New York State Military Museum

Group returning to Pacific island to search for US WWII MIAs

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - A private Japanese organization that has found the remains of World War II soldiers on Saipan is planning another excavation on the Pacific island in the hopes of finding more unmarked graves, including those of American servicemen still listed as missing in action for more than 70 years.

The leaders of Kuentai-USA told The Associated Press that a team of about a dozen Japanese and American volunteers plans to search an area of Saipan where the U.S. Army's 27th Infantry Division was hit by the largest suicide attack of the Pacific ground war. The New York National Guard unit suffered hundreds of casualties, many of them New Yorkers.

The division's 105th Regiment suffered nearly 1, 000 killed and wounded during what became known as the "banzai attack" on July 7, 1944.

Scores of New Yorkers were among the casualties. At least five New Yorkers, including three from the Albany area, are still listed as missing in action. A few years ago, Kuentai discovered the skeletal remains of five American soldiers while searching for the remains of Japanese soldiers. Four of the Americans, all members of the 105th Regiment, have been identified and returned to the U.S. for reburial, including a soldier from Brooklyn.