While the phrase may be cliché, saying "it's a small world" sometimes does apply, especially to the families of U.S. Army Sgt. George Frank Bishop and Army Pvt. Robert H. Hanson.
Though Bishop and Hanson may have never actually met each while both were in the Philippines during World War II, their families met earlier this year at Bishop's funeral.
The funeral was attended by approximately 100 people, including soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, members of the local Patriot Guard Riders, Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion posts and community members from throughout Lewis County at Claquato Cemetery in Chehalis.
Prior to his funeral, Bishop's remains were located at the Grave of the Unknowns at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Bishop, of Centralia, was laid to rest on May 23 after his remains were identified using DNA analysis by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System nearly 82 years after his death at the Imperial Japanese Cabanatuan POW camp in 1942.
Hanson passed away at Cabanatuan less than a month later, according to his niece and local Patriot Guard Rider member Mary Astrid, of Centralia, who attended Bishop's funeral earlier this year to both honor his sacrifice and meet Bishop's family.
"We both have uncles that died in the same prison camp just a month apart," Astrid told The Chronicle in an email. "The odds of meeting someone with a similar life story in Lewis County is unusual given the circumstances."
Unfortunately, Astrid does not know much about her uncle, as her grandmother was so traumatized by Hanson's death when it happened, she didn't speak of it for over a year, according to Astrid's mother, who was 16 at the time.
"I don't know Robert's favorite foods or color, or did he own a car?" Astrid said. "My mom and her family never spoke of him."
Like Hanson's family, Bishop's family didn't know much about him either, according to his nephew, Stanley Yocom, of Chehalis. All the family had left of Bishop before his remains were identified were a Christmas card and small Filipino doll he sent his sister in 1940. Despite a search, no photos of Bishop were found.
Having served in the U.S. Navy himself, Yocom was aboard the U.S.S. Winston Andromeda-class attack cargo ship just north of Manila Bay on Luzon in 1965 during the Vietnam War.
"I spent a year in Subic Bay in the Philippines, and I didn't even know he was there," Yocom previously told The Chronicle.
What Astrid does know about her uncle comes from Hanson's Army individual deceased personnel file. The information shows similarities between the lives of Bishop and Hanson that go beyond them being in the same POW camp together.
They were both born prior to the Great Depression, with Bishop being born on Jan. 25, 1920, in Centralia, and Hanson on Oct. 8, 1922, in Hibbing, Minnesota. Bishop enlisted in the Army in 1939 and Hanson in 1940.
After graduating basic training, Bishop deployed and was attached to K Battery of the 59th Coast Artillery Regiment at Fort Mills on Corregidor Island, located at the entrance of Manila Bay on the Island of Luzon in the Philippines.
There, Bishop helped operate fixed seacoast 3-inch artillery guns facing Bataan to the north, along with 30-inch and 60-inch searchlights used to illuminate mine markers in Manila Bay.
Hanson was attached to the Army Air Force's 24th Pursuit Group, 693rd Ordnance Company, V Interceptor Command, according to the National Archives' database on WWII POWs. Like Bishop, he deployed to Luzon in the Philippines.
The 24th Pursuit Group was a squadron composed of Seversky P-35s and Curtiss P-40 aircraft, and conducted both aerial reconnaissance and pursuit missions according to the Office of Air Force History's combat units of WWII database.
As part of the ordinance company, Hanson was responsible for the storage and loading of munitions on the squadron's P-35s and P-40s.
On the day of the Imperial Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the squadron was attempting to engage enemy aircraft that had also been sighted near Luzon in the Philippines.
Due to inadequate radar and visual confirmation of enemy aircraft, the 24th's pilots were forced to land to refuel, which is when Imperial Japanese fighters attacked -- inflicting heavy losses on the squadron.
Despite this, the squadron continued to operate in the Philippines as combat in WWII's Pacific Theater quickly intensified.
By late December of 1941, ground personnel, including Hanson, had been absorbed into other Army infantry units while the pilots were split between being evacuated to Australia or continuing combat operations in the Philippines.
On Dec. 22, 1941, Imperial Japanese forces invaded Luzon, and bitter fighting ensued over the next four months until Bataan fell on April 9, 1942.
This was followed by the fall of Corregidor Island less than a month later and the complete collapse of U.S. military resistance in the Philippines on May 8, 1942.
Along with their fellow American and Filipino soldiers, both Bishop and Hanson were forced on the infamous 65-mile Bataan Death March.
Both of them survived the march, before being sent to the Cabanatuan POW Camp in central Luzon.
Once confined at Cabanatuan, it wasn't long before Bishop contracted diphtheria and dysentery and died in the prison camp's hospital on July 28, 1942, at the age of 22. He was buried in Cabanatuan's Common Grave 215.
Less than a month later, on Aug. 21, 1942, Hanson also passed away at the age of 19 after contracting dysentery. He was also buried at Cabanatuan.
Following the end of World War II in 1947, the bodies in the mass graves were disinterred by the American Graves Registration Service in an attempt to identify prisoners' remains. While Hanson's remains were identified, Bishop's never were.
His remains were left at the Grave of the Unknowns at the Manila American Cemetery until the DPAA identified them in 2023.
"(Hanson) would be brought home by train on Oct. 25, 1949, for reburial at Maple Hill Cemetery (in Hibbing) next to his parents," Astrid said. "Robert's courage and love of country is why our freedoms should not be taken for granted. Spilled blood and loss of life is too costly."
For the Veterans Day holiday last month, Astrid placed red roses on the Freedom Walk at George Washington Park in Centralia, where Bishop is listed as one of the Centralia residents who made the ultimate sacrifice while in military service.
"By doing that, I also honor and remember Private Robert Hanson," Astrid said.
Both Hanson and Bishop aren't the only Bataan Death March survivors who have descendants in the region, as Astrid added she and her fellow Patriot Guard Riders are on call if requested to attend the upcoming funeral of Army Private First Class Gordon N. Larson, 22, of Seattle.
The DPAA announced Larson's remains had been identified earlier this year in August, according to KIRO 7 News in Seattle.
Larson, like Bishop, was assigned to the 59th Coast Artillery Regiment on Corregidor Island, but served in the B Battery instead of the K Battery.
While he too survived the Bataan Death March, Larson died shortly after Bishop and Hanson on Nov. 14, 1942, according to Cabanatuan prison records. His funeral date and location have yet to be determined.
"If the Patriot Guard Riders are requested, it will be a privilege to stand for this hero," Astrid said. "If not, I'll attend as part of his community."
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