Laniauskas, Peter
Army Private

Peter Laniauskas from Massachusetts, Middlesex county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Monday, November 16, 1942
Death details: Following the Allied surrender on the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942, the Japanese began the forcible transfer of American and Filipino prisoners of war to various prison camps in central Luzon, at the northern end of the Philippines. The largest of these camps was the notorious Cabanatuan Prison Camp. At its peak, Cabanatuan held approximately 8,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war that were captured during and after the Fall of Bataan. Camp overcrowding worsened with the arrival of Allied prisoners who had surrendered from Corregidor on May 6, 1942. Conditions at the camp were poor, with food and water extremely limited, leading to widespread malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and dysentery. By the time the camp was liberated in early 1945, approximately 2,800 Americans had died at Cabanatuan. Prisoners were forced to bury the dead in makeshift communal graves, often completed without records or markers. As a result, identifying and recovering remains interred at Cabanatuan was difficult in the years after the war. Private Peter Laniauskas, who joined the U.S. Army in Massachusetts, was a member of the 803rd Engineers Battalion, which was stationed in the Philippines during World War II. Following the Allied surrender on Bataan Province to the Japanese, he was taken prisoner eventually sent to the Cabanatuan Prison Camp, where he developed diphtheria and beriberi. Despite his weakened condition, Private Laniauskas attempted to escape on November 16, 1942, and was shot and killed by a Japanese sentry. Private Laniauskas was buried in a communal grave at Cabanatuan; however, he could not be associated with any of the remains recovered from the camp after the war. Today, Private Laniauskas is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency