James Richard O'Rorke was born in Washington, Pennsylvania [Annotator's Note: in September 1922] which is known for being on the escape route for black slaves from the South. The area he lived in was significantly populated by colored [Annotator's Note: an ethnic descriptor historically used for Black people in the United States] or Black people as they are known today. He went to work as an office boy at 12 years of age with a local alderman who was over a ward consisting mainly of middle-class colored people. He worked there until he went into the Army. He was able to know many important people in the municipal office. Some individuals had been in World War 1 and severely injured by gas during the conflict. They were sad cases and received very little help. Those veterans recommended to O'Rorke that he join the Army before war started so that he could train with a weapon before it was thrust in his arms. It was obvious the conflict was coming. O'Rorke's job entailed strict maintenance of the court dockets. He learned to prepare other simplified legal documents during the course of his work. He filled out hundreds of income tax forms for a dollar a piece. He started a photography club in high school. It grew to 250 members. The school was a beautiful building built by the WPA [Annotator's Note: the Works Progress Administration was a federally sponsored program that put unemployed Americans to work during the Great Depression]. He went to Pittsburgh [Annotator's Note: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania] to see the recruitment officer even though he was too young to be drafted. He decided to join because life was rough. He decided to enlist since Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] could cause him to go to war. He told the recruiter that he had just photographed the last meeting of the GAR—Grand Army of the Republic, Civil War veterans of the Union, and would like an assignment as a photographer. He had also photographed festivities in the colored community where he was well known. O'Rorke was sent to Fort Monmouth [Annotator's Note: in Monmouth County, New Jersey] to train in photography. When asked where he wanted to go afterward, he said the Philippines which would be far away from Hitler. That turned out to be two errors.

James Richard O'Rorke trained in Fort Monmouth near Redback, New Jersey. All the trainees had previously been shipped out, so all barracks were empty when O'Rorke arrived. He reported to headquarters and helped them with paperwork and typing. They attempted to talk him out of being a photographer. He remembered dramatic World War 1 photographs he had seen and wanted to stay the course until he heard that a group of troops was being formed for MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] in the Philippines. That assignment would mean rapid promotion, office work, plus a significant pay increase compared to being a photographer. Those factors convinced O'Rorke that he would change to company clerk in Signal Company, Aircraft Warning, Philippine Department [Annotator's Note: Signal Corps Aircraft Warning, 5th Interceptor Command, Provisional Infantry Command, Philippine Department]. The company was based on Corregidor [Annotator's Note: Corregidor Island, Philippines] and reported to a colonel who worked with MacArthur to prepare the Philippine Army for a potential war. Observation, telegraphers, and telephone operations were located all along the Philippine coast facing Japan. They were to serve as a warning system for offshore Japanese naval operations. The development of radar by the English had proven vital in its defense against the Germans in saving London, England [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Britain from July to August 1940]. Colonel Campbell [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] was in charge of the radar assigned to him with his seven officers and 250 men. They urgently trained on six or seven radar sets. The men had very little traditional military training. In fact, O'Rorke had only received minimal tear gas training. At Fort Monmouth, he only participated in a change of command ceremony. He had carried a Springfield rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber Model 1903, or M1903, Springfield bolt action rifle] during that time and was ordered to do what the man in front of him did. He was scared stiff. That was the extent of his training. He was loaded on a train and traveled across country for deployment from San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] to the Philippines aboard the luxury liner President Coolidge [SS President Coolidge]. The company sailed off and briefly stopped in Honolulu, Hawaii. The troops stayed in staterooms as few civilians were headed to the Philippines. The voyage was probably the best of any in military history. The ship landed in Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines] where the outfit was transported to Fort McKinley [Annotator's Note: Fort William McKinley, now Fort Andres Bonifacio in Manila, Philippines] which was a few miles outside the city. The base had been a fort during the occupation days of the Spanish-American War. The Philippine Scouts, an elite indigenous division of the US Army, were trained there. The Philippine Army was also being built up by MacArthur and President Quezon [Manuel L. Quezon, President of the Philippines]; however, they were badly trained and poorly equipped in comparison to the Scouts who were the best soldiers. The soldiers in the Philippine Army were sort of a tragic group. They wore baggy overalls and shoes that wore out. The men in O'Rorke's company were divided into platoons and assigned to the five or six ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] officers who had been trained in radar. The different groups were stationed in north Luzon [Annotator's Note: Luzon, Philippines], near Clark Field [Annotator's Note: now Clark Air Base in Luzon, Philippines] which was north of Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines] and along the Philippine coastline facing China. Another unit was set up in the South. The system had just about been established when the war broke out.

