Robb, James M.

Biographical/Historical Sketch

James M. Robb earned his A.B. in political science at Stanford in 1931 and his law degree in 1934. He worked for three years with the Oakland Title Company before returning to Manila in 1937, where he joined the law firm of DeWitt, Perkins and Ponce Enrile. When World War II broke out, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was a first lieutenant in the Quartermaster Department during the siege of Bataan. He survived the Bataan death march and several POW camps in the Philippines, but died at sea in January 1945 while being transported with other POWs to Japan. Robb worked on a book detailing wartime conditions in the Philippines and the POW camps while he was a patient at the Bilibid prison-hospital; the manuscript was buried for safekeeping and retrieved when American troops liberated the Philippines.