WASHINGTON — U.S. Army Pfc. Joseph C. Murphy, 20, of Bogalusa, Louisiana, who died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for on April 1, 2024, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today.
According to the DPAA, Murphy was assigned to Company I, 31st Infantry Regiment, in 1942. In December of that year, Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands. Intense fighting ensued until the surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942 and Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and interned in POW camps, as maintained by the accounting agency. When U.S. forces surrendered to the Japanese on Bataan, Murphy was among those captured. They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death Murphy, then held at Cabanatuan POW Camp #1. More than 2,500 POWs died in this camp during the war.
Prison camp and other historical records indicate that Murphy died on October 28, 1942, and was buried with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 713.
The DPAA reports that after the war, American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) personnel exhumed those buried in the Cabanatuan cemetery and moved the remains to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. The AGRS examined the remains in an attempt to identify them in 1947. Two of the sets of remains from Common Grave 713 were identified, but the remainder were declared unidentifiable. The unidentified remains were interred as Unknowns at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM).
In April of 2019, as part of the Cabanatuan Project, the DPAA said it exhumed the remains associated with Common Grave 713. The remains were sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. To identify Murphy's remains, DPAA scientists used dental and anthropological analysis, alongside circumstantial evidence. In addition, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Although buried as an Unknown at MACM, Murphy's grave has been meticulously maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) for the past 70 years. Today, Pfc. Murphy is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate that he has been accounted for, according to the accounting agency.
Pfc. Murphy will be buried in Bogalusa, Louisiana, on August 3, 2024.
For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.
For additional information, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.
Murphy’ personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000MW4yLEAT.
