India halts US missions to find World War II dead in Arunachal

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For more than six decades, the remains of hundreds of World War II aviators who perished while trying to criss-cross the Himalayas have remained frozen in Arunachal Pradesh. Now, an effort by Washington to recover the remains of its war heroes from various crash sites has suffered a setback with India putting a halt to US missions to the border state.

While missions were carried out by the US in the past to recover remains of aviators who perished in plane crashes while flying over the ‘hump’ to deliver supplies for allied forces fighting the Japanese in China, all missions to Arunachal have been halted for the past two years. More than 500 US warplanes are believed to be missing while flying in the China, India and Burma theatre during the world war. In Arunachal alone, estimates put the number of missing Americans at over 400.

It is learnt that requests were put forward by the US embassy as recently as earlier this year but the Indian government has not given permissions for visits to Arunachal to identify and recover remains of war veterans. At least two planned missions to India last year and this year have been cancelled due to the lack of permission.

While no particular reason has been given for the lack of permissions other than ‘bureaucratic issues’, the sudden withdrawal of permissions has raised speculation that India’s relations with China could be a factor, given that Beijing considers Arunachal Pradesh as disputed territory.

With several crash sites identified and tagged by private individuals, pressure is now mounting in Washington to bring back the remains of the war dead by relatives who are keen that their loved ones receive a proper burial. The US Department of Defence (DoD) that is in charge of recovering remains of the war dead has said it is keen to resume the recovery missions at the earliest.

“The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) in Washington and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in Honolulu are working closely with the Government of India to resume recovery remains missions in Northeast India. Senior officials in the Indian Government have indicated their support for our missions and we hope to resume our efforts in India as soon as possible,” Tara Rigler, DoD spokesperson, told The Indian Express.

However, time is running short for many relatives of the war dead as more than six decades have passed since scores of war planes crashed on the border. A significant number of immediate family members of the missing aviators are no more while others are not that young any more.

India halts US missions to find World War II dead in Arunachal | idrw.org