James Richard O'Rorke [Annotator's Note: a member of Signal Corps Aircraft Warning, 5th Interceptor Command, Provisional Infantry Command, Philippine Department] was in the Philippines when they were bombed [Annotator's Note: Fall of the Philippines, invasion by the Empire of Japan, 8 December 1941 to 8 May 1942] possibly earlier than Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Being across the International dateline, it was Monday in the Philippines but Sunday at Pearl Harbor when Yamamoto [Annotator's Note: Imperial Japanese Navy Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto; Commander-in-Chief, Combined Fleet] came across the north Pacific and struck Pearl Harbor. The radar at Pearl Harbor was reporting a heavy flight of incoming aircraft which was dismissed as planes flying in from the US West Coast. As war broke out, O'Rorke's outfit was in a tent city at Fort McKinley [Annotator's Note: Fort William McKinley, now Fort Andres Bonifacio in Manila, Philippines]. The different radar positions were ordered to their radar stations and O'Rorke was left alone to continue the paperwork requirements. None of the enlisted and only the ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] trained officers had much military training. As O'Rorke was headed to base for his daily report to headquarters, he observed a Packard [Annotator's Note: American brand of automobile] command car with flags flying. The vehicle slowed down and a fellow leaned out the window. The officer told O'Rorke that one of his buttons was unhooked. The man was General Wainwright [Annotator's Note: US Army General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, IV] who later took over command of the Philippines from General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area]. Shortly before the war started, a 35-year veteran first sergeant was assigned to work with O'Rorke's outfit to make up for the lack of prior military training in the unit. Shortly thereafter, the sergeant began acting erratically and soon was demoted and sent back to the United States. Later, O'Rorke's fellow prisoners of war pondered if the guy had gone off his rocker or was the smartest among them [Annotator's Note: he smiles]. MacArthur had reinstated the sergeant's rank prior to his departure from the Philippines. Evidentially, the two along with MacArthur's father had served together along the Texas border years previously. Few people were left at headquarters near Nichols Field [Annotator's Note: in Luzon, Philippines] after the radar platoons received orders to man their stations. The group stationed near Nichols would come back to base at night. The cooks with the cookhouse were still active there. The only radar installation that O'Rorke observed was the one near Nichols. The other platoons filed their paperwork with the base nearest to them. The Signal Company was not a conventional military outfit. It would soon need to be in the near future.

James Richard O'Rorke [Annotator's Note: a member of Signal Corps Aircraft Warning, 5th Interceptor Command, Provisional Infantry Command, Philippine Department] feels that some of the radar installations belonging to his company may have been hit shortly before the bombing of Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. As the Japanese landed in different positions across the Philippines [Annotator's Note: Fall of the Philippines, invasion by the Empire of Japan, 8 December 1941 to 8 May 1942], the American retreat toward Bataan began. The objective was to hold Bataan until American forces could be built up to come to the aid of the defenders of the islands. In all the years of preparations, munitions and supplies were packed into a mountain tunnel on Bataan. As Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines] was being bombed on Christmas eve [Annotator's Note: 24 December 1941], O'Rorke's group moved into Bataan. American oil and gasoline refineries had been set afire and were burning around the port area of downtown Manila. O'Rorke took the company records and funds aboard an interisland ship of which there were many. The ship next to him was bombed and afire. Setting sail into Manila Bay, it seemed to take all night long to reach Bataan. Several passengers did not recognize that they were bound for Bataan just across from Corregidor—The Rock [Annotator's Note: Corregidor Island, Philippines]. The only road was a dirt road around the peninsula plus an east-west road. Most entrants into Bataan came in through the north entrance of the peninsula. O'Rorke arrived at Hospital Number 2, a wooden hospital, which was five or six miles from Hospital 1. The tunnels with the supplies were nearby. The camp of tents were established there. The survivors of the northern radar sets began to arrive in Bataan at Little Baguio [Annotator's Note: a neighborhood in San Juan, Philippines]. A new first sergeant arrived. He had been a Marine and was trained in military operations but knew nothing about the Army and administration requirements. He was a screamer and cussed at the men so O'Rorke acted as the first sergeant. Bataan dirt landing field was established with the few planes left there pushed back into the jungle. The Japanese attacked the field almost daily. There was little paperwork to do but O'Rorke made sure the men signed up for the new National Government insurance available to them. It was the best thing he did during that time. The previous first sergeant had been shipped out a few weeks prior to the war. The replacement first sergeant seemed like a tough guy but turned out to be a coward once the combat started [Annotator's Note: Battle of Bataan, 7 January to 9 April 1942 at Bataan, Luzon, Philippines]. He dug a hole behind his pup tent. There was no relying on him at all. MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] came over twice to the dirt roads on Bataan and the mountains between them. He arrived at Mariveles [Annotator's Note: Municipality of Mariveles, Philippines] from Corregidor. O'Rorke went to the dirt road to see him. Wainwright [Annotator's Note: US Army General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, IV] was not seen by O'Rorke again. The Signal Company commander, Colonel Campbell [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] ordered O'Rorke to take several trucks and return to Fort McKinley [Annotator's Note: Fort William McKinley, now Fort Andres Bonifacio in Manila, Philippines] and load up with uniforms, shoes, food, paperwork, typewriters and other items. He was also told to go to a Manila drug store that had adhesive for false teeth. Reaching his old camp, O'Rorke found that everything had been looted. Nothing was left. The trucks that had reached the Fort McKinley warehouses found them operational and returned to O'Rorke with uniforms and other usable items but no food. When O'Rorke reached the drug store, the streets of Manila were empty. When he read a newspaper stating that the Japanese had taken over the city, the Americans headed their trucks back to Bataan. They crossed a bridge over a deep river just before it was blown by American troops. O'Rorke and his convoy were the last people to come out of Manila headed north.

