Captain Walker survived four years of prison, only to die in Japan as the war was ending.

Edward Leslie Walker, the fourth child of William and Pearl Walker, was born in Santa Cruz in 1911. Joining him in the family were his sisters, Helen and Esther, and his brother, William. Edward received his grammar school education at Holy Cross School and later graduated from Chaminade High School. After high school, he went on to earn a degree from nearby University of Santa Clara.

Edward Walker was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1939 and after completing artillery training at Ft. Bliss, Texas, was sent to Fort Ord, California. In January 1941, First Lieutenant Walker was sent to the Philippine Islands and assigned to the 24th Field Artillery Regiment.

When the Japanese invaded the Philippines in December 1941, Captain Walker was serving in a field artillery unit under the command of a Major King. After the fall of Manila, he and his battery were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula where they continued to fight. With the fall of Bataan, he made his way to Corregidor, but was forced to surrender at the fortress on May 7, 1942. The following December he sent a card home indicating that he was a prisoner of war in the Philippines.

Later in the war the Japanese transferred Walker to a prison camp on the island of Honshu.

“The majority of prisoners were put to work in mines, fields, shipyards and factories on a diet of about 600 calories a day. Prisoners were rarely given fat in their diet and all were continuously hungry. The majority survived on barley, green stew, meat or fish once a month and seaweed stew. Red Cross parcels were not distributed to the prisoners.”

On February 1, 1945, while a prisoner of war in Japan, Captain Edward L. Walker died of colitis. His remains were later recovered, returned and buried at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in 1948.

(USDVA; SCSn December 16, 1942 1:6, September 16, 1945; History on the Net, WWII, Japan POW Camps, (http://www.historyonthenet. com/WW2/pow_camps_japan.htm, [16 September 2008])