WWII Hero Capt. Bianchi Identified 80 Years After Disappearing

More than 80 years after he vanished in the Pacific theater of World War II, a U.S. soldier and Medal of Honor recipient has finally been accounted for, federal officials announced Wednesday.

Capt. Willibald Bianchi, a native of New Ulm, Minnesota, was a highly decorated Army officer whose heroism earned him the nation's highest military honor.

The identification was confirmed by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the Pentagon organization responsible for recovering and identifying missing U.S. service members.

Bianchi served as a battalion commander on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines in 1942, volunteering to help clear heavily fortified Japanese machine-gun positions.

Despite being wounded, he continued to lead the assault — actions that would earn him the Medal of Honor for extraordinary valor.

Months later, Bianchi was captured by Japanese forces and became a prisoner of war. In 1944, he was among hundreds of POWs placed aboard the Japanese transport ship Oryoku Maru.

The ship was attacked and sunk by U.S. pilots who did not know it was carrying prisoners of war.

Survivors, including Bianchi, were transferred to another vessel bound for present-day Taiwan, which was also struck by U.S. forces.

Japanese authorities reported Bianchi as killed in that second attack at just 29 years old. His remains were recovered in 1946 from a mass grave on a Taiwanese beach but could not be identified at the time and were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

DPAA renewed the effort to identify remains connected to the sunken transport ships, disinterring them between October 2022 and July 2023.

Using anthropological analysis, circumstantial evidence, and DNA testing conducted with the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System, investigators finally confirmed the remains as Bianchi's.

Bianchi's name will continue to be honored on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.

According to DPAA, he will receive a proper burial in his Minnesota hometown in May, ensuring that his sacrifice is formally recognized on American soil.

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