James Richard O'Rorke [Annotator's Note: a member of Signal Corps Aircraft Warning, 5th Interceptor Command, Provisional Infantry Command, Philippine Department] entered the Bataan [Annotator's Note: Bataan, Philippines] peninsula through San Fernando [Annotator's Note: San Fernando, Philippines]. The town was a rail junction in that area. It was completely afire. Provisions and supplies for the Americans defending Bataan were destroyed [Annotator's Note: Battle of Bataan, 7 January to 9 April 1942 at Bataan, Luzon, Philippines]. As O'Rorke's convoy entered the Bataan Mountain dirt road, abandoned vehicles of all kinds were on the narrow roadway. Some of the civilian vehicles had been stolen for the emergency passage to the peninsula. Those stalled vehicles blocking passage had to be pushed over the side while staying alert for Japanese bombers. Passing through the mountain storage site for ammunition, the trucks proceeded through Number 2 Hospital to O'Rorke's camp. The Japanese bombed everywhere including the hospital. It was said 5,000 people were around the hospital with many being outdoors in the rainy season. About 100 Japanese wounded were captured and being held in the bamboo stockage next to the hospital. They were being treated well. [Annotator's Note: Brief interruption between 0:54:11 and 0:54:32.] It was a large encampment for the enemy prisoners. Some of O'Rorke's dispersed company of 200 men began to return to the outfit [Annotator's Note: they had been stationed at various remote radar stations on Luzon]. The defensive lines were interrupted by jungle, rivers and other obstructions. All able-bodied men were needed to defend against an unexpected Japanese offensive on the rough and remote west side of Bataan. The nightly Japanese amphibious infiltrations consisted of few hundred to over a thousand men. It was very difficult terrain. Corregidor [Annotator's Note: Corregidor Island, Philippines] shelled the landing points. Men from O'Rorke's company and the hospital were rushed to the location to repulse the enemy who had made it over the cliffs adjacent to the landing locations. The men in the Signal Company had not had traditional basic training with weapons; nevertheless, all the officers, NCOs [Annotator's Note: noncommissioned officer] and enlisted men rushed to the fight. Cooks brought them food. O'Rorke was left behind at the camp. Defensive lines fell to the enemy including the hospital. Word came for all to move south toward Mariveles [Annotator's Note: Municipality of Mariveles, Philippines]. With that, thousands of American and Filipino troops took to the dirt road. O'Rorke and a Lieutenant Blizzard [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] buried the company records and funds before leaving for the new rally point for a third defensive line. Blizzard was a real officer and eventually was promoted to captain. The route to Mariveles was crammed with people. Those who arrived were all confused with organization impossible. There was havoc and fear. Small boats from Corregidor tried to rescue people even throwing out ropes for some in the water to hang onto for the voyage back. The Japanese moved in the next day and the Death March began [Annotator's Note: Bataan Death March, the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000 to 80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war, 9 April 1942]. Everyone who could walk was forced to join the exodus out of Bataan. A Japanese officer saw the treatment afforded the Japanese prisoners and decided to have compassion for some Americans in the hospital. Corregidor did not participate in the Death March because they held off another month [Annotator's Note: Bataan surrendered in April 1942 with the island of Corregidor surrendering in May 1942]. Wainwright received permission to surrender. General King [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Edward Postell King Jr., Commanding General, Philippine-American forces, Bataan Peninsula] knew after his second line of defense on the peninsula crumbled that he had to surrender. Corregidor told him he had more troops than the enemy and to continue the fight. King was told he could win so he was not given permission to surrender unlike Wainwright [Annotator's Note: US Army General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, IV] on Corregidor. General Marshall [Annotator's Note: US Chief of Staff and General of the Army George C. Marshall] and the President [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] intervened. King finally cut off his communications and surrendered to try to save his people.

James Richard O'Rorke [Annotator's Note: a prisoner of war] headed north on the Bataan Death March [Annotator's Note: Bataan Death March, the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000 to 80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war, 9 April 1942]. Water became the immediate concern. It did not matter how dirty or stinking it was, it was consumed. As Japanese trucks passed, they would run over the American or Filipino troops. Japanese soldiers in the trucks attempted to hit the marching prisoners with poles. The Japanese forbade any villager from providing food to those who had surrendered. People were starving and in terrible condition. The men were finally packed into small boxcars with little air in the closed car. Suffocation became a concern until guards opened the doors and stood watch there. Traveling from San Fernando [Annotator's Note: San Fernando, Philippines] to Capas [Annotator's Note: Municipality of Capas, Philippines], the prisoners were unloaded and marched to Camp O'Donnell [Annotator's Note: in the Municipality of Capas in Tarlac, Luzon, Philippines]. There were 200 to 300 in O'Rorke's group. Men were lined up and searched for valuables. Those who left Bataan early were more likely to have personal items. A Japanese officer spoke to the prisoners telling them of their likely demise. Sporadically, a guard would remove a prisoner and then shots were heard coming from behind the Japanese offices. The word was passed to get rid of anything that was Japanese. The enemy thought the items were taken from a Japanese body or soldier before. Items were kicked under the sand. O'Donnell was a broken-down Filipino Army camp. The buildings were raised up. Some men slept under them. O'Rorke found four of the men from his outfit under a barrack near a full latrine with bodies nearby. He knew the men well. One of them, named Tommy [Annotator's Note: O'Rorke was reluctant to divulge the young soldier's surname] looked to be 15 years old and was completely worn out. O'Rorke told the other three that they had to get out with all the disease and misery that was present in the camp.

