The remains of a U.S. soldier who survived the Bataan Death March during World War II but died in a prison camp have been identified and will be buried in Oregon, a Defense Department agency said last week.

The soldier, Pvt. William E. Calkins, of Washington County, Ore., was identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, a Pentagon office responsible for locating and identifying missing American military personnel.

Private Calkins was stationed in the Philippines when U.S. forces in Bataan province surrendered to Japanese soldiers, who took him and tens of thousands of other American and Filipino soldiers as prisoners and led them on the Bataan Death March.

As many as 11,000 prisoners died during the march and thousands of others died in prison camps, according to the Department of Defense.

Private Calkins, 20, survived the march and was held in Cabanatuan Prison Camp #1 where he died of “inanition,” or exhaustion from lack of food and water, on Nov. 1, 1942, according to the agency.

“Word has been received in Salem that Pvt. William E. Calkins, formerly employed by the Perfect Bowling alleys, is a prisoner of war,” a news clipping from the time provided by the agency read.

In 1943, The Statesman Journal, a newspaper in Salem, Ore., announced Private Calkins’s death.

The article noted that before joining the military, Private Calkins convinced a friend that he was an orphan. The friend signed off on his volunteer enlistment in the military as his guardian, which records suggest may have been because Private Calkins was under 18 at the time.

The friend “later learned that Calkins’s parents lived in Hillsboro,” the 1943 article said, adding that both the friend and the private’s parents had been notified of his death.

More than 2,500 prisoners died in the prison camp, many from malnutrition and a variety of illnesses, including malaria, dengue, dysentery and hookworm.

“As a doctor, the most distressing thought was that they could have been saved, almost without exception, by proper diet and medical care,” John R. Bumgarner, a doctor who was held in the camp, wrote in his book, “Parade of the Dead: A U.S. Army Physician’s Memoir of Imprisonment by the Japanese, 1942-1945.”

Private Calkins’s remains were buried with those of other deceased prisoners in Common Grave 704, the agency said.

After the war, American personnel exhumed the graves at the Cabanatuan camp, and in 1947, Private Calkins’s remains were buried at Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines, where they were with other unidentifiable remains for more than 70 years.

In 2018, remains associated with Common Grave 704 were exhumed from Manila American Cemetery and Memorial and sent to a laboratory for analysis, the agency said.

Scientists with the agency and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System conducted DNA, chromosome, dental and anthropological analysis of the remains to identify Private Calkins. The agency concluded its analysis in April but did not announce its findings until Thursday.

There are still 78,985 Americans who fought in World War II who are identified only as missing in action, lost or buried at sea, according to the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Another news clipping published during World War II lists Private Calkins as being “held” by the Japanese military and said he was one of 21 soldiers from the Pacific Northwest who had been taken prisoner.

In a statement, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon applauded DNA analysis technology for allowing Private Calkins’s “story to be fully told” so “he can be finally laid to rest.”

Advancements in science have made it easier to identify the remains of many soldiers, including those from World War II.

In March, a sailor who died during Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor was finally identified. And, last year, multiple World War II service members were identified, including a pilot who died saving seven of his crew members.

Private Calkins will be buried in Hillsboro, Ore., on Sept. 13, 2024, nearly 82 years after he died.

Family members could not be reached and representatives of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency were not immediately available.

Jack Begg contributed research.