Harry Jean Harper was born on October 28, 1901, in Monticello, Jones County, Iowa. He was the son of Harry C. Harper and Wessie Ethelyn Baker Harper. He was married to Cecile Genevieve Navin Harper. He was a graduate of West Point, Class of 1925, served as an Artillery Officer and Lieutenant Colonel with the 31st Field Artillery Regiment, 31st Philippine Division during World War II.

LTC Harper was captured and held at PW Camp #1 in Cabanatuan during the fall of the Philippines. In December 1944, he was loaded onto the Oryoku Maru for transport to Japan. The ship was sunk by American aircraft at Subic Bay on December 15, 1944, and though Harper survived the sinking, he was later executed by Japanese soldiers at San Fernando, La Union, on December 22, 1944. His remains were never recovered.

His name is memorialized in the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila, Capital District, National Capital Region, Philippines. He also has a cenotaph in the Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia, USA.

Source of information: dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil, weremember.abmc.gov