Japanese Female POWs Expected to Be Left in the Blizzard — U.S. Troops Carried Them for Miles

In February 1944, fifteen Japanese nurses were discovered barely alive in a frozen bunker on Attu Island, Alaska—forgotten casualties of one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific theater. What happened next defied everything both sides had been taught about their enemies. Corporal James Mitchell and his four-man patrol faced an impossible choice: follow orders and leave the dying women behind, or risk everything to save enemy prisoners during the worst blizzard in Alaskan history. This is the extraordinary true story of mercy in the midst of war, where four American soldiers carried fifteen enemy nurses eight miles through sub-zero temperatures and zero visibility, refusing to leave anyone behind. The Japanese nurses, trained to believe Americans were savage monsters who would torture and kill them, instead experienced unexpected compassion that shattered decades of propaganda. Through shared rations, brutal physical endurance, and the simple choice to see enemies as human beings, these soldiers proved that humanity can survive even war's darkest moments. Yuki, the senior nurse who had been ready to lead her women in suicide rather than face capture, watched young Americans sacrifice their own safety to save lives they had no obligation to protect. This story explores the profound transformation that occurred when Sergeant Davis, Private Chen—whose own family suffered under Japanese occupation—Private Kowalski, and Corporal Mitchell chose mercy over revenge, compassion over orders, and human dignity over military protocol. Twenty years later, Yuki traveled from Japan to Ohio to thank the man who carried her through that blizzard, proving that one act of kindness can echo across decades and bridge the deepest divides. This forgotten chapter of World War II history reveals that even in humanity's darkest hours, the choice to show mercy defines who we truly are.