The remains of a World War II service member who died in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in the Philippines in 1942 have been returned home to California. U.S. Army Air Forces Pvt. 1st Class Charles R. Powers, 18, of Riverside, was the long-unidentified soldier whose remains were flown to Ontario International Airport for burial at Riverside National Cemetery on Thursday, 82 years to the day of his death.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency confirmed in June that Powers was accounted for on May 26, 2023, following the analysis of his remains, which included the use of DNA. Powers, a member of the 28th Materiel Squadron, 20th Air Base Group, was captured during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in late 1941. He was part of the surrender of U.S. and Filipino forces on the Bataan peninsula in April 1942 and Corregidor Island the following month.
After being captured, Powers was subjected to the grueling 65-mile Bataan Death March and was then held at the Cabanatuan prison camp, where over 2,500 POWs lost their lives. Tragically, Powers passed away on July 18, 1942, and was buried in a common grave along with others. Following the war, three sets of unidentifiable remains from the grave were reinterred at Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. These remains were later exhumed in 2018 for further laboratory analysis.
