WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army 1st Lt. Thomas W. Frutiger, 33, killed during World War II, was accounted for Nov. 19, 2025.
In 1942, Frutiger was assigned to 454th Ordnance Company on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. He was held as a prisoner of war by the Empire of Japan in the Philippines from 1942 to 1944 when the Japanese military moved POWs to Manila for transport to Japan aboard the transport ship Oryoku Maru. Unaware the allied POWs were on board, a U.S. carrier-borne aircraft attacked the Oryoku Maru, which eventually sank in Subic Bay. Frutiger was then transported to Takao, Formosa, known today as Taiwan, aboard the Enoura Maru. The Japanese reported that Frutiger was killed on Jan. 9, 1945, when U.S. forces sank the Enoura Maru.
This is an initial release. The complete accounting of Frutiger's case will be published once the family receives their full briefing.
For additional information on the War Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving their country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, https://www.linkedin.com/company/dodpaa,
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