More than 80 years after a Japanese transport ship carrying Allied prisoners of war was accidentally sunk by American aircraft, the US military has launched an ambitious mission to recover the remains of approximately 250 American servicemen still believed to be trapped inside the wreck.

In December 1944, about 1,600 Allied prisoners of war—most of them American soldiers—were packed aboard the Japanese transport ship Oryoku Maru. Unaware that the vessel was carrying POWs, US warplanes attacked and sank the ship off the coast of the Philippines. Hundreds of prisoners were killed, with roughly 250 Americans believed to have remained trapped inside the wreck.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has undertaken one of its most challenging recovery operations to date. The wreck lies on the seabed off the Philippines, where divers must navigate the crushed remains of the ship under extremely difficult underwater conditions.

An initial recovery effort in 1946 yielded only two skull fragments before the mission was abandoned, with officials recommending the site be treated as a maritime cemetery.

The effort was revived in 2016 after researchers began mapping the wreck, studying the ship’s construction, and identifying possible access routes to the cargo holds where many of the prisoners had been confined.

During the latest operation, which lasted more than two months and concluded in early May, divers from the US Navy and Coast Guard cut through steel sections using specialized torches, removed heavy debris with hydraulic equipment, and used vacuum-like recovery systems to extract material from inside the wreck.

Recovered items will now undergo extensive forensic and scientific analysis to determine whether they belong to the American servicemen who perished in the tragedy more than eight decades ago.

Christopher Schwartz, whose grandfather was among the missing soldiers, called the mission deeply meaningful.

“I can’t believe that after all this time it’s even possible,” he said. “I only wish my father were here to see it.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)