A skeleton found by hikers in October near California's second-highest peak was identified on Friday as a Japanese-American artist who had left the Manzanar internment camp to paint in the mountains in the waning days of World War II.

Key points: Matsumura's burial was known among members of the camp and his family, but the story faded over time and the location of the grave site was lost

Matsumura's burial was known among members of the camp and his family, but the story faded over time and the location of the grave site was lost His granddaughter provided a DNA sample to identify his remains

His granddaughter provided a DNA sample to identify his remains Japanese-Americans like Matsumura were imprisoned in the US during WWII out of fear they would remain loyal to their ancestral homeland

The Inyo County Sheriff's Office used DNA to identify the remains of Giichi Matsumura, who died during a freak summer snowstorm while on a hiking trip with other members of the camp.

Matsumura had apparently stopped to paint a watercolour while the other men, a group of anglers, continued toward a lake to fish.

His body was not found for another month and the tragedy was overshadowed in the immediate days after his August 2, 1945 disappearance when the US dropped the first atomic bomb, hastening Japan's surrender in the war.

Matsumura was one of more than 1,800 detainees who died in the 10 prison camps in the West, though his was one of the more unusual deaths.

While his burial in the mountains was well-known among members of the camp and his family, the story faded over time and the location of the gravesite in a remote boulder-strewn area 12,000 feet above sea level was lost.

Lori Matsumura, the granddaughter who provided the DNA sample, was surprised when Sergeant Nate Derr of the Inyo County Sheriff's Office contacted her to say they believed her grandfather's remains had been discovered.

After all, he had been found nearly 75 years ago and buried.

"It was a bit of a rediscovery," she said.

Lori Matsumura in front of the block where her father and grandparents lived at the Manzanar internment camp. ( AP: Thomas Storesund )

"We knew where he was approximately because we knew the story of what happened. So we knew he was there."

'To this day, it seems like he's not passed away'

As a girl, she was haunted by a photo her grandmother showed her of the pile of stones where her grandfather was buried beneath a small marker in the remote mountains.

"Once in a great while, she would bring it out and say, 'Oh, this is all they could bring of your grandfather.' And my aunt would be, 'No, don't show her that picture,' " Ms Matsumura said.

"It did scare me. I'm like, 'Oh, my God, that's my grandfather under there.'"

Her aunt, Kazue Matsumura, told her that her grandfather was known as "the ghost of Manzanar".

"To this day, it seems like he's not passed away," Kazue, who died two years ago at 83, told the Manzanar National Historic Site.

"It seems like he's gone someplace because I didn't see his body."

Skull rediscovered by accident

It was by accident on October 7 that Tyler Hofer and a friend stumbled upon the remains on their way to the top of Mount Williamson.

The two were off-course on a crude route through the jumble of granite boulders in a basin of lakes when Mr Hofer looked down and saw what looked like a bone.

Mount Williamson, where authorities said the skeletal remains were discovered. ( Inyo County Sheriff's Office via AP )

Earlier in the day, the men had discovered a pile of bones beneath Shepherd Pass, where a herd of migrating deer had plummeted to their death two years earlier on a steep, icy slope.

At first, Mr Hofer thought the bone was more animal remains, but upon closer inspection, he realized it was a human skull.

Mr Hofer and Brandon Follin moved the rocks and found an intact skeleton with a belt around its waist and leather shoes on the feet.

The arms appeared to be crossed over the chest.

Mr Hofer posted about his finding on a Facebook forum, saying inaccurately that the skull appeared to be fractured and the shoes were the type worn by rock climbers.

He suggested it was a case of foul play.

When contacted by the AP, the Sheriff's office said there were no signs of a crime.

They said it was a mystery, though, because they had searched records of missing reports going back decades and no one was known to be lost in the area that would fit that description.

Officials did not say that by the time they had retrieved the bones by helicopter, they already had a hunch it might be Matsumura.

Search parties failed to find Matsumura's body

While his story was little-known, it got renewed attention when the documentary film The Manzanar Fishing Club came out in 2012.

Director Cory Shiozaki told the story about intrepid prisoners who would escape from the camp at night and slip into the mountains to fish for trout — sometimes for weeks at a time.

A segment of the film on Matsumura's death did not make the final cut.

Still, Mr Shiozaki often addressed the tragedy at the many screenings where he spoke and the story became more broadly known.

In the final year of the war, the guard towers were no longer manned with armed soldiers and people were free to leave the camp.

Burial party for Matsumara on Mount Williamson in 1945. ( Matsumura Family/National Park Service via AP )

The Matsumuras, like many others, had no home or business to return to, so they remained behind.

When a group of fishermen planned to hike to the chain of lakes in Williamson Bowl, Matsumura insisted on tagging along.

The trip leader did not want Matsumura, 46, to join them because he was older and not in great physical shape, but he eventually relented, MR Shiozaki said.

The group of six-to-10 men headed into the Sierra Nevada on July 29, 1945.

At some point in the demanding trek, Matsumura stopped to paint a watercolour and said he would catch up later.

A freak snowstorm blew in and the fishermen retreated to a cave.

When the weather cleared, they searched fruitlessly for Matsumura. Three later search parties from the camp also failed to find him.

During that period, his wife, Ito, worried so much that her hair turned the colour of snow, according to Kazue, who was 10 at the time.

"I felt sorry for my mom, you know," Kazue told the National Park Service.

"She couldn't eat or anything … She had black hair, and it turned white all of a sudden."

Matsumura's decomposing remains were found a month after he was lost, by hikers from the nearby town of Independence.

Members from the camp then hiked back up to bury him in a mountainside grave under a sheet his wife provided, according to the park service.

This 1945 photo shows the gravesite. ( Matsumura Family/National Park Service via AP )

Atop the granite stones placed on his body was a granite column with a paper note attached to mark the site.

In Japanese characters, it gave his name and age and said, "Rest in Peace".

The burial party brought back clippings of his hair and fingernails, a Buddhist tradition when a body can not be returned, for a ceremony at the camp.

Find reignites interest in camp history

Rather than reopen an old wound in her family's past, the finding has awakened interest in learning more about their story and time in the camp and sharing it with nephews and nieces, Lori Matsumura said.

Until she recently saw a photo of the search party, Lori Matsumura never knew her father, Masaru, had played a role in looking for his dad.

Her father never talked about the experience and she now regrets not pressing him for more information.

Like many who endured the hardship and humiliation of the period when more than 110,000 people of Japanese descent — two-thirds American citizens — were imprisoned because of fear they would remain loyal to their ancestral homeland, Masaru Matsumura seemed bitter and rarely spoke of camp, Lori Matsumura said.

Memorial service for Matsumura in 1945 at the internment camp. ( Toyo Miyatake Studio via AP )

He had been close to graduating from high school when his family was sent to Manzanar.

After his father's death, Masaru Matsumura had to support his mother and three siblings when they returned to Santa Monica.

He had to take a job as a gardener as his father had done.

Kazue Matsumura said her mother, widowed at 43, told her she had worked two or three jobs.

Ito Matsumura was 102 when she died in 2005. She was buried with a lock of her husband's hair and his name on her gravestone.

Most of what Lori Matsumura knows of the camp came from her grandmother and an aunt who lived across the street from the little home where she grew up in Santa Monica.

Now that her curiosity has been sparked, Lori Matsumura has no one to ask about their experiences in camp or the impact of her grandfather's death on the family.

Her father died last summer at age 94, the last of his generation.

"I wished I would have dug a little deeper and found out more stories from my dad," she said.

"He didn't talk about it much. I wished I would have asked more questions."

AP