A skeleton found by hikers this fall in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains has been identified as an artist who'd been held in a Japanese internment camp during World War Two.
The Inyo County sheriff's office announced Friday that DNA from the bones matched genetic material from a relative of Giichi Matsumura.
Matsumura, 46, went missing from the Manzanar internment camp after going to paint in the mountains in August 1945. Matsumura had taken up painting after the US Army forced his family from its Santa Monica home in 1942, officials said.
He became separated from other members of the camp during a fishing trip. He succumbed to the elements near Mount Williamson during a freak snow storm. His body was buried in the high mountains in September 1945, but his family had not been able to visit the site because of its remote location.
Two hikers rediscovered Matsumura's grave on October 7, the sheriff's office said.
"After 74 years, we were quite shocked when we heard about a hiker finding his grave a few months ago, and we hope that his family will have some closure and peace now that a positive identification has been made by the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office," said Manzanar Superintendent Bernadette Johnson in a statement.
More than 11,000 Japanese-Americans were incarcerated in Manzanar during the Second World War.
