HONOLULU (AP) - The Latest on a new memorial marker honoring World War II prisoners of war (all times local):
4:10 p.m.
Dozens of relatives of Allied servicemen who were killed in January 1945 as prisoners of war held by Japan are dedicating a memorial stone to their loved ones.
The memorial at a national cemetery in Honolulu honors about 400 men who were killed when a Japanese ship transporting them from the Philippines to Japan was bombed by U.S. pilots who didn’t know the POWs were on board.
They were buried in a mass grave at a harbor in Taiwan, but the U.S. military dug them up and reburied in them as “unknowns” in Hawaii after the war.
Nancy Kragh’s father, Army Maj. Clarence White, is among them.
She said Wednesday’s dedication is the culmination of her journey of finding her father’s final resting place.
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8 p.m. Tuesday
A 96-year-old former U.S. Army veteran who was held prisoner by Japan during World War II will help dedicate a memorial stone to other prisoners of war at a national cemetery in Honolulu.
Daniel Crowley is due to participate in the ceremony Wednesday at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
The memorial stone will honor about 400 men killed when a Japanese ship transporting them from the Philippines to Japan was bombed by U.S. pilots who didn’t know Allied POWs were on board.
Today, the men are interred in 20 graves marked as “unknowns” at the Honolulu cemetery.
Conditions on board the ships transporting prisoners to Japan were so horrific the Americans called them “hellships.”
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