Honoring a Marine: Poughkeepsie hero's remains get US burial
A Rosary ring. Pennies, nickels and dimes. A small St. Christopher Cross worn for protection during long voyages.
These relics were among personal possessions buried with Marine Pfc. James Johnson after he was killed in one of the first major battles in the Pacific Ocean Theater of World War II.
To Jim Johnson, 68, of Florida, those few mementos provide a tangible connection to the uncle who died five years before he was born.
The young Marine, who grew up in Poughkeepsie, was killed in action on the first day of the four-day Battle of Tawara. He was just 19.
He had graduated high school a year earlier.
A few months before his death, so far from home, he got engaged, according to the archives of the Poughkeepsie New Yorker.
Though his parents learned of his death a month after the battle, his remains had not been found and given a proper burial. Until now.
After more than 70 years, the fallen soldier is coming to rest in hallowed ground amid the honored dead. He is expected to receive full military burial honors as part of a special ceremony Tuesday in Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C. He was found thanks to a dedicated group whose mission it is to find lost soldiers.
“Before, he had been under a parking lot for the last 40-50 years,” Jim Johnson said. “So he did not have a ceremony. He did not have a good resting place. Now he will.”
In November 1943, James Johnson was among the first Allied troops to storm a small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands and take on the Japanese resistance.
It was a hard-won battle that killed approximately 1,000 Marines and sailors, and wounded more than 2,000. Pfc. Johnson is believed to have died sometime on the first day of the battle on Nov. 20, 1943, according to military records.
On Dec. 26, 1943, an article on the cover of the Poughkeepsie New Yorker, known today as the Poughkeepsie Journal, said James Johnson was buried in a grave near the battle site. His parents had been notified by the Navy department and details of his death would be sent to them by a letter, the article said.
A life too short
A Poughkeepsie native, James Johnson attended W.W. Smith School and Poughkeepsie High School. He was a member of Holy Trinity Church, according to Journal archives.
After he finished school, he became a shipping clerk at the Glenwood-Clothing company plant, and entered the Marine Corps on Nov. 5, 1942. He had begun serving overseas in February 1943. At the time of his death, his brother, William, was a member of the United States Coast Guard.
James Johnson and fellow Poughkeepsie High School graduate Dolores Whalen became engaged while Johnson was serving overseas, according to an announcement published on Aug. 12, 1943.
After his death, Whalen's family purchased the first war bond in his memory. In an article about the bonds dated Jan. 24, 1944, Dolores Whalen's mother said, "Several bonds have been purchased in Jimmie's honor, but this is the first one bought in his memory. We are proud of Jimmie. He fought for this country — and died for it."
According to his family, James Johnson had enlisted in the Marines right after high school at the age of 18. Both of his parents had to sign off on his enlistment papers because he was under 21, Jim Johnson said.
Finding the fallen
Pfc. Johnson’s remains were recovered as part of a mission led by the United States Department of Defense. The Department of Defense works with nonprofit organizations to recover soldiers missing in action or buried overseas as a result of combat. History Flight was the organization which recovered remains of 35 soldiers, including Johnson, in Tawara as of July 2015.
To identify James Johnson’s remains, scientists from the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used DNA analysis, and matched it with his nephew's.
The project to find these missing soldiers began in the 1970s. Since then, the U.S. government has found and identified the remains of 2,176 soldiers from all wars and conflicts. But, approximately 83,000 soldiers’ remains have yet to be recovered.
Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war, according to defense records.
Lt. Col. Holly Slaughter, who works for public affairs for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, said, “It’s an important mission because when we send men and women into harm’s way overseas to protect the U.S., we owe it to them to bring them home. We owe it to them to bring them back to their loved ones. That is our nation’s promise to these heroes.”
Historic battle
The battle of Tarawa was a huge victory for the U.S. military and allowed them to advance their Central Pacific Campaign against Japan, said Jim Johnson, who has studied the war as a way to learn more about his uncle.
U.S. service members who died in the battle could not be sent home and were buried in a number of battlefield cemeteries on the island. In 1946 and 1947, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company attempted to recover remains on Betio Island, but James Johnson’s remains were not found. On Feb. 28, 1949, a military review board declared his remains non-recoverable.
“In the 1940s, when someone passed away in battle, they were wrapped in their poncho and buried with everything they had,” Jim Johnson said. “There was no effort to send home anything. They didn’t have a process to send anything back. They also believed it made it easier for identification if they were buried with everything.”
In June 2015, History Flight, Inc., notified Jim Johnson they discovered a burial site on Betio Island and recovered the remains of what they believed were U.S. Marines who fought during the battle in November 1943. The remains were turned over to Public Affairs for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in July 2015.
Jim Johnson, who had reached out to History Flight nearly eight years earlier to find his uncle, was relieved when two Marines showed up at his door to tell him the news. The Marines also handed him a book of documents that authenticated their findings.
He said his uncle will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery near his mother (related to his uncle by marriage), who served as a nurse in World War II.
“The fact that they identified him and can now put him to rest makes me very happy,” Jim Johnson said. “It’s what he deserves.”
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Amanda J. Purcell: apurcell@poughkeepsiejournal.com; 845-437-4807; Twitter: @amandajpurcell