EDS: Reissuing to include edits.
ALBANY, New York, Oct 23 AP - A private Japanese organisation that has found the remains of World War II soldiers on Saipan is planning another excavation on the Pacific island in the hopes of finding more unmarked graves.
They include those of American servicemen still listed as missing in action for more than 70 years.
The leaders of Kuentai-USA told The Associated Press that a team of about a dozen Japanese and American volunteers plans to search an area of Saipan where the US Army's 27th Infantry Division was hit by the largest suicide attack of the Pacific ground war.
The New York National Guard unit suffered hundreds of casualties, many of them New Yorkers.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
The division's 105th Regiment suffered nearly 1000 killed and wounded during what became known as the "banzai attack" on July 7, 1944.
Scores of New Yorkers were among the casualties. At least five New Yorkers, including three from the Albany area, are still listed as missing in action.
The Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the Pentagon arm in charge of recovering the remains of US soldiers from foreign battlefields, said this week that the remains of the fifth soldier are still being analysed.
Kuentai returned to Saipan in September 2014 to resume the search for MIAs.
Yukari Akatsuka, one of the group's leaders, said via email that the group's man Saipan excavation will be conducted in an area where 17 soldiers from the 27th Division could be buried in unmarked graves.
They'll also excavate a nearby property where two US Marines listed as MIA may have been buried.
