NEW ORLEANS — More than seven decades after being killed during World War II, Private Earl Joseph Keating finally came home to his native New Orleans after his remains were discovered on the Pacific island where he died in 1942.

The soldier died on the island of New Guinea just north of Australia, during the bloody campaign to defeat the Japanese in the Pacific theater.

Keating’s nephew, Nadau ‘‘du Treil’’ Michael Keating Jr., was only 6 months old when his 28-year-old uncle was killed Dec. 5, 1942. But the nephew remembers his grandmother’s message to him when he was 12 years old and she was on her deathbed.

‘‘She said ‘I want you to remember to please find Earl with your dad. Help your dad find Earl,’ ’’ he said.

It wasn’t until decades later that the younger Keating was able to answer that deathbed request with the help of villagers in Papua New Guinea. A villager came across the remains of Keating and another American, and the US military sent a team to investigate.

ASSOCIATED PRESS