Harold Bergbower was born in Newton, Illinois in 1920. He had four brothers and two sisters. He was the fifth born of his siblings. All seven children were born in the same house on the same bed. His father initially was a Marine who had been stationed in Indochina and the Philippines. His father went on to serve on the Mexican border. Tiring of that duty, his father resigned from the Marines and became a farmer. His mother raised the children. It was a satisfactory upbringing. Bergbower attended a small school with a few children in each of several grades all in the same room warmed by a pot belly stove. Bergbower's brothers were charged with upkeep of the school. They each received five dollars per month for their efforts. Each morning before school, each of the Bergbower children would have a chore to do. Then they would walk to school, even in the snow. Newton was a small town in southeastern Illinois.

Harold Bergbower completed high school then entered the service at age 19. He was 21 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941. He had been assigned to an emergency landing field in the Philippines. If planes got into trouble and needed gasoline, they could use the field to refuel. A week before the attack, Bergbower went to his main base to get paid. That was when his squadron commander, Colonel Maitland [Annotator's Note: Lieutenant Colonel, later Brigadier General, Lester J. Maitland], informed him that war was imminent within a week. Bergbower was told to stay at Clark Field. He was in the mess hall when he heard planes overhead. The men thought that it was a flight of B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber], but it turned out to be Japanese aircraft. Bergbower had entered the service over two years beforehand on 12 May 1939. He volunteered in order to become a pilot. He signed up in Dallas, Texas for the Army Air Corps School. He was told he would have a higher priority for training if he signed up at home. He signed up for the Air Force at Chanute Field. He attended school and left there in response to a personnel request for the Philippines. He and three others signed up for that assignment. They received orders to go to Chicago by train. From there, they traveled to New York City by train and then on to Brooklyn where they were told that their ship was in drydock. They spent 30 days in New York City awaiting their ship. They sailed through the Panama Canal and on to San Francisco on the USS Republic (AP-33). In San Francisco, he boarded the USS Grant (AP-29). From San Francisco, the Grant arrived in Manila on 8 May [Annotator's Note: year not provided]. While on the voyage on the Grant, Bergbower had gotten a splinter in his foot. The wound had gotten infected. The infection resulted in treatment in a Manila hospital at the Clark Field airbase. Initially, a physician diagnosed that Bergbower's leg would have to be amputated. A nurse named Juanita Redman treated Bergbower to reduce the infection. Her treatment eliminated the need for amputation as Bergbower slowly healed over a two week period. After recovery, Bergbower went on to his assignment in Clark Field. The men worked half a day and played golf on the airfield's course. They also went to the nearby Army base for horseback riding. There were cavalry horses available for the men to ride. The horses were assigned to the 3rd Cavalry. The men would sometimes escort ladies for horseback rides. Sometimes it would rain, but duty in the Philippines before the war was generally pleasant. Bergbower would come to learn that freedom is not free. His commander alerted him on 1 December 1941 that war was imminent within a week.

Harold Bergbower was on Clark Field in the Philippines on 8 December [Annotator's Note: 8 December 1941] when the Japanese bombed the field. The men had created wooden aircraft modeled after the P-40 [Annotator's Note: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft]. The wooden planes were lined up on the flight line. The Japanese bombed the fake planes on their first attack. There were jungles lining the airfield. Empty drums were filled with sand to provide protection for the ground crews. Bergbower fired his rifle at an oncoming attacking aircraft. He felt that his shot hit close to a pilot. The enemy plane circled back around for a bombing run on Bergbower. He would find protection amid the sand filled drums. The Japanese airman eventually gave up on getting his adversary. This occurred several days into the battle. On the 8 December attack, Bergbower was hit in the head by shrapnel from a bomb. He awoke in the hospital with one shoe off and a note tied to him saying he was killed 8 December 1941. His parents later received notification of his death on the first day of the attack on the Philippines. Bergbower recovered, got cleaned up and returned to his squadron for duty. He was an Army airplane mechanic attached to 28th Bomb Squadron on Clark Field. Bergbower returned to the emergency landing field where he had been assigned. He had to gather his gear and abandon the emergency field. To reach the field, he grabbed a ride on a truck headed toward Baguio. The next day, the truck did not return. The Filipinos across the street were good friends of Bergbower so he stayed with them. Meanwhile, Troop B of a cavalry unit came by and told Bergbower that he could ride with them on an extra horse they had. He joined the unit and went to Fort Stotsenburg with them. Returning to nearby Clark Field, he found that it was deserted as the troops were falling back to Bataan. Bergbower would stay there for awhile.

