I ended up once in ANC due to a medical emergency on PMNW; the airport handled it well and it’s definitely the best diversion option between Asia and the US. We were on our way after a bit of a fuel top up and only a few hours, though; sorry you got stranded overnight!

Probably better than lavatories overflowing into the aisles, though...

It’s too bad this was PDX-NRT and not NRT-PDX. There’s a large amount of service between ANC and the mainland, which makes me wonder if they would even bother with a rescue flight in that scenario; if I was in charge, I’d wonder if it might be easier/faster to just rebook everyone on random DL/AS flirhrs, hand out miles and refunds to the folks in J, and get everyone home sooner... then you can either ferry the AC home or use it as an extra section/equipment swap on ANC-SEA if you can fix the problem there.