James J. Bollich was born on a farm south of Eunice [Annotator's Note: Eunice, Louisiana]. His family primarily grew rice, but also cotton. He started school when he was five years old. He grew up in a family of nine. His father had to bring them to school until the kids started driving. He grew up hunting and fishing and living outdoors, which he believes helped him later in the war. He did not want to be a farmer, so he decided to attend college in Lafayette [Annotator's Note: Lafayette, Louisiana]. While at college, he worked for the National Youth Administration milking cows. While he was at school, the war in Europe was raging. When France capitulated, Bollich decided to join the Army Air Corps. He took his oath at Barksdale airbase [Annotator’s Note: the Barksdale Field, now Barksdale Air Force Base, Bossier Parish, Louisiana]. He was given the choice of joining a weather service or a bomber group. He chose the bomber group because he wanted to fight. He learned how to march, but still trained in his civilian clothes. Some of the equipment he used, and even uniforms, were from Word War 1. He stayed there for about two months then ended up in Savannah [Annotator's Note: Savannah, Georgia], then Dallas [Annotator's Note: Dallas, Texas] where he became an airplane mechanic. They asked him to stay on as an instructor, but he turned that down. He went on maneuvers in Louisiana, where he trained with diver bombers then received orders to go to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California], where he boarded a ship bound for Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines].

When James Bollich was sent to Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines], he was still a mechanic, but he wanted to be a pilot. However, he was not old enough to become one. Right before he deployed overseas, he was told he could stay in the United States. Bollich decided to go with his unit. He later found out they were going to send him to flight school if he stayed stateside. He thinks deciding to leave might have been the best decision he could have made. On his way to Manila, his ship stopped in Hawaii. While there, he had time to see some of the island. He also bought a camera. He was impressed with the Philippines countryside. Bollich was initially sleeping in a tent near Fort McKinley [Annotator’s Note: Fort William McKinley]. He shared space with the Alamo Scouts [Annotator’s Note: Filipino scout unit], but he did not come into much contact with them. Bollich thought General MacArthur [Annotator’s Note: General Douglas MacArthur] welcomed his troops, but it was actually General Wainwright [Annotator’s Note: General Jonathan Wainwright]. He was told if he got into trouble, the Filipino would be in the right and the Americans would be in the wrong. He could tell the Americans were preparing for war. He dug trenches around the fort, but he never got to work on an airplane or on an airfield. His planes never arrived in the Philippines.

James Bollich had just gotten back from the movies when he heard about the attack at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] over the radio. He then went to bed, and the next morning he was told about the attack again and was given his weapon and equipment. That night, the Japanese started bombing the area his was in. He could hear the bombs going off and see tracers in the air. The camp site was spared from the bombing. They left the camp a few days later because the airbase had been destroyed. Bollich moved south of Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines] to construct a new airbase. He only stayed one night in Lipa [Annotator's Note: Lipa, Luzon, Philippines] because the Japanese landed nearby. He arrived in Manila in time to see the destruction of bombing. He was told to drop his stuff and jump on a boat to Bataan. The mechanics decided to go by truck so they could keep their tools. The next morning, Bollich arrived on Bataan. He was told there were planes waiting for him at a nearby airstrip, but the P-40s [Annotator's Note: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk] there did not belong to them. The airstrip was on the edge of a mountain and the pilots were afraid to take off from it. After the evacuation to Bataan, the Japanese took their time taking over Manila, allowing the Americans to go back to get food. Soon enough, food started running low. During the war, cigarettes were more valuable than money. The Japanese never found the planes Bollich hid, but they bombed the airfield. He served on a machine gun on the edge of the strip. It was easy to repair the bomb hits. They would hide in foxholes during bombing raids. During his first bomb raid, he constantly thought he would die. On his last day on the airfield, heavy Japanese bombers struck the field. Bollich and an engineer were running for the same foxhole. The engineer made it to the foxhole first but was hit by a bomb. Bollich found a compass and carried it during his time as a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war], which he thinks was stupid. He still has nightmares about the compass. He wanted to bring the compass back to the man's family. He hid the compass under his bunk, but when the war ended, he could not find it. The only thing he kept after the surrender was a bag. He put the compass in so tight that it did not fall out during inspections. Later, he had the compass on him during an inspection, but he managed to hide it.

