Mr. Silva signed up for the National Guard January 1, 1941. The National Guard was made into a battalion and they were sent to fight in the Philippines. When the war started, he was only 21 years old. He signed up against his parents' will. When Mr. Silva went to war, he left all his friends behind, along with his mother, father, one brother, and three sisters.
Like many other New Mexicans, Mr. Silva was captured by the Japanese while serving in the Philippines.
Like many other New Mexicans, Mr. Silva was captured by the Japanese while serving in the Philippines. In 1943, he became a Japanese POW for three and a half years.
He said that it was a rough life. There was no food. They ate only steamed rice, seaweed to help the rice down, turnips, and fish which weighed only five ounces. The men also agreed that they would stick together in the camps. "If anyone escapes we all go."
People in the camps were not allowed to write letters to their relatives or anyone they knew. The Japanese wrote postcards saying that they were fine and having a good time. The men were forced to sign them.
Before he was captured, Mr. Silva was wounded three times. Once on February, 1942, he was hit by a shell in the right knee and left toe. He was also hit in the thigh bone a month later. He then caught a piece of metal about a foot thick that broke his pelvis. He was given a purple heart, but he refused it because he didn't want his family to worry about him being hurt.
After the war, he checked himself into a hospital. The doctor said he was a hundred percent disabled. Also after the war, he met his wife. He married her in 1947, and had seven children.
Mr. Silva said, ~'When you are in combat you lose all fear. You also don't think of it as war. He was a gun commander in World War II. He said that you couldn't pay him any amount of money to do it again.
-Samantha Fleshman, Danielle Hamilton