GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Brought together by a U.S. Department of Defense program to locate the bodies of soldiers missing in action, Carol Haas, left, and Priscilla Murashima finally learned some details about what happened to their brothers, Edward Pratt and Joseph Matsunaga, who disappeared during a battle in Korea.

Isle families finally
learn details of
missing soldiers

Joseph Matsunaga was last seen
when his unit was attacked by
Chinese forces in 1950

---

By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

It has taken more than half a century for Priscilla Murashima of Kailua to finally learn details about her brother's death in the Korean War on a chilly November evening deep in enemy territory.

"For years my mother tried so hard to find out what happened to him, but she could never get any information," said the retired Pearl Harbor Sub Base worker.

Sgt. Joseph Matsunaga, a 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team veteran, is still listed as one of 73 soldiers from Hawaii missing in action. A veteran of combat in World War II, the McKinley High School graduate re-enlisted in the Army shortly after the Korean War broke out, Murashima said.

Last summer, by chance, Murashima read an item penned by columnist Ann Landers on the U.S. Defense Department's attempts to help families of MIAs and POWs.

"That column had a phone number to call," Murashima recalls.

So, she called and was asked to provide a DNA sample to help forensic specialists in their search to identify remains on file and those now being recovered in North Korea. Both she and her sister provided a sample.

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Priscilla Murashima and her husband, Fred, learned more about what happened to Priscilla's older brother, Joseph Matsunaga, who disappeared during the same battle as Kim.

This week, Murashima attended one of the 10 family briefings the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office holds around the country annually to inform POW-MIA family members of ongoing accounting efforts. The last briefing in Hawaii was two years ago.

Sixteen island families attended the briefing where senior military officials updated them on the military's latest efforts to help them understand what is being done to account for the missing. There are 78,000 servicemen still unaccounted for from World War II, 8,000 MIAs from Korea and 1,947 missing from the war in Southeast Asia.

At the meeting, Murashima met Robert and Carol Haas from Sierra Vista, Ariz., who have been attending these Pentagon briefings since 1998. Murashima was surprised to learn that Carol Haas' brother, Sgt. 1st Class Edward Pratt, was killed in the same battle as Matsunaga.

"I was told that his unit was coming to help assist in the rescue of your brother's unit," Haas told Murashima after this week's two-hour session held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

Murashima learned during the briefing that Matsunaga was a member of 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, which was guarding a position in the Nammyon River valley about four miles west of Unsan.

Matsunaga was last seen when Chinese communists attacked his unit on Nov. 1, 1950. His body was never found.

Also attending this week's session were Barney and Douglas Kim, who said that this was the first time they had received detailed information on their missing brother, Pfc. Richard Kim, who was reported missing on June 13, 1952. He had been assigned to Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.

Douglas Kim, 78, said the only thing the military had told his family was that his brother was killed during the Chosin Reservoir campaign.

"Two years ago, we were told that the North Koreans would not allow any recovery efforts north of the demilitarized zone, but that has changed now," Kim said.

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Thanks to a U.S. Department of Defense program, brothers Barney Kim and Douglas Kim are finding out what happened to their brother Richard, who disappeared during a battle in the Korean War.

Barney Kim, 66, said that is the area now being searched by U.S. recovery experts, and "they are hoping their excavation will uncover more remains."

Douglas Kim said all the family knew was that his brother, who was the eighth child from a family of 10 from Kahuku, "had lost his helmet and went back to retrieve it and was never heard from again."

In the report the Kims received this week, the battle north of Panmunjon resulted in one member of Fox Company killed, 28 wounded and five, including Kim, missing in action.

The Kim family held a memorial service in 1953 for Richard, but there is no grave plot or headstone for the fallen Marine.

"They never found his body," Douglas Kim said, "so we can't do anything."

For Murashima the latest revelations renewed painful memories.

"Although it happened so long ago, I thought everything had healed, but this brings back pain because I think of my mother, who was always looking for answers," Murashima said.

"I sent my brother my high school graduation picture, but later we got a letter from him where he wondered why we never wrote. His letter had to be written on other letters we had sent him since he was at the front and couldn't get any (writing) paper. When he wrote saying he never got my picture or my letters, it really hurt because maybe he thought we didn't care. After his death we got a box of his things, and there were our letters and my picture, which he never got."