USAT Honda Knot had arrived with the remains of 3,027 service members who had perished in the Pacific theater during WW2 for reburial in the USA.
Post WW2, families of deceased service members, were given the choice of bringing their loved ones remains home to be buried, or leaving them in cemeteries overseas.
The $163 million repatriation program lasted from 1947-1951, with around 171,000 sets of remains, 60 percent of US WW2 combat dead, being brought back from 86 countries and reburied in the USA.
LIFE Magazine Archives – Allen Grant Photographer WWP-PD