Harold Bergbower joined three Filipino Scouts who had been released from their duties in order to escape from Bataan. [Annotator's Note: The Philippine Scouts were an elite unit in the US Army. They were well equipped and trained to American standards.] The group of exiles left the peninsula in an outrigger and voyaged through Manila Bay past Corregidor on the southerly route to the Philippine island of Mindanao. During the day, Bergbower would be covered by tarps when Japanese planes appeared overhead. The three Filipinos would stand and wave in a friendly manner to the enemy aircraft. Upon reaching Mindanao, Bergbower found his outfit, the 28th Bomb Squadron, and rejoined it. He was on patrol duty the day the surrender occurred. Bergbower ran into a Japanese patrol and quite a few shots were fired. The firing stopped when the Japanese officer showed a white flag. He informed the Americans in English that the war in the Philippines was over. [Annotator's Note: The surrender of all troops in the Philippines occurred about a month after the surrender of Bataan. General Jonathan Wainwright surrendered all troops from Corregidor in May 1942 after the threat by the Japanese to butcher American prisoners of war, or POWs, if the total surrender did not occur.] The enemy officer and his troops were nice and fed the Americans and treated them well. They walked a week to reach the POW camp. The Japanese captain was admonished because the Americans had not been restrained. Bergbower was there until moved to a prison camp. The POWs worked on farms raising vegetables and rice. The Japanese left the bad food for their captives, while they took the freshest and best food. Bergbower was first incarcerated at Malabalay and afterward sent to the Davao penal colony. [Annotator's Note: The interim camp of Malabalay was closed in October 1942 and the POWs subsequently moved to Davao. Both camps were on Mindanao.] The POWs would catch large snakes for food. Snakes were good to eat because of the extremely limited diet provided to the prisoners. Twelve American officers escaped from Malabalay. [Annotator's Note: Bergbower grimaces at the memory.] Those officers were among about 100 POWs forced to work in the fields that day. After the officers escaped, the men were forced to stand in the fields for hours while they were counted and recounted. The prisoners were returned to the camp. About 100 men were separated from the others and told that they were going to be shot because of the escapees. There was a ten to one ratio for every man who escaped, ten would be shot. Bergbower was held for about three days in that status. Then he was told to gather his things and prepare to be loaded on a ship bound for Japan.

Harold Bergbower has no memory of the trip from the POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camp in Davao on Mindanao to Japan. He was packed so tightly in the hold of a ship that he only remembers being fed by a Navajo Indian named Sam Nez on the difficult voyage. Nez took care of Bergbower on the long trip to Japan. Upon arriving in Japan, Bergbower was sent to a warehouse where hoses were turned on them to clean them. They were filthy after the trip. Human waste had been very deep in the hold of the ship. [Annotator's Note: Bergbower gestures approximately a foot deep when he talks of the depth of the human waste. He pauses long after he reveals this condition.] Bergbower was sent to a camp to work in an iron ore foundry. He worked between furnaces where the temperatures were extremely hot. After ten scoops in the furnace, a man had to get out and recover. There was a one armed captain in charge of the prison. An American Marine was the representative of the POWs. It changed Bergbower's impression of Marines. The Marine had several hundred men in the camp that he oversaw. A major who was a medical officer in the camp did more for the men than the Marine did. The men could hear the bombing of Japan. They knew that air raids were occurring. The bombing never came near the camp. The Red Cross eventually came into the camp and told the POWs that the war was over. American planes flew over the camp. All wanted to know what the POWs needed. The response was that food was needed. Barrels of food were dropped on the camp. The prisoners discovered after their captors had fled that there were hundreds of Red Cross parcels with four meals each that had not been distributed to the POWs. Each prisoner was given two boxes and placed on a train. They were moved to near Tokyo where they were cleaned and issued Army fatigues. They were given a number of inoculations with the last shot being one of whisky. The Navy captain gave them a choice of whether they wanted to sail into Manila Bay to watch the surrender. The men chose to do so. The former POWs were close enough to recognize the participants including General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] on the USS Missouri (BB-63) during the surrender proceedings.