When James Bollich ran out of food, he started hunting. He was using World War 1 era ammunition. One day while hunting, he located a big tree that had fresh dirt around it. It turns out that someone was using the tree as a home. Bollich was able to see down to the airstrip from that tree. He believes it was a look out position. He did not get to report it to his superiors because his war ended a few days later. He did not know the Americans were about to surrender. When one of the pilots was leaving, Bollich gave him a letter to send home. When the Philippines fell, his parents did not know he was a part of the surrender because the letter came from a different island. A year later, his parents found out he was taken to Manchuria [Annotator's Note: Manchuria, China]. When he evacuated, he was told to leave everything behind. He left all of the pictures he took in an ammo box and buried it in a foxhole. When he got to his next station, he was informed about the surrender. His camera was later found by a Filipino and a picture from it was released showing him and some friends. Only two of the four men survived. Bollich's unit [Annotator's Note: 16th Bombardment Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group] was lucky because it stayed at the airbase. He was an airplane mechanic, so he did not have to go to the front line. Artillery kept the Japanese from reaching his position for four months. Bollich could hear the front line fighting from his base. They kept their weapons until the surrender.

James Bollich had no idea there was going to be a surrender. He knew the front lines kept falling back. When he was being evacuated, he thought he was going to Corregidor [Annotator's Note: Corregidor Island, Manila Bay, Philippines]. By the time of the surrender, all the food was gone. The soldiers ate horses and mules. They had a daily ration of bread. Bollich does not know how many people were surrendered, but thinks the Japanese knew because they counted the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war]. His first sergeant was afraid of everything. When he heard the war was over, the sergeant was okay with being taken prisoner. He died a few weeks later. Some of the soldiers made it to Corregidor or made it into the mountains. Bollich did not think he could do that. He was among the first in the Bataan Death March. Bollich, thinking he was being told to sit, was hit in the head with a rifle butt. Another Japanese soldier started shoving him forward, starting the march. He starting running into Japanese frontline troops. They started robbing the Americans of all their belongings, including canteens. Soon, they started beating the prisoners. On the second day, he found a helmet on a dead Filipino, and decided to wear that for protection. One night, the Japanese surrounded the Americans with machine guns. The next day they were on the move again. That night, he was able to jump out of the line and make it to a cabin for some rest. There was already an occupant in the cabin so he stayed for a short time. In the cabin, he found a bottle that he kept and used to fill with water. The guards did not do anything to him, but the following day the other man from the cabin beat him for the same act. Seeing this, Bollich got rid of his bottle.

Going through a barrier, James Bollich and a friend ran into Japanese troops after getting separated from the group. The Japanese started shoving them and Bollich pushed back. His friend stopped him and got him back to the main group. He believes the only reason anyone survived was because at night they were able to get water because there were not enough guards. It took five and a half days to make it to the first camp. On the last day of the march, Bollich saw a pond. The trees around it had been destroyed by artillery shells. Bollich and a friend snuck over to the water but saw dead bodies in it. His friend drank from it anyway and later died from the water. He eventually made it to Camp O'Donnell [Annotator's Note: an American instillation used by the Japanese as a prisoner of war camp]. He had walked a little more than 100 miles. General King [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Edward P. King] was with them and offered the Americans inspiring words. A Japanese officer then spoke implying the Americans had gone there to die. Bollich did not believe it, but soon enough he understood it was not a mistake. Within the first two months of being captured, 30 percent of the Americans were dead. He was able to keep forward of the people that were weaker. They were the ones that were murdered. He did not see too much of that though. He witnessed beatings and was beaten himself.