James Richard O'Rorke [Annotator's Note: a prisoner of war] slept under the elevated barracks [Annotator's Note: after his arrival at Camp O'Donnell, in the Municipality of Capas in Tarlac, Luzon, Philippines following the Bataan Death March, the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000 to 80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war, 9 April 1942]. It was difficult to clean up the camp because most of the prisoners were so exhausted from the journey. O'Rorke spent little time in the barracks which was nothing more than people laying around. He spent time on the burial detail which involved unceremoniously throwing corpses into pits. It would have been impossible to identify any of the bodies disposed of early on in O'Donnell. The hospital was ten feet off the ground with a hole cut in the floor for the dead to be dropped through. The pile of corpses would be dragged to the pits afterward. O'Rorke adapted to the situation. An Irish kid named Tommy [Annotator's Note: O'Rorke was reluctant to divulge the young soldier's surname] died the next day [Annotator's Note: after arriving at O'Donnell]. Few had canteens and only eight or ten water taps were available for the thousands of prisoners. Eventually, rice was dished out once a day. It was a killing field. After Corregidor fell [Annotator's Note: Battle of Corregidor, 5 to 6 May 1942 at Corregidor Island, Philippines], the inmates were moved to Cabanatuan [Annotator's Note: Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Cabanatuan City, Philippines] where conditions were improved. Barracks were not bad and there was more organization. A road in the camp separated the Japanese from their captives. The inmates started cooperating with their captors to make things more tolerable. O'Rorke still had his canteen and happened to be at a spigot at the same time as a Japanese officer on a horse. The officer shouted at O'Rorke in Japanese [Annotator's Note: O'Rorke repeats the Japanese and translates or interprets it in the interview] for him to provide water for the damn horse. O'Rorke filled a bag with water for the horse and then the officer motioned for the American to follow him. O'Rorke was brought out of the American compound and into the Japanese side of the camp. He was taken by the officer to his platoon where rice and soup were being cooked. O'Rorke was made the helper for the platoon's cook of the day. O'Rorke pealed potatoes, carrots, and onions and cleaned burnt rice on the side of the cooking bowl. The young men in the platoon were all scared new recruits under the command of seasoned, harsh veterans of the war in China. O'Rorke went back and forth across the road that separated the prisoners from their captors. He managed to stay fairly well fed as a result of this assignment. Other prisoners starved to death. There was a ward at the hospital called Zero Ward. It was for the terminally ill and dying. O'Rorke's shoes were worn out, but he still had a canteen and belt and a shirt. Many men had lost their shirts by then. The clothes were filthy rags. The men burned up in the sun. Of 100 Americans in the Philippines, statistics showed that 41 died. The officers did not have to work in Japan, so few died. Rank had no importance to O'Donnell but grew in importance in Cabanatuan. Escapes were attempted. Those recaptured were beaten terribly and soon perished. O'Rorke witnessed some of the horror, but he became immune to it. Rainy season started. Survival became his fundamental concern. Japanese officers began dealing with American officers and things improved a bit. The captives from Corregidor were in better shape after their surrender. Only infantrymen and some Marines on the island did the fighting on the shoreline. The rest were sheltered in the tunnels as Corregidor was bombed and shelled. The Americans captured on Corregidor were in relatively good shape, so the Japanese paraded them through the streets of Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines] to indicate their good treatment of the captives. The Filipinos were not impressed and tried to throw food to the Americans. The propaganda attempt by the Japanese failed. Most Filipinos were more pro-American rather than sympathetic to the Japanese. Escapes increased from Cabanatuan as the captives grew stronger. Escapees who were recaptured were executed. Some were from O'Rorke's group. He observed the execution on one of them. He was impressed with the stamina of his fellow company member who was shot and yet did not fall while those around him did. It shook up the new recruits of the firing squad but not their leadership. O'Rorke could tell the enemy reactions as they returned from the firing squad.

