Estimation of stature by the US Army Central Identification Unit, Kokura, Japan, 1951–1955

ABSTRACT

From 1951–1955, the skeletal remains of United Nations casualties in the Korean War were processed for identification at the US Army Central Identification Unit (CIU) in Kokura, Japan. Anthropologists examined the remains to provide estimates of race, age, stature, and ante-mortem fractures or other individuating features. Initially, procedures followed those used in the earlier analysis of Second World War casualties, in which stature was estimated from long bone lengths using tables derived from work by Rollet and Krogman. However, in 1952, Trotter and Gleser published a study of stature estimation based on the skeletal remains of 1200 US Second World War casualties, and the next year the CIU shifted to using these formulae. After the conclusion of CIU operations, Trotter and Gleser analysed skeletal measurements from 5517 US Korean War casualties and published a new set of regression equations, which continue to be used by many anthropologists. Analysis of osteometric data for historically identified US Korean War casualties has illuminated the calculation and use of stature estimates at the CIU and the nature of the data available to Trotter and Gleser. In particular, it has revealed a shift in measurement techniques that accompanied the shift in regression formulae.

KEYWORDS:

• Skeletal
• osteology
• stature
• military
• Korean War

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Rayvn Tate, Sarah Bright and Kylie Bernardo for data entry.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. These IDPFs are in process of being transferred from the US Army Human Resources Command to the National Archives at St. Louis, but the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency holds digital copies of many of them.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the author’s employer, the US Department of Defense. The conclusions expressed, however, are those of the author, and are not an official opinion of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the US Department of Defense, or the US Government.