Anthony Costa was born in Concord, California in January 1920. At the time, Concord was a small farm town. His father had a small dairy farm in Concord but when the war broke out, the government took over the farm and his father lost his work. His mother raised the eight children. When a Marine in a beautiful blue uniform came into his class, he told Costa that he would be a good Marine. The recruiter was looking for Marines to go aboard ships. Costa replied that if he wanted to be a Navy man, he would join the Navy. Costa had already signed the papers for the Marine Corps so he went into training. He took his Marine Corps training in San Diego then he was sent to a Navy base to learn about ships. Being the youngest child, his mother did not want him to serve but his dad said he would learn during his time in the service. Training from the very beginning taught him that he was not a civilian any longer. He endured all the rigors of training. After completing boot camp, ten of the trainees were picked to serve aboard Navy ships. They were reluctant to go aboard the ships at first. They were going aboard to guard the admirals as sea going Marines. There was no use in arguing with them so Costa went ahead and signed on to serve on ships.

Anthony Costa enjoyed it [Annotator's Note: his prewar service in the United States Marine Corps] because he was able to see all of Asia, including the Great Wall in China and Siberia. He was a reluctant seagoing Marine at first but knew there was no use in arguing with his commanders. The first ship Costa set foot on was the Augusta [Annotator's Note: USS Augusta (CA-31)] which was the flagship of the US Asiatic Fleet. He was assigned to guard the admiral aboard the ship. No one could get close to the admiral. Two guards were posted outside of the admiral's quarters to protect him at all times. The Marine guards carried all incoming messages to the admiral. Even the captain of the ship had to communicate through the Marine guards. Once, two submarines came alongside of the ship. The admiral ordered the two submarines to go to Cavite Navy Base and the Augusta would meet them there. Costa enjoyed being aboard ship and seeing all the different locations where the ship traveled. Some of his fellow Marines felt he had good duty since he was being sent to Shanghai, China. Costa was in Shanghai where the Marines guarded the Shell Oil installations. Shanghai was a big, multinational city. It was like most large cities. The 4th Marines [Annotator's Note: 4th Marine Regiment] guarded Shanghai. From Shanghai, Costa went north to the Russian and Japanese border for target practice. A couple of guys were sent ashore and got in some trouble and were incarcerated by the Japanese. After threats, the face-off ended with the Japanese releasing the two Americans unharmed. Costa transferred from the USS Augusta to the USS Houston (CA-30) when the Augusta was relieved from duty. The admiral subsequently transferred his flag to the Houston and his ten man Marine contingent went with him. Down in the southern part of the Philippines they encountered Moros [Annotator's Note: Moro tribesmen] that scared them. The Moros were tough and could only be stopped by a .45 caliber pistol.

[Annotator's Note: Anthony Costa begins this segment by discussing his transfer to Japan aboard one of the prisoner of war transport ships after being asked about how he got sick by not being fed. This incident occurred after the Bataan Death March.] Anthony Costa got sick as a result of not eating for a while. When they shipped out of Manila, he did not see daylight for a while. He was thrown down into a hold of a Japanese prison ship. In the hold, he and three buddies found bales of hay that they used to keep themselves above the deck where a fetid situation existed. That ship was torpedoed by an American vessel but the torpedoes were duds. Costa learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor at the same time the Japanese hit the Cavite Navy Base. He was aboard the Augusta [Annotator's Note: USS Augusta (CA-31)] at the time. They broke out of Cavite firing back at the Japanese. It did no good. Nobody knew what to do. At Clark Field the planes were hit on the ground. At first, there was chaos. Communications were bad. Eventually, the situation settled down. The Augusta and Houston [Annotator's Note: USS Houston (CA-30)] fired a few shells but did not do much good. They had no helmets and they only had the old Springfield rifles [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1903 rifles]. Everything was obsolete. They headed to Australia but the Houston was sunk and the men were either killed or captured. Costa was aboard the Augusta and went ashore with the admiral and the ten Marine body guards off the ship. They were assigned to the 4th Marines [Annotator's Note: 4th Marine Regiment] and were captured. Costa was captured after the American surrender of the Philippines. A Japanese interpreter told the Americans not to try to escape or get out of line or they would be killed. When he saw the Japanese for the first time, he was glad it was over with because he only had an old rifle and no steel helmet. The Japanese hated the Americans and used any excuse to bayonet or shoot them. The forced march was hard. If a person fell, they were dead. He was taken to Cabanatuan and then to Manila. Most of the troops were shell shocked and dazed. He saw men being killed if they fell down. Treatment depended on which Japanese guard was near the fallen American. A comrade could be shot or bayoneted by the guards. The Japanese had no respect for the Americans. Costa just kept his mouth shut and kept going. There was no food or water for four or five days. The weather at that time was nice. He does not know how he survived except that he wanted to live after being shelled day and night for five or six days. Costa felt they were shell shocked and did not care what the guards wanted to do. Some did not want to march anymore. Costa felt that the guys who died on the march must have wanted to die to end their misery. Those that lived stuck together and tried to see a way to escape. Three guys escaped but the Filipinos turned them in. The Japanese tied those three escapees to fence posts with barbed wire. The Japanese gave them no water in the 110 degree weather. It took about three days for the escapees to die. That convinced the men who were marching not to attempt escape. Costa's memories of the gruesome incidents on the march are largely gone. He does not exactly recall how long they marched. Since Costa was not eating he lost weight. The marchers made it to the Cabanatuan camp where they received some hot rice and water. They were at Cabanatuan for five or six days then were told that they were being sent to Japan as laborers. The Marines and the Navy captives were assigned to dock work. The Army and National Guard prisoners were sent to the coal mines in Manchuria. The Japanese liked the Marines because they gave a good fight even though they had outdated equipment.