James Richard O'Rorke [Annotator's Note: a prisoner of war] and the American officers at Cabanatuan [Annotator's Note: Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Cabanatuan City, Philippines] were told by the Japanese to select a large number of able-bodied men to go to Japan for work. O'Rorke had the feeling that the war would last a long time and survival at Cabanatuan would not be likely due to the lack of food. Thinking going to Japan might be a better option, he signed up to work there. At first, American officers made the selection but as months progressed, the Japanese picked who they thought were able-bodied. He voyaged on the Nagato Maru freighter in convoy from Manila. There were 1,500 packed in the hold. A stair provided access with planks covering the opening above. Prisoners could go up under guard to a couple outhouses for expelling wastes. The outhouses were suspended over the side of the ship so that wastes went directly into the sea. Once when O'Rorke was above deck, the alarm went off. When the lumber was put over the holds during that time, it was difficult to breath down below. O'Rorke was left on deck during the incident. He saw a torpedo miss his ship and hit another some distance away. That ship blew up. Meanwhile, O'Rorke was reamed out for being above deck. People were dying in the hold. Once a day, buckets of rice and tea or water was lowered into the hold. Officers would distribute the limited supply. O'Rorke learned to stay next to the exterior bulkheads so that he could consume the sweat off the steel. It also allowed him to stay away from the vomiting and crapping [Annotator's Note: defecating] people in the center of the hold. O'Rorke heard of officers on one ship stealing rice and tea and the prisoners taking revenge by executing them in the hold. It was not his ship, but it was pretty bad. Just out of Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines] at Olongapo [Annotator's Note: Olongapo, Philippines], there must have been concerns over submarines since the prisoners were taken off the ship. They were given rice and allowed to sleep on the sand. Next morning, the captives were reloaded onboard the ship and taken to Taiwan [Annotator's Note: Republic of Formosa] where they were treated a little better. They soon journeyed on to Japan where O'Rorke was transported to a steel mill on the Yodogawa River at Ōsaka [Annotator's Note:Ōsaka, Japan]. The facility had huge rolling mills and furnaces from Braddock, Pennsylvania that had 1898 stamped on them. He worked in a huge building for manufacturing steel and galvanized materials. There were multiple floors with the first floor for acid processing the steel. Other locations were for heating steel for hardening process. The upper level was for the workforce and the lower levels were for outhouses. The prisoners had a minuscule hospital with little to aid Doctor Richardson [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. Richardson had one helper named Harry Mannose [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] who saved O'Rorke's life after he contracted pneumonia. O'Rorke had to be fed for three or four days while he was totally out of it. Pneumonia has been a yearly ailment for O'Rorke ever since that time. Ōsaka was a great city. It was bombed daily by the Americans. The prisoners stayed in the upper portion of their worksite and never got a chance to get out for air. Officers were treated according to the Geneva Convention [Annotator's Note: standards for humanitarian treatment in war] and did not have to work plus received a bit of money every month. There were 40 or 45 officers from random organizations and branches housed near the enlisted men. There was little or no unit continuity. O'Rorke bought a good sleeping position with cigarettes. He could observe the huge bombings of Ōsaka that killed about four times as many people as at Hiroshima and Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. O'Rorke heard screaming and saw death in the horror of the Inferno [Annotator's Note: a reference to the first part of Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy," an Italian narrative poem written 1308 to 1320].

James Richard O'Rorke worked in the factory [Annotator's Note: in a steel mill in Ōsaka, Japan as a prisoner of war] and was in good shape as a result of his hard work on the steel decks after the blast furnaces. Canal boats brought in huge steel bars that were heated in the furnaces until they were white hot. O'Rorke used large tongs and pulled out the bar and pulled it across the floor into the rolling equipment that compressed it into a sheet of steel. It was a process that involved him on one side of the roller and another man on the opposite side to continually roll the material until it reached the desired dimensions. A man could be burned in two, so it was very dangerous. People did not last long on the job. O'Rorke eventually got sick and Harry Mannose [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] saved him by feeding him [Annotator's Note: O'Rorke contracted pneumonia and was not capable of feeding himself. Hospital aid, Mannose, did that for him for three or four days]. After recovery, he was given a job at the furnaces near the Japanese kitchen that fed the local workers. Tanaka [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] was in charge. He was very aloof. He was respected and had a reputation. O'Rorke had a good job and got to know some of the ex-soldiers nearby. Tanaka never interfered with O'Rorke getting to know the people around him. O'Rorke learned some Japanese including how to count. While O'Rorke was sick, the overnight crew carried on his work for him. O'Rorke got to know them better. The Japanese coworkers would have been punished by the guards if they had been discovered being friendly with the POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war]. [Annotator's Note: Interview is interrupted between about 1:51:15:000 and 1:52:27:000.] A tsunami [Annotator's Note: a long high sea wave caused by an earthquake or other disturbance] hit the city with 18 feet of water covering the steel mill. Pits were filled with water. Motors were damaged. The POWs were high and dry with food from the warehouses. The mill could not be restarted so the men were dispersed to different places. O'Rorke was sent to a little town with a nickel mine. It was a British POW camp that faced China and Korea. American bombers were a threat to ships coming there. Damaged boats would be sunk along the bay. Their cargo was rice and beans. O'Rorke joined a crew to recover the food before it spoiled. He was guarded by new recruits who were ambivalent toward their captives. O'Rorke was able to have wonderful nutritious beans. It was a good job. The Americans began to bomb the trains. Tunnels would protect the vulnerable trains until they could dash in and out to escape aerial bombardment. It became a cat and mouse proposition.

