The ship’s roster included the name of a man who never sailed on the ship, throwing off final accounting of how many men survived Japanese attack.
INDIANAPOLIS — Accounts of how many people died in the sinking of the USS Indianapolis during World War II have long varied by one. Were there 1,195 sailors and Marines aboard the ill-fated ship — or 1,196? Did 879 men perish in the attack, in the water, or after rescue — or 880?
Now two historians have collaborated on a paper that helps explain the discrepancy: One young man, sometimes included on the ship’s roster, did not actually sail on that fateful journey in July 1945, because of a last-minute change of plans.
However, the paper finds, a record-keeping error led his name to appear on some versions of the passenger roster but not on the list of survivors, leading history to erroneously add a name to the roll of those whose lives were lost.
Co-authors Richard Hulver, a Naval History and Heritage Command historian, and Sara Vladic, a filmmaker and historian, cross-checked all the names associated with the Indianapolis to sort out the misunderstanding. They published their findings on March 20 in an issue of the U. S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings Today.
In the paper, the two report that a Michigan couple was among the heartbroken who received news in mid-August 1945 that they had lost a son in the Japanese torpedo attack on the heavy cruiser on July 30.
