More than 80 years after his death, World War II hero Capt. Willibald Bianchi is finally coming home.
Bianchi, a US Army officer who survived two gunshot wounds, the Bataan Death March, brutal captivity, and even the sinking of his first prison ship, earned the Medal of Honor for extraordinary bravery in battle. But he never knew he had received America’s highest military award — and he never made it back to Minnesota to hear the news.
Instead, Bianchi died in early 1945 when a US aircraft unknowingly attacked the Japanese prison ship he was being held on off the coast of Formosa (present-day Taiwan). His body was never identified, and his name was etched onto the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery, alongside more than 37,000 others who “sleep in unknown graves.”
That changed on Wednesday.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that Bianchi’s remains were among roughly 300 sets recovered in Taiwan in 1946. Those remains were later moved to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii — buried anonymously for decades.
Three years ago, the unknown remains were exhumed for renewed analysis. In August, investigators finally matched one set to Bianchi. His family was briefed, and on Wednesday, the long-awaited identification was made public.
Bianchi will be laid to rest in his hometown of New Ulm, Minnesota, in May — more than 85 years after leaving the United States.
A Soldier Drawn to the Philippines Before the War
In early 1941, months before the US entered World War II, Bianchi requested deployment to the Philippines. He joined the Philippine Scouts — a US Army unit of Filipino soldiers led by American officers.
When Japan struck Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, it simultaneously launched attacks across the Philippines. By February 1942, American and Filipino defenders were forced back to the rugged Bataan Peninsula.
It was there, amid the chaos of collapsing defensive lines, that Bianchi’s heroism unfolded.
Bravery Under Fire
As commander of a Philippine Scout company, Bianchi volunteered to lead a platoon against two Japanese machine-gun positions.
Despite being shot twice through the left hand, he kept fighting — switching from rifle to pistol, then neutralizing the first enemy nest with grenades.
Hit twice more in the chest, he refused medical help. Instead, he climbed onto a US tank and manned its anti-aircraft gun, firing until another round knocked him off the vehicle.
It took a month for him to recover from those wounds. He was still healing when more than 70,000 US and Filipino troops surrendered on April 9, 1942.
The Bataan Death March and Beyond
Bianchi endured the 65-mile Bataan Death March — a forced trek marked by starvation, dehydration, beatings, and countless deaths. Even in his own suffering, he tried to lift the morale of those around him, according to the Minnesota Medal of Honor website.
He survived multiple POW camps, only to face even worse conditions in late 1944. In December, Bianchi was loaded onto a Japanese “hell ship,” where prisoners were crammed into airless holds in suffocating heat.
Because Japan often failed to mark these ships as carrying prisoners of war, American pilots had no idea their fellow countrymen were on board. When US planes attacked the hell ship in Subic Bay, it sank — but Bianchi survived.
He wasn’t as fortunate on the next ship.
On January 9, 1945, while anchored off Taiwan, the second prison ship was bombed by US warplanes. A 1,000-pound bomb exploded in the hold.
Bianchi was killed instantly. He was just 29.
Five months later, his mother, Carrie Bianchi, accepted the Medal of Honor on his behalf in Minnesota. “As a mother, I am proud to give to this generation and to America the most precious gift life makes possible — my only son,” she later wrote.
Bianchi was one of 473 Medal of Honor recipients from World War II. With his identification, only 21 remain unaccounted for.
At last, after eight decades, Capt. Willibald Bianchi will finally return home.
