From the docs - it appears the 32-bit Java install is in fact a prereq.
Software requirements
Eclipse requirements
•Visual COBOL only supports the 32-bit Eclipse IDE and requires a 32-bit Java installation.
•Though Visual COBOL does not support the 64-bit Eclipse, you can use the 32-bit Eclipse to create both 32-bit and 64-bit applications.
•Visual COBOL ships with Eclipse 3.8. After the installation, you can install the Visual COBOL plug-in into other instances of Eclipse available on the same machine. The supported versions are 3.8, 4.2 and 4.3 for the 32-bit Eclipse only. See Installing Visual COBOL into other instances of Eclipse for instructions.
You can download the JDK for free from here