Posted on: Saturday, August 24, 2002

Seven return from Korean War

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

Korean War veteran Francis Yasutake holds a POW/MIA flag during a ceremony at Hickam for remains recovered from North Korea. Six of the remains are believed to have been from the 7th Infantry Division in which Yasutake served. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

The remains of what may be seven American soldiers killed in North Korea more than 50 years ago in clashes with Chinese communist forces were returned to U.S. soil yesterday.

As the flag-draped caskets arrived at Hickam Air Force Base, Pat Murashima of Kailua and her two sisters were there in the hope that their brother is among those coming home.

Sgt. Joseph Matsunaga, who was with the 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, was reported missing on Nov. 2, 1950. He was about 30 at the time.

"They told us seven remains had been found and one was in the area where we lost our brother," Murashima said. "We always wonder — did he suffer? From what we understand, they were surrounded by 100,000 Chinese troops."

A team from the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory, Hawai'i recovered what are believed to be the remains of six soldiers who served in the 7th Infantry Division in the Chosin Reservoir area, where U.S. forces fought the Chinese in November and December 1950.

The possibility also exists that the seventh set of remains, found along the Chong Chon River near the junction of Unsan and Kujang counties by a second lab team, is one of Schofield Barracks' own.

The area 60 miles north of Pyongyang was the site of fierce battles between communist forces and the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry and 25th Infantry divisions in November 1950.

Lab officials said that on Nov. 24, 1950, the U.S. Eighth Army began its push north to the Yalu River in western North Korea. On the left flank were 25th Division troops, and on the right was the 2nd Division. Chinese forces attacked "in incredible numbers," the lab said. While the 25th took serious losses, the 2nd bore the brunt of the Chinese attack, and both divisions were forced to withdraw.

The Hickam-based lab previously recovered and identified the remains of four 25th Division soldiers from the same area of the Chong Chon River and Kujang town.

They include: Cpl. Ramon Frescas, who was with the 35th Infantry Regiment; Sgt. 1st Class Willard Buchols with the 89th Medium Tank Battalion; and Pfc. Herbert Ardis with Company G, 2nd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment. All were reported missing in November 1950.

Ardis was buried at Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington, D.C., in 1999. Frescas was buried in Texas in 2001 and Buchols' remains were delivered to Minnesota for burial the same year.

A fourth set of remains, those of a 19-year-old private first class with the 24th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Division, were recently identified and the lab is not releasing the name pending notification of family.

According to the "Korean War Almanac" by retired Army Col. Harry G. Summers Jr., the 25th Division had 13,685 casualties in the Korean War. A total of 3,048 soldiers were killed or died of wounds received in action, 10,186 were wounded, 67 were missing in action, and 384 were held as prisoners of war.

The numbers do not include the 21st Infantry Regiment, parts of which later became attached to the 25th Division.

More than 152 American soldiers' remains have been recovered from North Korea during 23 operations since 1996.

In June, North Korean and U.S. negotiators agreed on a new round of joint searches for Americans missing from the 1950-53 Korean War, and last month, the U.S. government paid North Korea for permission to conduct three more 30-day searches.

South Korean news reports said the United States agreed to pay more than $3 million for the searches, which involve U.S. and North Korean personnel. The two lab teams that recovered the remains during the first of those three searches were part of a 28-person contingent from the central identification lab.

Murashima said yesterday she realizes that the remains found near the Chong Chon River may not be those of her brother, who also served in the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II. Identification itself can take years.

"I feel like there's always hope that they will find ... (my brother)," Murashima said. "My mother went around her whole life looking for him — asking people about him. I'm happy for whoever's families these remains belong to."