James Bollich was only able to get water from one place [Annotator's Note: in the Camp O’Donnell prisoner of war camp], but there was nothing to put water in. There was always a line for water. Going through a village, he saw a canteen. He grabbed it as he passed by, and found it was full of water. He managed to get a small can of cooked rice. When he first arrived in camp, he came down with a case of dysentery. There was a bush in the camp that cured the disease. Dysentery was a horrible way to die. Bollich was on the burial detail. At the beginning, he was burying up to 30 people a day. So many people were dying, he could not keep up. The bodies were completely emaciated from dysentery. Bollich would pick up the bodies from the hospital ward, then bring them to a barracks before burying them. He could hear the bones crack. While digging a hole, he almost blacked out. By the time he reached a guard, he was blind. He was brought to his barracks and after a few days he recovered. Bollich thinks it was a heat stroke. Within the first two weeks of being captured, a few men tried to escape. They were looking for food, but were not caught until they returned. They were tortured, made to dig their own graves, and then were executed in front of the entire camp. Bollich was brought to Capan [Annotator's Note: Capan, Philippines] to work on building a bridge. Eventually, there were only about 30 men able to work on the bridge. He had a friend there who says there were nine men that survived that detail. He was fed better on the bridge detail than at the camp.

Camp O'Donnell [Annotator's Note: Camp O'Donnell prisoner of war camp, Luzon, Philippines] was closed and James Bollich was brought to Camp Cabanatuan [Annotator's Note: Cabanatuan prisoner of war camp near Cabanatuan City, Luzon, Philippines]. The conditions were no better. The food was a rice soup. At Camp O'Donnell, he did not have anything to eat his food in, but by the time he got to Cabanatuan he had a bowl. Not long after arriving there, 2,000 POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] were chosen to be brought to Japan. Bollich was told life would be better there. In Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines] he was packed into a ship. Within hours, the ship was covered with human waste. During the trip, an American submarine shot torpedoes at the ship but missed. Bollich felt the ship turning and underwater explosions. He hoped the Americans would sink the ship. The Japanese stopped at Formosa [Annotator's Note: present day Taiwan] and sprayed down the POWs with a firehose to clean them. It was the first bath he had in months. He did not realize how much weight he had lost. At night, the Japanese would close the hatch, putting the POWs in complete darkness. Every morning, there would be dead POWs in the hull, sometimes from murder. The boat rides were among the worst experience he had during the war. After he returned to the ship in Formosa, he came down with a cold, which turned into pneumonia. The trip took 32 days. He was so weak, the Japanese had to carry him to a truck. He found out he was in Pusan, Korea, not Japan. He did not receive a new set of clothes until he reached Manchuria [Annotator's Note: Manchuria, China]. He only weight 92 pounds, and it took months before he was strong enough to go to work.

James Bollich remained in Korea for about six weeks. From Korea, he took a train to Mukden, Manchuria [Annotator's Note: Mukden, Manchuria, China]. It was winter when he arrived and extremely cold. He met the other prisoners, they helped him with his severe frostbite. The first winter he was in Manchuria, 200 POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] died. It was too cold to bury bodies so they stacked the bodies in a building to be buried in the spring. When he went into the building to get bodies, Bollich found frozen bodies, bodies turned yellow from hepatitis, and generally emaciated corpses. Each man was given his own grave. One morning, he was told some people had escaped. The three men were captured and executed. Another man refused to bow to his captors, so he was put in the guard tower for the next three winters. Bollich spent 19 days in the guard house during one summer. He was given bread and water, and occasionally soup. He slept on the concrete floor. He was not beaten, it just seemed never ending. He was made to stand at attention for about 12 hours a day. Bollich does not know what happened to the man kept in the guard tower. He worked at a plant abandoned by the Ford Motor Company. All the tools and machines were there, so the POWs were told to make war goods for the Japanese. The POWs were not being watched carefully, so the POWs sabotaged the machines while putting them together. Over the next three years, the factory never really produced much. One morning Bollich was going to a lumber yard when he accidently walked through a Japanese war game. Moments later and Japanese officer started yelling at them, then left. After a POW laughed, the officer came back and started beating them. Bollich managed to hide. That night after turning in his number, he was asked if he thought it was right for the officer to beat them. He answered wrong and got a beating, then was sent to the guard house. He was let out because the war was ending.

