A Long Journey: From Concentration Camp to Freedom in America

This is a story of a three-year-old caught up in the horrors of World War II. The "quiet time" in the Dutch East Indies, now called Indonesia, was replaced by the ravages of war and Japanese concentration camps. We spent three and a half years in three horrid camps. My mother was responsible for three children, including myself and Grandma. We ate any creeping or sliming creature trying to stay alive until we were saved by two atomic bombs.

The Indonesians declared independence on August 17,...