The U.S. military is set to exhume the remains of 88 sailors and Marines from the USS Arizona, who were buried as unknowns in a Honolulu cemetery after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941. This effort, beginning in late 2026, aims to use advanced DNA technology to identify these individuals, providing closure to families who have long awaited answers. The USS Arizona was bombed by Japan, leading to its sinking and the deaths of 1,177 servicemen, nearly half of all U.S. casualties in the attack. While the ship remains underwater with over 900 entombed, only those buried in the cemetery will be exhumed. This initiative follows previous successful DNA identification projects for other Pearl Harbor unknowns, offering hope to families like that of Robert Edwin Kline, who was killed on the Arizona.
QUESTION: How might the identification of these unknown soldiers impact the families and communities connected to them?
U.S. plans to exhume and identify remains of 88 Pearl Harbor sailors
