We Walked to Freedom

Book excerpt: A celebration of courage, determination, and the will to survive, this memoir recounts the life of Chinese refugee student Loretta Slaton who lived in Japan-occupied Hong Kong during World War II. Shortly after the Japanese occupation began in Hong Kong, a group of Chinese college students from Hong Kong University, Slaton among them, left home and ventured west to try and live in Free China. Separated from her family and trying to avoid the Japanese Army, she traveled west to Kweilin, north to Chengtu, and eventually ended up in Kunming, part of Free China. Slaton worked as a secretary for the Office of War Information in Kunming, and soon met an American officer, Clyde Slaton, the man she would eventually marry. For years, Slaton feared for her family's fate. When she returned to Hong Kong in September of 1945, she was overjoyed to learn that her entire family had survived. But Slaton's days of adventure were far from over. She traveled to America with her husband, and his service with the Foreign Service arm of the United States Information Agency took them to numerous Asian countries for the next several years. We Walked to Freedom explores the strength of the human spirit and the power of one woman's will to forge a bright future.