Military officials announced Wednesday that they have identified the remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Cpl. Glenn H. Hodak, a World War II airman who was captured by Japanese forces and perished in a prison fire in 1945.
Hodak, 23, from Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, served as a gunner with the 93rd Bombardment Squadron aboard a B-29 "Superfortress" bomber. In March 1945, his aircraft was shot down during a mission over Tokyo, leading to his capture and imprisonment at the Tokyo Military Prison.
The young airman's fate was sealed when U.S. bombing raids in late May 1945 sparked massive fires across Tokyo, destroying the prison where he was held. None of the prisoners survived the blaze, and their remains were buried in a mass grave.
After the war ended, the American Graves Registration Service recovered 65 sets of remains from the prison site in early 1946. While 25 sets were identified at the time, the remaining 39 unidentified remains were interred at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.
In 2024, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) launched the Tokyo Prison Fire Project to identify the remaining casualties. Despite challenges posed by the burned and fragmentary condition of the remains, scientists successfully identified Hodak using dental and anthropological analysis, along with circumstantial evidence.
The DPAA has notified Hodak's surviving family members of the identification. His remains will be laid to rest in Spring Creek, Pennsylvania, this May, finally bringing closure to a story that began nearly 80 years ago.