James Richard O'Rorke [Annotator's Note: a prisoner of war] labored at a Japanese port with an American prisoner named King [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. King, who was dying, requested that someone contact his brother, Preston King [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], in Denver [Annotator's Note: Denver, Colorado] after the war to tell him about what happened to his dead brother. As a consequence, O'Rorke selected Fitzsimons Hospital in Denver for his recovery after returning to the United States. He reunited there with two of the prisoners from his first prison camp [Annotator's Note: Camp O'Donnell in the Municipality of Capas in Tarlac, Luzon, Philippines in April 1942]. The three of the reunited former inmates had a wonderful time in Denver. It took some effort, but the men found Preston King to tell his brother's story. King was in a cabin in the mountains [Annotator's Note: at Red Feather Lakes near Fort Collins, Colorado ]. There were vacant cabins that had been abandoned since 1929. It was a very scenic location. After returning a few times, an empty cabin was located near a Ranger [Annotator's Note: US Forest Ranger] station and the three men used it as a getaway. The other two former prisoners married nurses who wanted no part of the rustic life in the cabin, so it defaulted to O'Rorke to move in and make it his. He grew to know the locals there. Development escalated in the area and O'Rorke became a well-known figure in the community. He even ran for superintendent of schools there with the platform of consolidation of prairie schools and maintenance of independence for the small mountain schools.

James Richard O'Rorke [Annotator's Note: a prisoner of war] was divided into a group sent to a camp that overlooked a bay [Annotator's Note: in Japan] where ships arrived. The prisoners were gathered by the Japanese captors to listen to a radio broadcast of the emperor [Annotator's Note: Emperor Hirohito, also called Emperor Showa, Emperor of Japan]. The Americans could not understand what was being said. It was Japan's surrender. It shocked the Japanese. There was no more work for the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war]. Two Japanese Americans serving in the enemy army spoke fluent English. They were from California and had been sent by their parents to learn Japanese. One served grudgingly and the other adapted to the service but quickly turned back into an American after the surrender. The former prisoners found new freedom of movement and soon had supplies being parachuted to them from American airplanes. The men had new clothes and abundant food. The Japanese American even took them to a local whorehouse [Annotator's Note: name for building where prostitutes work]. The local population had been suffering from lack of food. They now saw food falling from the skies. They were ready to become Americans right away. The colored parachutes became very profitable items to sell. The Americans were not being very nice to the population. Some almost took the bank president's car until O'Rorke explained that it ran by burning charcoal in the back. The whorehouse did a wonderful business. The Americans were set to arrive at Yokohama [Annotator's Note: Yokohama, Japan]. O'Rorke went toward there on the subway reaching near Kobe [Annotator's Note: Kobe, Japan]. He spotted 15 people in uniform there. They appeared foreign with yellow skin color resulting from the new drug called Atabrine [Annotator's Note: trade name for mepacrine, or quinacrine; an anti-malarial medication]. They were headed to set up 8th Army headquarters in Ōsaka [Annotator's Note: Ōsaka, Japan]. They invited O'Rorke to go with them. Even though O'Rorke spoke Japanese, his skill was not required because of the abundance of Japanese Americans to fill that requirement. He did manage to get a room in a nice hotel on the outskirts of Ōsaka. It became an American base. O'Rorke ate at the hotel and used Army transportation but had no job at all. He had been forgotten about. His room was kept immaculately clean. Different branches of the service were represented there. O'Rorke met a newsman from the Ōsaka daily paper. He went with the newsman to the location where he had been forced to work. O'Rorke led the rescue of an old man who had fallen onto the subway tracks. It may have been written about in the newspaper by his companion on the trip. The newsman loaded him down with gifts. O'Rorke in turn gave him valuable Lucky Strikes cigarettes [Annotator's Note: American brand of cigarette] which were like gold over there.

James Richard O'Rorke was a prisoner of war in a work camp in Yodogawa [Annotator's Note: Yodogawa-ku in Osaka, Japan] when the Red Cross delivered packages to the captives. The Japanese were taking a portion of those packages. An Arizona National Guard Major in the camp was in charge of the prisoners. He refused to sign an acknowledgement that the packages had been delivered to his men because of the pilferage. That concerned the Japanese because of their relationship with the Swiss Red Cross who monitored the situation. A captain organized a coup d'état [Annotator's Note: a seizure and removal of a government and it powers] and took charge so that medicine and other items would still be received by the captives. The major was no longer in charge. The other officers were then fed better and became the work supervisors for the enlisted men instead of the Japanese. O'Rorke had a conflict with an American officer and was given an impromptu court martial [Annotator's Note: a judicial court for trying members of the armed services accused of offenses against military law] by the other officers. He had to pay a fine and clean the outhouses. O'Rorke kept the receipt showing his payment of the fine. Later, O'Rorke would reunite with the captain in Ōsaka [Annotator's Note: Ōsaka, Japan] after the war. The officer feared the story of the coup d'état might come out. O'Rorke was to accompany the captain and a Red Cross representative to the work camp that had not been liberated at that point. Six armed Japanese soldiers went with them to assure their safety. They passed through Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: Hiroshima, Japan] and then a Japanese baron representing the government joined them. Soon, the Swiss representative and the American captain were no longer with O'Rorke.

