The remains of a Massachusetts airman who died as a prisoner of war during World War II have been accounted for, military officials said Wednesday. 

U.S. Army Air Forces Pvt. 1st Class Bernard J. Calvi, 23, was a member of the 17th Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group when Japanese forces invaded the Philippines in December 1941, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a news release. Intense fighting ensued and continued until the surrender of Bataan peninsula and Corregidor Island in spring 1942. 

During that period, thousands of American and Filipino service members were captured and held at prisoner of war camps, the DPAA said. Calvi was among those reported captured when forces in Bataan surrendered. He, and thousands of others, were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then held at a prisoner of war camp where 2,500 prisoners died during the course of the war. 

Calvi died on July 16, 1942, according to prison and historical records, just months after the surrender of the peninsula. He was buried in a mass grave, known as Common Grave 316. 

That grave and others at the camp were exhumed by the American Graves Registration Service after World War II ended. The remains from the graves were brought to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum that had been constructed in Manila, the Philippines’ capital city. 

In 1947, the service attempted to identify the remains. Eleven sets of remains from Common Grave 316 were identified, and the remaining 17 were declared unidentifiable. Those unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as Unknowns. Calvi’s name, along with the names of other soldiers declared dead, was carved onto the Walls of the Missing at the cemetery. 

In April 2019, the DPAA began efforts to identify the Unknowns from Common Grave 316. The 17 sets of remains were exhumed and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. Scientists used multiple techniques, including dental and anthropological analysis, mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA analysis, and historical evidence. On Sept. 16, they identified the set of remains as Calvi’s. 

Before Calvi enlisted in the military, he had been a notable athlete, playing varsity baseball and football at his Massachusetts high school, according to archival news clippings shared by the DPAA. Before he was taken prisoner, Calvi was wounded at least once in action, but returned to active duty after recovering in a hospital in the Philippines. He was survived by his parents, two brothers, several aunts and uncles, and one nephew. 

Calvi will be buried in his hometown of North Adams, Massachusetts on Dec. 9, 2024. A rosette will be placed next to his name on the Walls of the Missing to indicate that he has been accounted for. 

China has reasserted its territories around a flashpoint reef in the South China Sea after the Philippines defined its sea boundaries in the contested waters.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr signed two laws on Friday to define the country’s maritime entitlements and set designated sea lanes and air routes to “reinforce sovereignty”.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday that it “firmly opposes this and it will continue to take all necessary measures in accordance with the law to resolutely defend the country’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests”.

Beijing claims sovereignty over nearly all of the South China Sea, including areas claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

China rejected a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that its sweeping claims were not supported by international law. The United States, a Philippine ally, backs the court’s ruling in the case, which was brought by Manila.

The Chinese ministry’s statement defined a baseline of “territorial waters” around the Scarborough Shoal, which China claims as its territory and calls Huangyan Island.

The shoal is a major point of contention over sovereignty and fishing rights. China has enacted domestic laws covering the South China Sea, such as a coastguard law in 2021 that allows it to detain foreigners suspected of trespassing.

With an armada of coastguard ships to assert its claims, Beijing routinely accuses vessels of trespassing in areas of the South China Sea that fall inside the exclusive economic zones of its neighbours and has clashed repeatedly with the Philippines in the past year.

China’s coastguard issued a statement on Sunday saying the Philippines has frequently sent military and police warships and aircraft to “intrude” into the waters and airspace near the Scarborough Shoal. It accused Manila of instigating “illegal fishing” in the area.

In August alone, the two countries reported six confrontations in the air and at sea in the contested waterway.

The escalating tensions have threatened to draw in the US, which has a mutual defence treaty with the Philippines and has promised to come to Manila’s aid in the case of any armed third-party attacks against Filipino soldiers. These include coastguard personnel, aircraft or public vessels “anywhere” in the South China Sea.

Many of us wish we could go back in time to ask our grandparents questions about their life, their family, and what it was like growing up, but Kenneth Tan did not need a time machine. Instead, he used art to connect with his grandmother and preserve her stories before they were lost forever.

In 2014, Tan left his job as a graphic designer in Southern California and returned home to San Jose to help take care of his grandmother – who also referred to by the Filipino term of endearment, “Lola.”

“One day after breakfast at the kitchen table, I asked, ‘What do you want to do today? And Lola said she wanted to do something for purpose,” remembered Tan.

They found that purpose by creating art through paper and brushstrokes. Together, they would form more than just a bond. Instead, Kenneth would get a full picture of a life rediscovered.

“As she was making her watercolor paintings, she would tell me stories about her life in the Philippines,” said Tan. “Stories from WWII, growing up in the Philippines, and I wanted to remember everything.”

To bring those memories to life, Kenneth decided to create his own art on top of his lola’s watercolor creations to complete each story. One of her paintings shows abstract lines of blue and green.

“She said she painted the cape of the knight,” said Tan.

It is a simple painting, that he then used to illustrate and tell the story of a national hero of the Philippines, named Jesús Antonio Villamor.

“So Villamor was an ace pilot of the Philippines who fought for America during WWII,” explained Tan. “And when the war reached the islands, Lola as a child ran for the hills, and when climbing the mountains she talked about seeing planes dog fighting overhead.”

The same watercolor cape turned sideways also becomes the skyline for the dogfight in the sky, with Villamor’s plane intercepting a group of Japanese zeroes from imperial Japan.

Dr. Lily Ann Villaraza, who is a professor and Department Chair of Philippine Studies at City College of San Francisco is a fan of Kenneth Tan’s work. She says he has found a unique way to tell family stories that can help the next generation form their own identity.

“We are not only here in the United States, but we also have these narratives that are in the Philippines,” said Dr. Villaraza. “They come together in our experience, through our families, and it is such a beautiful thing to say.”

The stories are so important, Kenneth curated the art they had created together for two years, and put them into a book titled, “Crescenciana,” the first name of his Lola. He self-published the book in 2022, six years after she passed away at the age of 96.

“For me, it is important to document this, because I don’t want to forget my Lola,” said Tan. “I feel like we live through our stories, and if the stories are gone, then that’s it. Maybe this is my way of grieving. This is my way of keeping her present.”

And this October for Filipino-American History Month, Tan published a second art book titled, “Interwoven” that uses his Lola’s watercolors as the backdrop to tell his family stories through his mother and sister.

“I think we set off on this path together, and I’m still walking it, still trying my best to keep our work going,” said Tan. “I feel like she is still giving me the life that I live. I feel like she is still taking care of me.”

And although his grandmother never had a chance to see the book, her life still lives through her collection of watercolor paintings.

“I’ve kept about 80 pieces from her,” said Tan. “What I love about her work, she didn’t stop to worry if something was correct or out of place. She just painted with a sense of freedom, of wanting to discover. It all came from the heart.”