Much of Vincent Silva's life was shaped by his three-and-a-half years as a Japanese prisoner of war during World War II.

But it wasn't until his later years that the longtime Pittsburg resident opened up about his experiences.

Silva, who died last week at 93 of natural causes, started sharing the story of his experience in the Bataan Death March once his wife, Rose, passed away in 2005.

"I think he had tried to move them into the back of his mind," daughter Penny Cannon said.

Cannon surmises the New Mexico native was trying to keep her mother from being saddened by his horrific tales.

"I remember him telling me, 'If I hadn't lived through this, I wouldn't have believed it myself,' " Cannon said.

Silva shared many of his tales in a 2008 memoir titled "Senso Owari (The War Is Ended)." He also recited poems he wrote years ago.

"I hope I have somewhere near his memory at that age," said Ray Ansick, a member of several East Contra Costa veterans groups, who met Silva at a Memorial Day event three years ago.

"It really was an honor to know him," said Ansick, who convinced Silva to tell his story at several local speaking events.

After returning home in late 1945 to join Rose in the East Bay, Silva worked in construction, building new homes and churches in the growing suburbs of Contra Costa County.

Silva later became head of the city of Concord's carpentry shop where he worked for more than 20 years before retiring in 1982. Among the facilities he helped build were the Concord Pavilion and City Park.

The northeast New Mexico native left the coal mines to become a member of that state's National Guard. Silva was dispatched to the Philippines three months before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. As an anti-aircraft gunner, the Army sergeant's job was to help defend the island from invasion.

Silva and others fought against Japanese forces and starvation for more than four months. Cut off from supplies, their commanding officer offered up surrender on April 9, 1942.

Silva became one of 75,000 U.S. and Filipino troops who marched 100 miles through the jungles in the Bataan Death March. Along the way, hundreds dropped from exhaustion and starvation and were left to die. Others were executed. Those who survived were imprisoned in labor camps.

Silva told this newspaper in 1995 about the 50-year anniversary of the end of the war: "I might say that I could forgive them, but I'll never forget. It was just too much. We just went through too much to forget."

"He was a man that suffered more than we'll never know, but was he wasn't a bitter man," Ansick said.

Cannon chokes up when talking about some of her father's shared memories: being loaded like sardines into cattle cars, seeing human heads on the fence posts of towns they entered as a warning, and how he carried rosary beads given to him by his wife through his imprisonment -- even when a weapons-toting Japanese soldier questioned him about it while searching belongings.

"That brought him through the war," Cannon said.

A vigil will be held 4 p.m. Sunday at Pittsburg Funeral Chapel, 2295 Railroad Ave., Pittsburg. Local veterans will stand outside the ceremony with flags Sunday and lead a motorcade to his burial in San Pablo on Monday, Ansick said.

Contact Paul Burgarino at 925-779-7164. Follow him at Twitter.com/paulburgarino.

Vincent Silva
Born: April 12, 1918, in New Mexico
Died: Feb. 16 in Antioch
Career: Worked as the head of Concord's carpentry shop for about 20 years, along with several construction jobs. Served in the Army during World War II, was a prisoner of war for 3 years in the Philippines. Silva received the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Infantry Badge.
Service: A visitation begins at 3 p.m. followed by a vigil at 4 p.m. Sunday at Pittsburg Funeral Chapel, 2295 Railroad Ave., Pittsburg; committal services at 10 a.m. Monday St. Joseph's Cemetery, San Pablo
Survivors: Children Linda Gregoire, Penny Cannon, Vincent Jr. and Marjorie. Seven grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
Preceded in death: Wife Rose and son Richard