There is a skull at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command lab that was dredged up from Pearl Harbor, and scientists are trying to make an identification.

That much is certain.

Beyond that there’s only conjecture, including the possibility that it might be that of a Japanese aviator shot down on Dec. 7, 1941, officials said.

Navy archaeologist Jeff Fong told The Associated Press recently that early analysis made him "75 percent sure" the skull belonged to a Japanese pilot.

The story quickly became international news. But since then the Navy has backed away from Fong’s claim, saying it was "premature, speculative and not conclusive."

"There could be a variety of reasons why that skull was there," said Daniel Martinez, chief historian at the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes the USS Arizona Memorial. "It has not been determined at this time that it is even of Asian origin. It’s a possibility."

The Hawaii-based accounting command said Wednesday it could take several months to a year to make an identification — and perhaps confirm a grim reminder of the attack on Pearl Harbor 70 years after the fact.

Martinez, who is providing historical background on the Dec. 7, 1941, attack to the command, said "the only evidence is that there’s a possibility that this skull is Asian — that’s being explored."

Martinez also is pursuing the chance that the remains could be from one of three Japanese Nakajima B5N2 "Kate" torpedo bombers — each with three crew members — that went down in the vicinity on Dec. 7.

Pearl Harbor historian David Aiken has used deduction to take that possibility one step further, saying that of five Japanese planes that crashed in the harbor, only one, AII-356, went down in Southeast Loch.

The Navy said the skull was found during normal dredging operations to remove silt in early April. It was found in 35 to 40 feet of water adjacent to Bravo Piers 12-16. The piers are within Southeast Loch, closest to the Pearl Harbor Shipyard area.

Forks, metal and a Coke bottle dating to the 1940s were also found, adding to the speculation that the skull was from a Japanese aviator, the AP reported.

According to Aiken, who has written extensively on Pearl Harbor, a Navy diver made two dives on AII-356 about a week after the attack and found the headless body of pilot Lt. Mimori Suzuki in the submerged wreckage.

The two other crew members also were found in the bomber, Aiken said. The torpedo bomber was subsequently removed from the harbor.

Suzuki led six torpedo bombers into Southeast Loch from the carrier Kaga, Aiken said. Anti-aircraft fire was heavy and Suzuki’s plane was hit hard. The pilot was decapitated instantly, Aiken said.

Kahala resident Ray Emory, who was manning a .50-caliber machine gun on the USS Honolulu, fired at a plane that could have been Suzuki’s.

"It stopped in midair. It went up like a Christmas tree, and the prop came off the nose and kept going through the air," Emory said. "I mean, it went down, just like as fast as you’d hit your hand on a desk."

Accounting command spokesman Maj. Ramon Osorio said he could not comment on whether the skull is complete or partial, or whether there are teeth that could aid in identification.

He did say that the lab is "looking to get a good DNA source" from the skull for possible comparison with relatives.

"The identification is still pending," Osorio said, "meaning, our scientific experts are doing what they traditionally do at this point: They’ve received the remains, they’ve processed the remains and a forensic scientist expert from our (lab) staff has been assigned to the case."

The accounting command investigates and recovers fallen American military members missing from the nation’s wars.

While Martinez is looking at the possibility that the skull could be from a Japanese aviator, he also acknowledges there could be other explanations.

"The planes from the (aircraft carrier) Kaga suffered five downed aircraft," he said. "They played a role of coming in toward the end, and of course we were returning fire by that time, and they had a very rough time surviving that."

Japan lost 55 airmen that day. Some of the bodies were blown apart, and there were a number of missing, Martinez said.

"One of the things that probably needs more research, and I’m sure that it could be done, is on the (Japanese) bodies that were recovered here," he said. "How many of the 55 were actually recovered and how many are missing is one of the things that is undetermined."

Martinez raises another theory that it could have been a Pacific war trophy.

"For all we know, and God forbid, but some of the GIs brought back souvenirs, and it could have been someone simply dumping that over the side (in Pearl Harbor)," Martinez said. "That sounds awful, and it’s not something that was done (regularly) by our troops, but there were some that did that."

Navy officials also raised the possibility that the skull is that of a Pearl Harbor worker of Asian descent.

Emory, the Pearl Harbor defender who shot down a Kate torpedo bomber on Dec. 7, 1941, said there could be explanations for the skull.

"That could be anybody as far as I’m concerned," he said. "Hell, that could have been somebody murdered up in the hills and the body floated down into the harbor."