This American ship had been poured during the Japanese attack on 7 December 1941, causing the death of 429 soldiers. The Pentagon announced, Tuesday, could close the research on their identity, thanks to DNA analyzes carried out on the bones.
Le Monde with AFP
The tomb can close at Pearl Harbor. Tuesday, December 7, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the US Naval Base Attack by the Japanese army, the Pentagon announced having completed its victim identification program. Launched in 2015, it made it possible to give an identity to 355 American sailors, whose remains remained anonymous for decades.
Nearly 13,000 bones, found on the wreck of the USS Oklahoma or in the waters of the port, have been analyzed, resulting in 5,000 DNA samples. These samples were then compared to those taken from the descendants of the victims to give a name on the remains and their graves. Only 33 bodies have not delivered their secrets and have been buried again in the Honolulu National Cemetery.
“Remember Pearl Harbor”
In the aftermath of the attack, the American congress had officially declared the war in Japan, changing the course of the Second World War. “Remember Pearl Harbor”, on posters, on badges, in songs, had become the cry of rallying and mobilization in the United States.
Prepared for months in the greatest secret by General Isoroku Yamamoto, the flash attack on Pearl Harbor – it lasts barely two hours – made more than 2,400 American dead in total. The Americans had not seen approaching the six Japanese aircraft carriers that had stopped about 400 km from Oahu Island.
On December 7, 1941, some 400 Japanese aircraft take off into two successive waves: 21 US war buildings are cast or damaged, as well as 328 combat aircraft. The USS Oklahoma, touched while it was moored at dock, rocking the side, trapping hundreds of sailors in his bowels.
Only about thirty victims identified at the time
Among the veterans gathered on Tuesday at Pearl Harbor to participate in commemorations was David Russel, today 101 years old . He was aboard the USS Oklahoma this day fatal, reading in his compartment, when an officer had given the speaker alert. “At that moment, torpedoes started hitting us, Boum! Boum! Boum! Boum! New touched us,” remembered the sailor in a radio interview in 2016.
He recently explained to the CBS television channel that his decision to go out on the deck of the ship, while Arbor had to be able to close the watertight panels to protect himself from the attack, had probably saved him. life. Many of his fellow comrades have not had this chance and sank with the ship: 429 perished and, with the limited means of the time, only about thirty could have been identified afterwards.