16
SERYIGEW-NEWS
Col. E. E. Laird, former Assistant
General Counsel for the State Public
Utilities Commission is home after five
years’ service, nearly four o f which
were spent in Japanese prisons. H e is
on a 90-day sick leave from Fort Lewis,
Washington, visiting with relatives and
friends. Lt. Col. Laird is a survivor of
the Bataan death march and is the hus
band o f Mrs. Lorene Christenson Laird.
H e arrived in San Francisco October 15,
1945, aboard the U.S.S. General Howze.
Col. Laird entered the army Novem
ber, 1940 as a captain. In October,
1941, he was sent to the Philippines as
a casual officer of the quartermaster
corps and in December was ordered
into the field as a line officer with the
1st Philippine division made' up of na
tive Filipinos.
Laird fought throughout the Bataan
campaign and was taken prisoner on
April Z, 1942, when General Wain
wright surrendered. Along with other
Americans, he was forced on the Ba
taan death march and then was in
terned at Camp O ’Donnell and Cabana-
tuan, successively. H e was among 1500
officers and enlisted men who were
crowded into the hold o f a ship in N o
vember, 1942, and taken to Umeda
camp near Osaka. In January, 1943,
they were moved to Zentusuji where
they remained until June, 1945, and
then were put in a camp ot Roshu on
Honshu Island.
" A t Osaka both officers and enlisted
men were forced to work as longshore
men shoveling coal into railroad cars,”
Laird relates. " A t Roshu Roki we did
agricultural work, clearing land. One
morning in A ugust we had no work.
The 'officer in charge o f the work
party inquired to see why the guards
hadn’t shown up and was told that the
senior committee had just sent word
there would be no more work. Several
days later we were told that the war
was over and left the camp.”
While life was bleak and communi
cation with the outside world was en
tirely cut o ff after the men were in
terned at Roshy Roki, they exercised
their native Yankee ingenuity to light-
Eugene Concrete Pipe
& Products Co.
P.O.BOX 947 - EUGENE, OREGON