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“... a Japanese soldier ripped Antonio’s wallet from
his shirt pocket, went through it, taking what money
Antonio had. Then he flipped the wallet on the
ground and looked at Antonio as if to dare him to
pick it up.
‘My mother’s picture was in it but a guy told me not
to go get it.’
As he stood in the dirt and stared at the only
visible link to his family, he could hear shots
around him. He could also hear the sound of Japanese
soldiers stabbing American and Filipino troops with
their bayonets.
‘They liked the sound of the way the bayonet goes
into your body.’
He let the wallet lie there.”
— Jan Jonas for the Albuquerque Tribune
At the age of 82, Sam Antonio won two gold medals
for archery (Men's 70+ Freestyle Limited Compound -
FITA and IFAA Fields) at the World Masters Games in
Melbourne, Australia in October 2002.
On December 20, 2007, Sam Antonio who escaped Bataan
to Corregidor with the 200th's Jose Cata, only to be captured on Corregidor one month later,
received medals he earned in defense of the
Philippines in WWII in a ceremony in Grants, New
Mexico. |
