Washington –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Private 1st Class Joseph C. MacDonald, 20, of Avenal, California, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for July 19, 2024.
In November 1942, MacDonald was a member of the 60th Coast Artillery Regiment, U.S. Army, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands later in December. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and interned at POW camps. MacDonald was among those reported captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese. These prisoners were then taken to the Cabanatuan POW Camp, northeast of Manila.
According to prison camp and other historical records, MacDonald died December 28, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 721.
Following the war, American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) personnel exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan cemetery and relocated the remains to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. In 1947, the AGRS examined the remains in an attempt to identify them. Various sets of remains from Common Grave 721 were identified, but the remaining were declared unidentifiable, including those of MacDonald. The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM) as Unknowns.
In June 2018, the remains associated with Common Grave 721 were disinterred and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify MacDonald’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as dental and circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, MacDonald’s grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC).
MacDonald will be buried at sea, on a date to be determined.
For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.
DPAA is grateful to the ABMC and the United States Army for their partnership in this mission.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.
MacDonald’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000ccFREAY.