Pearl Harbor skull could date to World War II

FILE - In this undated file photo, wreckage identified by the U.S. Navy as a Japanese torpedo plane was salvaged from the bottom of Pearl Harbor following the surprise attack Dec. 7, 1941. An excavation crew recently made a startling discovery at the bottom of Pearl Harbor when it unearthed a skull that archeologists suspect is from a Japanese pilot who died in the historic attack. Archaeologist Jeff Fong of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific described the discovery to The Associated Press and the efforts under way to identify the skull. He said the early analysis has made him "75 percent sure" that the skull belongs to a Japanese pilot. (AP Photo, file)HONOLULU (Reuters) - Military scientists are trying to determine if a skull found in Pearl Harbor among debris dating to the 1940s belonged to a World War II Japanese fighter pilot, officials said on Wednesday.
The skull was discovered during a dredging operation in April under 40 feet of water, U.S. Navy officials said.
Scientists with the military's Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command were conducting a forensic analysis of the skull to determine whether it belonged to a Japanese pilot, said Don Rochon, spokesman for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific in Hawaii.
It was found intact, along with forks, metal scraps and a soda bottle from the 1940s, said Denise Emsley, spokeswoman for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command in Hawaii.

But she cautioned that the skull may not come from a Japanese fighter pilot.
"Hawaii has a very large Asian population now and it had a large Asian population in the 1940s," Emsley said. "It could have been from someone who worked on the piers."
About 2,400 lives were lost due to Japan's December 7, 1941, surprise attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, and another 1,178 people were wounded.