KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Monday that it has identified the remains of a Missouri man who served in World War II.
The agency said it had identified the remains of U.S. Army Private James R. Tash, who was 20 when he served in World War II.
Tash, a St. Louis native, served in F Company, 2nd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment. His company was stationed in the Philippine Islands when Japanese forces invaded in late 1941.
Intense fighting continued until the Bataan Peninsula was surrounded in April 1942, when Tash was among thousands of U.S. and Filipino soldiers captured and imprisoned by Japanese forces.
Tash died on July 19, 1942, and was buried along with other dead prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 312, according to prison camp and other historical records.
The POW/MIA agency was able to recover his remains immediately after World War II and attempts were made to identify them in 1947.
Only 12 sets of remains from Common Grave 312 were able to be identified at that time. The rest were declared unidentifiable until 2018, when the remains were sent to the agency lab at Pearl Harbor to identify the remains.
Tash was eventually identified on Sept. 27 and his family recently received a full briefing on his identification. He now will be laid to rest in St. Louis.
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