Officials Identify Missing WWII Soldier Over 80 Years After His Death

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of a Medal of Honor recipient more than 80 years after he died in an attack on a Japanese ship carrying prisoners of war in World War II.

The agency officially accounted for 29-year-old U.S. Army Capt. Willibald C. Bianchi of New Ulm, Minnesota, on Aug. 11, 2025, according to a press release.

Bianchi commanded Company D, 1st Battalion, 45th Infantry Regiment, Philippine Scouts, during the defense of the Philippines’ Bataan Peninsula against Japanese forces. On Feb. 3, 1942, he volunteered to help clear out multiple Japanese machine gun nests and continued leading the assault despite suffering multiple wounds. The Army awarded him the Medal of Honor for his deeds. (RELATED: British WWII Veteran Gets Emotional While Saying His Sacrifice For Freedom Was Not ‘Worth The Result’)

Secretary Hegseth announced for the first time that the DPAA has identified the remains of Medal of Honor Recipient Willibald C. Bianchi.

Captain Bianchi is finally coming home and will receive the proper burial he deserves 80 years later. pic.twitter.com/KC8J5CVFmO

— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) September 19, 2025

Japanese forces captured Bianchi on April 9, 1942, following the American surrender on Bataan and he spent more than two years as a prisoner of war in the Philippines, according to the DPAA.

In December 1944, the Japanese military loaded Bianchi and 1,620 other Allied POWs onto the transport vessel Oryoku Maru bound for Japan. U.S. carrier aircraft targeted the vessel in Subic Bay on Dec. 14, 1944, not knowing it carried prisoners. Bianchi survived and was transferred to the Enoura Maru.

Planes based on the USS Hornet attacked the Enoura Maru on Jan. 9, 1945, while it sat anchored in Takao Harbor, Formosa — modern Taiwan. Japanese records confirmed Bianchi died in that strike.

American recovery teams exhumed 311 bodies from a mass grave in Taiwan in May 1946 but could not identify them. The remains were buried as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

The DPAA disinterred unknowns buried a the cemetery from October 2022 to July 2023. Researchers used anthropological analysis, DNA testing and circumstantial evidence to determine Bianchi’s remains.

The Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines’ Walls of the Missing bears Bianchi’s name. A rosette will be placed beside it to note the identification of his remains. He will be laid to rest in his Minnesota hometown in May 2026.