James Richard O'Rorke was assigned to a Japanese baron and his beautiful home which was safe between Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: Nagasaki, Japan] and Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: Hiroshima, Japan]. British representatives were also there to aid in liberation of their prisoners of war. No one knew why O'Rorke was there. He slept comfortably on a tatami [Annotator's Note: Japanese sleeping mat] each night. There were beautiful girls in the baron's home. Nothing was ever explained to O'Rorke for the week he was there. The British left and then O'Rorke was taken back to Ōsaka [Annotator's Note: Ōsaka, Japan] and then Yokohama [Annotator's Note: Yokohama, Japan]. The war was over and MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] had arrived. Officers and newsmen were there. General Eichelberger [Annotator's Note: US Army General Robert Lawrence Eichelberger, commander 8th US Army] was there also. There was a ragtag group of military personnel who volunteered to stay behind, and help liberated prisoners who could not be moved. Those volunteers were being rewarded with a ceremony. O'Rorke was not planning on staying on to help. MacArthur saluted O'Rorke's commitment to stay behind even though he was not planning to do so. It was all for publicity. From there, O'Rorke returned to Ōsaka and then flew on a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. He flew in the tail gunner position. Planning to fly back to the Philippines from Okinawa, a typhoon struck. The tent cities were inundated. He finally reached the Philippines and saw some of his former unit [Annotator's Note: Signal Corps Aircraft Warning, 5th Interceptor Command, Provisional Infantry Command, Philippine Department] members. There was confusion and mix-ups and O'Rorke was there when it happened.

Stationed in the Philippines before the war, James Richard O'Rorke [Annotator's Note: a member of Signal Corps Aircraft Warning, 5th Interceptor Command, Provisional Infantry Command, Philippine Department] saw that the Filipinos were poorly equipped in the army being built up by MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] and Wainwright [Annotator's Note: US Army General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, IV] before the war. Filipino shoes and uniforms were not rugged, and many did not have guns until they reached Bataan. They died by the thousands in the islands during the war. Many Americans lacked military training. O'Rorke had never had a gun in his hands larger than a BB gun before the war started. The Japanese veterans from China treated Filipino and American troops with equal harshness. Some Filipinos managed to escape but the Japanese set up blockades to stop them. Filipino losses were much greater than that of the American troops. Few members of O'Rorke's company had military training and the Filipinos were worse off than them. The Philippine Scouts [Annotator's Note: the Philippine Division was a division in the US Army composed of Filipino troops who were well equipped and highly trained and motivated] were the exception. They were great soldiers and compared favorably to the American troops in the Philippines. Given his physical condition, O'Rorke knew escape after the Philippines was impossible. It might have been possible during his captivity by the Japanese in the Philippines. Many Filipinos managed to escape. Some Americans attempted to evade captivity, but many were killed trying. The Americans and Filipino prisoners were separated during captivity. Conditions were better in Cabanatuan [Annotator's Note: Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Cabanatuan City, Philippines] than in O'Donnell [Annotator's Note: Camp O'Donnell in the Municipality of Capas in Tarlac, Luzon, Philippines]. Food and water were scarce, and disease was prevalent. In Japan, food was stolen when the opportunity allowed it. Officers were treated better but contact with them was limited. Dr. Richardson [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] had a rough job tending to the sick and injured. O'Rorke has notes that the doctor maintained and sent to him after the war about his treatment [Annotator's Note: he contracted pneumonia at the Yodogawa steel mill near Ōsaka, Japan]. Records of the promotion of O'Rorke were lost during the Bataan campaign [Annotator's Note: Battle of Bataan, 7 January to 9 April 1942 at Bataan, Luzon, Philippines]. No record updates were sent to Washington, D.C. after a few days into the war. He is still recorded as a PFC [Annotator's Note: private first class] rather than reflecting his promotion during the campaign. Attending a reunion of Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, he asked a lieutenant about Captain Blizzard [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. He had died on a ship transporting prisoners. The records for the company that he and the captain had buried under a tree were never recovered as a result. He did officially receive in his record two Purple Hearts [Annotator's Note: the Purple Heart Medal is award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy] from injuries sustained during his service. At the reunion after the war, a lieutenant told him that Captain Blizzard did not make. The lieutenant did reveal that he and the captain decided to escape north instead of moving south on Bataan to form a third line of defense [Annotator's Note: after the second line of defense collapsed on Bataan, a third line near the tip of the peninsula was to be established as the third line of defense]. O'Rorke was in the tent in his foxhole shelter and overheard the discussion. He considered doing the same but did not. The two officers were captured attempting to reach safety outside Bataan. They ended up in the Death March [Annotator's Note: Bataan Death March, the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000 to 80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war, 9 April 1942]. When O'Rorke told the lieutenant he overheard the two officers talking about escape, the officer no longer talked to him. The lieutenant may have felt guilty that he and the captain planned to abandon their troops instead of staying with them for the third line of defense; however, it was time to escape and try to live to fight again.