Harold Bergbower remembers the freedom to eat as much as he wanted after he was freed from the Japanese POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camp. He remembers the word about some kind of bomb. He was simply told to go home and forget about it. His ship returned to the United States via San Francisco. The day before they arrived in port, the returning POWs were dressed in pajamas so that they would go to the hospital. This followed the previous arrival of POWs who simply exited to freedom. He did get a chance to tour San Francisco with a cab driver. He and other POWs went to a swank club in their pajamas. They were fed a great meal and asked by ladies in evening dresses to dance. It was a great time. From San Francisco, he rode by train to a hospital in Illinois for wounded military. It was there that his parents rendezvoused with him. They had lived with the idea that Bergbower had died early in the war. [Annotator's Note: Bergbower had been erroneously reported as killed in action on the first day of the war.] After the war, a radio dispatch had indicated that Bergbower had in fact survived Japanese imprisonment. His father checked with the War Department on this, but the authorities said that it was not true and that Mr. Bergbower's son was killed. Even after several attempts to talk to multiple people, the officials were still adamant that Bergbower was dead. A telegraph message was sent by Bergbower to his parents to inform them that he was on his way home. The message went via Canada and arrived at the Bergbower home. His mother did not recognize the significance of the communiqué and did not open it immediately. She put it aside thinking it was junk mail. Later in the day, she did open the letter and went into a trance after reading it. Bergbower's father tried calling her several times that day without getting an answer. The father then called a lady in the neighborhood to check on his wife. The neighbor called Mr. Bergbower back and said his wife was in trouble. She had received a letter saying their son was on the way home. His father came home and put his wife in the hospital. She had passed out upon reading the telegram and remained in the hospital in a coma even when her son arrived home. His folks had come up to visit him in the hospital in Illinois. The facility had been built for returning wounded. Bergbower went home from the hospital on Halloween in 1945. He decided to stay in the Air Force because he already had seven years in the military. He had no trade so he decided to reenlist in Chicago. There was some reluctance on the part of the Air Force, but he was reenlisted with a six month leave. During that time, he met his future wife. She was engaged to someone else in the church, but she went out with Bergbower. They had several dates and got along well. When he was about to leave for his assignment in Bartsfield, California, she initially refused his offer of marriage. When he told her that he would not be back for months or maybe even years, she agreed to marry him. He can only ponder what would have happened, if he had left without talking to her first.

Harold Bergbower stayed in the Air Force full time after World War 2. He went to Chanute Field in Illinois and took electrical courses. He then went on to teach courses there. He received a notice that he was going to Japan to set up a training program there. He was reluctant to do so after his wartime incarceration by the Japanese. He went to see his general who said he had to go where the Air Force sent him. He knew of no POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] who were made to return to Japan. Bergbower picked up his family, including his new daughter and his sons, and went to Japan. The children had a good time playing with Japanese children. Bergbower could not stand the assignment. He was transferred to an airbase in the southern islands of the Philippines. It was Honshu, perhaps. [Annotator's Note: Honshu is one of the Japanese home islands.] He stayed three years in Japan. That was followed by three years in the Philippines. He returned to the United States and was stationed in Oklahoma City at an airbase there [Annotator's Note: Tinker Air Force Base]. He was a supervisor at the air base. He had a conflict with a major on the base. After a flight of new technologically advanced aircraft arrived, there was electrical trouble on one of the planes. Bergbower reviewed the tech orders on the F-54 plane [Annotator's Note: the model aircraft could not be confirmed]. The pilots were anxious to return to their North Carolina base for a pending party. Bergbower studied the TO and confirmed that there was sufficient power for the aircraft since it was grossly overpowered. He released the aircraft to fly and told them they should be safe to get home. Bergbower was chastised for doing so. The flight made it home safely. About this time, two new pay grades for Master Sergeant and Chief Master Sergeant were established. Bergbower was removed from the list for the higher rank. A two star general came to Oklahoma City at that time. Bergbower told the general what had happened with his release of the flight of jets based in North Carolina. The general talked to those in the flight, and they confirmed that they were not in danger as a result of the release by Bergbower. When the two star received a promotion to three star at Wright-Paterson Field, he called on Bergbower to tell him that he would be promoted to a Chief Master Sergeant. His wife sewed on this new stripes and Bergbower let the officer who had held him down know about his promotion. Bergbower was transferred to Brookley Air Base in Alabama, and it was wonderful. [Annotator's Note: Brookley is near Mobile, Alabama.] The people there were carefree, and he loved it. The Flying Angels [Annotator's Note: Blue Angels] would come in there flying their F-105s [Annotator's Note: Republic F-105 Thunderchief supersonic jet fighter aircraft]. Bergbower even had an opportunity to fly with them. He enjoyed that. From Mobile, Bergbower spent his last three years in the service in California. He hated his time there. He retired in October 1969 and went home to enjoy himself. He exceeded his 12 May 1969 retirement for 30 years in order to obtain a 12.8 percent pay raise. Retiring in October rather than May resulted in Bergbower's award of the pay raise.

