump’s approach and a renewed focus from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have emphasized accountability, remembrance, and the defense of the nation’s highest values.
As families gather for ceremonies and communities come to terms with losses decades past, the country is reminded that the sacrifices of the past illuminate the path forward.
That path is marked by the voices of survivors and the families who have waited through decades of questions.
James Bollich, a survivor of the Death March, captured a stark truth: “We had no idea what was ahead.” As he recalled, “All we were doing was burying the dead,” a reminder of the stakes at every turn in this story of endurance and faith.
The recovery work honors that memory and reaffirms a national duty to bring closure to those left behind.
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