Robert DuBois survived the Bataan Death March but later died in Japanese POW camp
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —
The remains of U.S. Army Pvt. Robert Dubois, who died in a Japanese prison camp during World War II, have been identified and are returning to Albuquerque after 84 years.
For his niece, Patsy Gutierrez, the discovery has been an emotional experience.
“Because I wish that his siblings and his parents could be here to see this,” Gutierrez said.
Dubois’s parents and eight siblings passed away without seeing his remains come home.
Dubois joined the Army and was deployed to the Philippines, where he was captured on April 9, 1942, after the Bataan Peninsula fell to Japanese forces. He endured the brutal 65-mile Bataan Death March and was later interned at the infamous Cabanatuan prison camp. He died there on July 4, 1942, at the age of 24 from malnutrition.
“When I think about what has happened to him, could I have survived that? I doubt it,” Gutierrez said.
After the war, Dubois never returned home. A few years later, his parents received a letter from the Army informing them of his death.
Dubois’s remains were recovered by the U.S. Army years after the war and sent to the Army’s identification lab in Hawaii, but they could not be identified at the time.
Ten years ago, the Army reached out to Gutierrez, asking for a DNA sample to help identify Dubois’s remains. Three months ago, she received confirmation that the remains were a match.
“I was just in shock for, you know, just in awe that they had found his body,” Gutierrez said.
The Army posthumously awarded Dubois the Bronze Star for valor and the Purple Heart. He will be laid to rest this weekend at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Albuquerque, next to his mother and father.
“He’s home at last, and that’s what makes me happy, that I’m still alive to see it,” Gutierrez said.