Harold Bergbower retired from the Air Force after 30 years of service. He enjoyed playing golf. He went to work at the golf course teaching others. His most memorable experience of World War 2 was the arrival of the Red Cross in his POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camp. They announced that the world had entered the atomic age with the dropping of the bombs. They informed the POWs that they were at last free. After being controlled for nearly three and a half years without a peaceful day, it was an indescribable feeling. Being beaten until one could not talk or stand was horrible. In the Pacific, there was over a 40 percent loss of POWs in the camps compared with much less in Germany. Bergbower was forced to work in a foundry between furnaces. With the extreme heat, the experience was unbearable. The POWs were kept in barracks with ten men in one room. There was only one blanket to share. The windows did not have glass. When it snowed and was cold, the men used their body heat and the one blanket to survive. The loss rate of POWs was high due to mistreatment and lack of food. If a guard did not like a POW, they could shoot them. Japanese women would leave food for the Americans on occasion. The small bowls of rice given to the POWs in the morning and at night were barely enough to survive on. Thoughts of home kept him going. He knew that he would be liberated and sent home. It eventually happened. One time, walking the mile from the factory to the barracks, Bergbower stopped and removed his shoes and walked in the snow. The guards would take a POW's jacket if it was wanted. They could do anything they wanted to do to their prisoners. Men standing for punishment would fall over dead. Returning to Japan after the war was easier for Bergbower because his sons played ball with Japanese boys. His wife joined a Japanese women's group. The situation in Japan was manageable because Bergbower could see his family enjoy their stay there. His wife enjoyed everywhere her husband was stationed. She was a most loveable woman.

Harold Bergbower learned to appreciate life and Uncle Sam as a result of his experiences in World War 2. He has felt that Uncle Sam did not treat him right during the war and after returning. There were instances when Japanese POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoenrs of war] received better postwar treatment than American POWs. Things started improving in 2011 with better considerations by the United States government. His service has taught him that freedom is not free. There was no way to put a cost on the treatment that Bergbower and his fellow POWs received. He never had any communication with any of the ten American officers that escaped imprisonment. Those officers did so on with the knowledge that 100 people would die as a result. They were selfish. Bergbower was part of the 100 separated from the camp and told they were going to be executed because of the officers' escape. The men were saved only because word came from Japan that workers were needed. The POWs were shipped off to the home islands in response to that information. Meanwhile, the escaped officers were never caught by the Japanese. Bergbower was disgusted with his government knowing the treatment he was getting. World War 2 means freedom for America today. It was not free and will never be. Bergbower gave a speech while working for the golf course. He spoke for 30 minutes to a jammed auditorium at ASU [Annotator's Note: Arizona State University]. After his speech, he asked the audience if there were any questions. He was there for three and a half hours answering questions. The best question dealt with how he managed to survive. His response was that he did so with the word of God. The best example of this would be for two men standing together and one gets shot and the other does not. While riding into Bataan on horseback to a meeting with General King, bombs fell and killed his horse. [Annotator's Note: General Edward King commanded the American and Filipino troops on Bataan. He surrendered the peninsula in April 1942.] A piece of shrapnel penetrated the saddle and Bergbower's finger. Bergbower took the saddle into the meeting with the general who questioned why he brought the saddle to the meeting. Bergbower explained that he wished the shrapnel could be removed. A physician did so. A piece of shrapnel went through his finger and into the saddle. One of the harshest memories of the war for Bergbower was the thought of his family thinking he was dead all through the war. Freedom is not free.