There was no dentist in the camp and James Bollich had some teeth decaying. Anytime someone was sick and thought they could not work, an officer would examine them. His teeth never got him out of work. Finally, some Japanese orderlies pulled his teeth. For the first tooth he was not given anesthetic, but he got drunk for the second tooth. When Bollich was working in the lumber yard, the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] communicated through sign language. While in the guard house, he was still able to communicate that way. They used that to concoct a story in case there was a trial. Near the end of the war, he was transferred to a new camp near an industrial area. Bollich could see the bombers fly over to the city. He was happy to see the planes. Three of the bombs hit the camp, one among the POWs killing or injuring many. Another hit the barracks, setting it one fire. Bollich believes that bomb knocked his compass into an unknown area. Most of the first bombing was above the anti-aircraft capabilities. The Japanese then sent fighters after the bombers knocking some out of the sky. Bollich saw one bomber blow up in the sky. Some of the crew were captured and sent to a nearby camp. They were able to secretly send notes to the crew through food utensils. They received news about the war from the crew members. Occasionally, they got hold of a Japanese newspaper and a prisoner would read it to them. Bollich was not able to write home. Eventually the Red Cross came in and brought him a package from his family. When the war ended, they found a room full of letters from their families.

James Bollich was going to work [Annotator's Note: Bollich was a prisoner of war in Mukden, Manchuria, China] when he saw a low flying airplane circling above. He saw parachutes dropping from it. That night, six men were lined up along a wall. Bollich did not recognize the men, but knew they were not Japanese. He was given his soup, but the Japanese did not do their normal routine. He found out the strange men were Americans there to tell the Japanese the war was over. The Japanese were supposed to kill all of the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] if the Americans invaded Japan. He believes the atomic bombs saved his life. At first, the Japanese did not believe the news. When the Russians invaded Manchuria, they made it to the gate and liberated the camp. Bollich was on the last truck to leave. The Russians wanted the Americans to kill the Japanese. About three days later, American B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] started dropping food. They also dropped radios so there could be communication and clothes. After the Russians looted the factory, they gave the POWs a train to the coast where a transport picked them up. The ship took them to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. En route, they went through a typhoon. The lights went out and the engines died. The men were brought topside, put on life vests, and Bollich tied himself to the ship. Some of the POWs and sailors died when they hit a mine. The ship was saved and they made it to Okinawa. He was then flown to Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines] on a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. He finally made it to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California], where he was hospitalized for a few weeks. He then went to San Antonio [Annotator's Note: San Antonio, Texas] for a few weeks, then was sent home. Bollich stopped for a haircut and the barber started talking about his family. The barber did not know it, but he accidentally told Bollich that two of his brothers were killed. When he made it home, his mother was in tears because his parents thought he was dead. He thinks it was harder on the families than the soldiers.

James Bollich thinks there were radios in other camps [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war camps], but not his. He got along well with the Chinese. They gave the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] money for factory parts. Towards the end of the war, the Chinese brought food to the prisoners. He thinks the Chinese had more common sense, but never understood how they let the Japanese take over so much land. Bollich believes the war changed him, but does not know how. When he returned home, his father said he could stay on the farm, but Bollich decided to finish school. He used the G.I. Bill and extra money he received for being a POW. He thinks the war brought the country out of the depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression]. After the war, the country went through good times. People had more money, G.I.s [Annotator’s Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] went to school, and there was an opportunity for a better life. He thinks he would have ended up back on the farm had it not been for the war. Bollich thinks the country is turning around. He thinks the war changed the rest of the world, but does not know if it was for the best. Bollich thinks the world was more secure when there were colonies. He believes there was more peace. He thinks The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is wonderful because it keeps the history alive. He speaks often about Bataan [Annotator's Note: Bataan, Philippines]. While sitting down with some officer at Fort Polk [Annotator's Note: Fort Polk, Louisiana], he found out the officers did not know about Bataan. He met a man in his 20s that did not know about Bataan. He thinks it is a shame because of all the people that died during those times. He thinks about 30 percent of the POWs that were captured at Bataan survived the war. He hopes to talk at the museum again.