Anthony Costa was sent to Osaka aboard a ship to work on the docks there. He was in a transport ship hold where he did not see daylight until he got to the destination. It took two months before the Americans in Osaka got organized. After six months, they knew which shipments were going out to the Japanese Army. At one point, the American dockworkers even made an attempt to get into some barrels of sake that was to be shipped out. The guards discovered their attempt to pilfer the sake and gave them a little beating but they did not care. When their transport ship was torpedoed, they climbed up on bales of hay in the hold. The first year of being a prisoner was bad because Americans could not understand the Japanese guards nor could the guards understand their prisoners. After the Americans understood the language more, they would outsmart the Japanese. When Costa saw the big ball of the atom bomb explosion, the Americans did not know what it was. After they walked through the destroyed area, some of the prisoners later contracted cancer of the stomach. The prisoners knew the war would be over. Any food they did manage to steal at the dock went to sick bay. He received no mail or Red Cross parcels. They knew nothing of the war's progress until close to the end. Costa did see the American planes fly over nearly every day. They flashed signals to the planes that Costa and his fellow prisoners were in a prisoner of war camp, and they needed food. The huge American food drop missed the prisoners. The most difficult part of being a prisoner for Costa was seeing his best friends being killed. Some were in the same platoon and as young as 18 years old. Costa could look back and see individuals that were brave enough but not strong enough to survive. His survival was largely due to sticking together with his support group. That was how they survived. Every time the Japanese lost a battle, the Americans would get beaten on the head or the back with bamboo. The Americans just kept saying to themselves that the Japanese would get their rewards for their misdeeds. The prisoners knew the strong would survive. The weak had to be let go because they would not make it. It was important to form a group to help one another. The group he was with numbered about 15. They lived in a four story building and slept on the floor with only a charcoal burner in the winter to heat the water. The individuals in his prison camp were all from the Bataan Death March.

After all he witnessed in the war, Anthony Costa had no negative feelings toward the Japanese. He was raised with Japanese in California. Some of them were friends of his family. When the atomic bomb went off, he knew the war was over when he began seeing white flags going up around him. Costa did not care for General Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur never left Corregidor and the Malinta Tunnel until President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin D. Roosevelt] said he had to leave the Philippines. Costa and some of the prisoners did get to see the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri (BB-63). Before the war, Costa weighed 160 to 170 pounds. After the war, Costa weighed 90 pounds. It was four or five months of rehabilitation before he got his strength back. He had to check in once a month after he got back. His folks were waiting for him when he returned. Costa returned with ten other men to a military hospital close to his home. He took a trip to his parent's home. His mother, dad and brothers welcomed him and his friends to the family home. A nice meal was shared by all as his mother cried. It was emotional for him. He did not have positive feelings for the Red Cross. They wanted the returning prisoners to pay for the packages they were getting. Costa, nevertheless, did feel like he was a lucky man. His brother had passed in 1944, but the family was reluctant to tell him because of his close feelings for that brother. He had another brother who was severely burned by a Japanese flame thrower while serving in the Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of naval construction battalions]. That brother did survive.

After the war, Anthony Costa attended Junior College and Berkley [Annotator's Note: University of California at Berkeley]. He used the GI Bill to pay for his education. He went into construction. The city of Concord was growing and his construction knowledge paid off. The Public Works Director had been in the Marines and that was helpful in Costa's efforts. Costa did not think he had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Costa would not allow himself to think about his memories of the war. He did acknowledge having some degree of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because he does not want to be touched in his sleep. That contact would bring back memories of the Japanese beating him in his sleep. The family should call him, but not touch him while he is sleeping. Costa feels like World War 2 should be remembered by the young people. His message to future generations would be to never give up. The next generations should just go out and do their duty. His advice to any former prisoners of war would be to let it go.