James Richard O'Rorke [Annotator's Note: a prisoner of war] became sick with diarrhea [Annotator's Note: loose, watery, and frequent bowel movements] from food packages dropped by friendly aircraft. Many of the men already suffered from intestinal diseases prior to that point. He anticipated liberation eventually. With the American advances and bombings, he knew it was only a matter of time. He was concerned that top Japanese military leaders wanted to continue the fight indefinitely. The emperor [Annotator's Note: Emperor Hirohito, also called Emperor Showa, Emperor of Japan] had a difficult time convincing them otherwise. Prime Minister Suzuki [Annotator's Note: Baron Kantarō Suzuki, Japanese general and politician] convinced the emperor that the Japanese would be wiped out with or without the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. It took time but the impossible had to be accepted. An assassination was attempted on Suzuki because of his efforts. He was called a defeatist. It is similar to the Iraq situation for America today [Annotator's Note: Iraq War, 2003 to 2011]. Many of the Japanese leaders were hung after the war. In Yodogawa steel factory [Annotator's Note: he was a forced laborer at the Yodogawa steel mill near Ōsaka, Japan], three or four Red Cross packages were received during the three years he was there. American cigarettes were the most valuable item in the packages. They were used as money to exchange for rice. Cigarettes were a strong trade item in Ōsaka even after the war. O'Rorke provided cigarettes to a Japanese newsman during that time. During his captivity for five years, he did many things he was not supposed to do. [Annotator's Note: A brief blackout occurs in the interview.] Most of the Japanese are similar to Americans. That is true for other nationalities O'Rorke has encountered through his lifetime. With the integration of the armed forces, discrimination began to disappear.

James Richard O'Rorke [Annotator's Note: a former prisoner of war in Japan] was a product of the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] when his wealthy father lost everything. The family had to move in with O'Rorke's maternal grandparents. They were Scottish in ancestry while O'Rorke's father was Irish. Some conflict was natural but O'Rorke's father did not care. The Scots kept their fortunes during the Depression. O'Rorke's father had been a noted person in town before the Depression. He had brought in automobiles and Barney Oldfield [Annotator's Note: Berna Eli "Barney" Oldfield, American pioneer automobile racer] before he lost everything. O'Rorke remembers his father reading about Lindy [Annotator's Note: Charles Augustus Lindbergh, American aviator] crossing over Dublin [Annotator's Note: Dublin, Ireland]. He told his son that he would be living at the top of the hill someday. His father had trained automobile mechanics and chauffeurs prior to settling in the town where he met and married O'Rorke's mother. His father was an inventor and factory owner, but the factory was wiped out. The family moved to Pittsburgh [Annotator's Note: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania] and rented a house with a Jewish family. His mother was involved with the Baptist Church. Nothing bothered him too much except he is subject to falls and annually gets pneumonia [Annotator's Note: an infection of one or both lungs]. He has kidney issues since prison camp. He has been excessively confined in hospitals and that has irritated him. World War 2 was necessary because Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and the Japanese were taking over the world. It was the only justifiable war, unlike the Iraq war [Annotator's Note: Iraq War, 2003 to 2011], even though Saddam Hussein [Annotator's Note: Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, fifth President of Iraq] was not a good man. World War 2 spread technology and expanded knowledge, democracy and education. Now, the world is headed in the wrong direction with the Chinese and Muslim countries developing fast. Russia is an unknown today. O'Rorke's values have remained the same throughout his life. The Depression had much to do with things that happened during his lifetime. His older brother was five years his senior, had his share of problems, and often shouted for his father's help. The brother joined the Army and was recommended for West Point [Annotator's Note: United States Military Academy in West Point, New York] but the war started. After the war, O'Rorke went to Red Feather [Annotator's Note: near Fort Collins, Colorado] and attended Greeley College. He took Army examinations and scored highly and had a wonderful time attending school. O'Rorke had a nice automobile and traveled in style. He only attended school in the wintertime.

After the war, James Richard O'Rorke stumbled into various events that made his career what it was. That included some serendipitous circumstances leading to college education, his subsequent marriage, and later career. His wife's father was the judge magistrate for the Atlantic side of the Canal Zone [Annotator's Note: the Panama Canal Zone]. He had been injured in World War 1. He was a friend of President Hoover [Annotator's Note: Herbert Clark Hoover, 31st President of the US, 1929-1933] and received the magistrate position. His name was Judge Tatelman [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. The judge was the connection for O'Rorke to obtain a job and free housing in the Canal Zone. O'Rorke left the cold climate at Red Feather [Annotator's Note: his home near Fort Collins, Colorado] because of his management training skills which were needed at the military base. He received a terrific occupation as a result of his education at Fitzsimons Hospital [Annotator's Note: Fitzsimons Army Hospital; now Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Denver, Colorado]. He innovated several training programs and was decorated several times for his efforts. The State Department asked for O'Rorke to report to Guatemala to assist with problems there. He stayed there many years and helped with embassy people in several other Latin America countries. In order to find a means for promotion, he went to Vietnam and went into the DMZ [Annotator's Note: demilitarized zone]. He had a comfortable lifestyle there. There were maids to help him out. The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is important as a place to study history and learn from the past. Pittsburgh [Annotator's Note: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania] has a good museum also. It is a place to remember the past.