Morale. It would give some comfort to a fellow to know that he wouldn’t be left to rot away in a foreign country.
My mom and dad were WWII children. Dad is dead and mom is in her late seventies. Both of them were little more than toddlers during the war.
I’d say it is, considering that the thousands of other Pacific War dead were either interred in permanent military cemeteries in Manila or Honolulu, or shipped home to their families to be buried as they saw fit.
Why leave these guys in a godforsaken pit on Betio, now that we know where they are? Maybe if there were dozens of Pacific War military cemeteries scattered throughout the Pacific, then it would make sense, but there aren’t. Those whose families want them will be repatriated, and I’m guessing the rest will be buried in Honolulu.
FWIW, they still bury WWII unknowns in the European permanent cemeteries, when they find them. I think that when they find identifiable remains, they give the families the same option that they would have given them after the war- bring home, or burial in a permanent cemetery.