The Pittsburgh Press (March 9, 1946)
Beech: Heroes’ graves
By Keyes Beech
HONOLULU – The remains of thousands of Army, Navy and Marine Corps dead, whose bodies mark the progress of the war across the Pacific, are being reburied in master cemeteries in what is probably the biggest grave-digging project of all times.
The project has proceeded with little or no publicity because of the delicate nature of the undertaking.
However, it was slated that a 50-man graves registration party, including chaplains, dental officers, technicians and photographers, is en route to Tarawa to establish a master cemetery there.
The cemetery will be established on Betio Island, one of the scenes of the Second Marine Division’s bloody invasion of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands in November 1943.
The bodies of more than 1,000 Marine dead, now buried in 53 places from Betio to Apamama, will be disinterred. checked for identification, and reburied in wooden caskets.
25,000 buried there
Approximately 25,000 American war dead are buried on the islands ranging from New Caledonia in the south to Iwo in the north.
The purpose of the undertaking is, first, to concentrate all American dead in master cemeteries so they may be given formal burial and permanent care. Second, to make positive identification of all bodies and possibly identify the unidentified dead, of whom there are approximately 1,500 in the middle Pacific area alone.
Unofficially, a third objective is to be prepared for the time, if it comes, when Congress authorizes the return of the bodies to the United States for reburial there. Such a move is almost unanimously opposed by chaplains, generals and enlisted men.
The biggest problem confronting graves registration officials is identifying the unidentified.
In some cases, dog tags are missing. In others, one to 10 bodies were buried in a common grave, sometimes without adequate markers.
Work has complications
At Tarawa, another complicating factor is that a Marine, wishing to memorialize a departed buddy but not knowing where he was buried. may have erected a marker at a place of his choice although no body was there.
Where ordinary means of identification fail, dental experts will seek to establish identity by comparing teeth and jaw structures with service records of missing men.
If this fails, photographs will be made of the unidentified man’s skull. These photographs, along with all descriptive data, will be forwarded to Washingion for study by War Department analysts.
Finding all the spots in the Pacific where Americans are buried has been a major detection job in itself. As an example, the British recently notified Army authorities that the graves of three Americans had been found on the island of Nauru.
Since the Americans never invaded Nauru, the Army was at a loss to explain the graves.
A likely explanation is that they contain the bodies of American aviators shot down over the island during a bombing mission.
Master cemeteries already have been established at Guadalcanal; Suva, in the Fijis; and Tutuila, in Samoa. Another is planned on Guam.