Thomas Frank Johnson, age 18, from San Jose, California, Santa Clara county.
Parents: Thomas W. Johnson
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Tuesday, November 23, 1943
Death details: The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that Marine Corps Reserve Pfc. Thomas F. Johnson, of San Jose, California, killed during World War II, was accounted for on May 6, 2020. In November 1943, Johnson was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force, which landed against stiff Japanese resistance on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands, in an attempt to secure the island. Over several days of intense fighting at Tarawa, approximately 1,000 Marines and Sailors were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded, while the Japanese were virtually annihilated. Johnson died on the fourth day of battle, Nov. 23, 1943. He was reported to have been buried in Row D of the East Division Cemetery, later renamed Cemetery 33.
Cemetery: Buried in 2020 in Red Bluff, California
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency