Washington: Pearl Harbor in America is one of the most devastating sites of World War II. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing more than 2,400 American soldiers, leading to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It has been 80 years since the Pearl Harbor disaster. Relatives of U.S. Marine Herbert Jacobson, who was killed that day, have been able to see his body laid to rest eight decades later. Modern forensic tests have only now confirmed that Herbert is the dead unknown seaman. His body was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on September 13. Herbert was a sailor on the USS Oklahoma, one of four US warships destroyed by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedoes during the Pearl Harbor attack. All 429 sailors on board, including Herbert, were killed. Herbert was just 21 years old when he died. The bodies of these sailors were found two years later, but many could not be identified. Efforts were made to identify him but to no avail. Herbert’s body was finally identified in 2019 through modern DNA analysis methods. In the wake of the Covid pandemic, the culture with military honors has been extended so far. The funeral was held in the presence of Herbert’s descendants, who had never met him in person. The nephew says they didn’t know where Herbert was or what happened all this time. A campaign has been in place since 2003 to identify those killed in Pearl Harbor. Since 2015, it has continued through DNA means. The 33 sailors aboard the USS Oklahoma have yet to be identified. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, then US President Franklin Roosevelt declared war on Japan and the US entered World War II. Pearl Harbor on the Pacific coast is still home to the US Naval Base. There is a museum and a national memorial here to commemorate those killed in the attack.
