Prisoners of War in New Mexico Agriculture
Abstract of Interview
CONSULTANT:
L.F. “Chano” Silva
TAPE NUMBER: RG2000-090
DATE
OF BIRTH: ca. 1922
SEX:
Male
DATE(S)
OF INTERVIEW: July 25, 2000
LOCATION
OF INTERVIEW: Silva home, Fort Sumner, New Mexico
INTERVIEWER:
Robert Hart
SOURCE
OF INTERVIEW: NMF&RHM__x___OTHER____________
TRANSCRIBED: YES____x___
NO_______
NUMBER
OF TAPES: One
ABSTRACTOR:
Robert Hart
DATE
ABSTRACTED: October 6, 2000
QUALITY
OF RECORDING (SPECIFY): Good
SCOPE
AND CONTENT NOTE: Construction of Fort Sumner Army Airfield. Low opinion of
value of prisoner of war labor. Incident with Japanese POWs (Texas).
DATE RANGE: 1942-1946
ABSTRACT
(IMPORTANT TOPICS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE):
TAPE ONE, SIDE ONE:
Silva worked on construction of runways. He describes POW
compound. POWs performed only menial work; for example, they helped on slop
detail.
Reports
no Italians at Fort Sumner, or “if there was it must have been after I
left.”
Describes
a POW escape from Fort Sumner.
Believes
there was better treatment of German POWs at Fort Sumner camp than of American
POWs in enemy prisoner-of-war camps.
Wounded
on Okinawa, sent to Corpus Christi, Texas. Assigned as POW guard there. Baseball
incident with Japanese POW.
Observation
on his language abilities (speaks four languages).
Coddling
issue.
Sabotage
worries.
Rationale
for good treatment.
Return to list of oral history consultants
Please
send questions or comments to: archives@lib.nmsu.edu
Rio Grande Historical Collections * New Mexico State University Library MSC 3475
* P.O. Box 30006 * Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003-3006 ** Telephone: 505-646-3839
FAX: 505-646-7477