A Junior Navy ROTC class from North Plainfield High School attened a ceremony honoring John Judson Campbell of Plainfield, a member of the U.S. Navy who became a POW in the Phillipines during World II, as he is laid to rest with his mother Margaret at Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains, New Jersey on March 30, 2026. (Chris Pedota via TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — John Judson Campbell, of Plainfield, died as a prisoner of war in Japanese custody during World War II, one of about 8,000 servicemen held at Camp Cabanatuan.
His name faded into history — unknown even to the Navy family he belonged to — until decades later, when his remains were finally identified and returned to New Jersey.
Campbell’s death left more than a historical gap. It left a family unaware he had ever existed. He was an unknown relative in the Navy‑rooted family of Tina Carmona, whose ties to service span generations.
Campbell’s remains arrived in New Jersey on Friday and were buried Monday at Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains, in a plot that had sat empty for years.
The burial fulfilled the lifelong wish of Campbell’s mother, Margaret Campbell, who spent years searching for her son after the war.
She died in 1951 at the age of 80, never knowing that, decades later, her son would finally be identified — and returned home at last.
As a North Jerseyan, Campbell ventured into New York City to enlist in 1924, according to U.S. Navy records. He was stationed on Luzon, a Philippine island, when he was captured by Japanese soldiers.
He died at Camp Cabanatuan’s hospital while being treated for a suspected infection.
Campbell’s return is part of an ongoing effort by the Armed Forces’ POW/MIA Branch, which works with the U.S. Department of Defense to investigate and find soldiers lost in past conflicts.
The investigations are spearheaded by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
More than 84,000 soldiers spanning various wars were reported missing as of 1973, according to the agency’s records. Only roughly 3,700 have been accounted for since, records show.
About 2,300 of the missing are New Jerseyans, according to the agency’s records. They served in different conflicts, and their last known locations span countries across Europe and Asia.
Campbell is one of 73 service members from the Garden State whose remains have ever been recovered.
For decades, Campbell’s immediate family kept his existence within a small inner circle, never sharing stories about him with later generations, Carmona said. She learned she had a great-uncle only after researching her family history.
“We had no idea he existed,” Carmona, 50, of Orange Park, Florida, said in a phone interview with NJ.com.
As the vetting process went deeper, a mysterious set of records emerged.
“I noticed on the Census going back on the different ones that there’s my grandfather, and then all of a sudden, a ‘John J’ popped up, his brother,” Carmona said. “I noticed this and told my dad about it, and he was just like, ‘I don’t think you’re very good at ancestry,’ because he had no idea.”
Soon after, a phone call from a Hawaiian area code confirmed Carmona’s discovery.
A Navy sailor was on the line, asking to speak with her father for a DNA sample. The investigator brought the family news that Campbell’s remains were identified at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines, one of the largest overseas cemeteries for World War II veterans.
The remains were exhumed in 2019, and research determined Carmona’s father as a possible match. The DNA testing was packaged and mailed to the return address. The family’s link to Campbell was confirmed in 2024.
“The reason that we didn’t know about him is because my grandfather moved to Louisiana, and that’s where my dad was born, and then my grandparents got divorced when my dad was very young,” Carmona said. “So, he just never met him, never knew about him.”
The discovery unlocked new stories to share about their lost relative as they prepared to bury him for a third time.
Campbell was a high‑ranking electrician in the U.S. Navy, responsible for repairing phone circuits and other equipment critical to wartime operations. The role also required him to oversee younger sailors.
His last assignment was aboard the USS Canopus, which was stationed at the Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Ten hours after the attack, Japanese forces continued their aggression against U.S. installations, launching attacks near the Canopus. The ship was bombed near the City of Manila, but Campbell and his comrades continued to fight.
Eventually, the Navy ordered the Canopus sunk to prevent Japanese forces from capturing it. Campbell was among the soldiers forced to surrender, as reinforcements were miles away.
The Japanese subjected the captured soldiers to unsanitary conditions, allowing disease to spread. About 2,800 POWs died in the camp, Navy investigators said.
Campbell was one of many buried in an unmarked grave, which changed in 1943, when Japanese military officials agreed to improve the makeshift cemetery, marking plots for soldiers. Their decision proved pivotal in finding Campbell, who was buried alongside two other POWs.
Once the camp was liberated in 1945 — the year the war ended — U.S. forces immediately began recovering remains at the camp, hoping to swiftly identify them.
The effort was cumbersome. Soldiers found discrepancies in military records, and Japanese forces left little to no physical evidence behind.
While researching her family history, Carmona discovered photographs of Campbell preserved in his mother’s records. Margaret Campbell carefully documented many of them, often referring to John as her “angel son” — a testament to her heartbreak.
“We’re sad, but we’re proud that we can get him to his mother because his mother,” Carmona said. “I was very happy that we could get him...back there because I know I would have been the same way. I would have never stopped, and she didn’t stop.”
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