Wartime Escape Just Like Movies

Retired NASA Chemist, Winifred Huo, was born in Guangzhou, China two weeks before the start of the Sino-Japanese war.  She recalls the first eight years of her life as looking for a safe place to live, and a place where her father could work. (see post one.) Winifred's highly-educated father was assigned to Guangdong to help build the impossible: the Burma Road. (see post two.)

Two years after they moved to the wartime provincial capitol of Guangdong, the Japanese occupied the area. Winifred remembers what it was like to escape.

“It’s just like what the movie looks like. Everyone—young and old –some carrying the bedding. It’s really like that. Since my father was working for the Department of Public Works, they had trucks. Because my mother was pregnant at the time, they arranged for her to ride on the truck. My mother and I rode on the truck. So we had not too bad an experience except that, as you went along the mountain, the truck driver would say, ‘Well this is where the local bandits are.’ So they would stop and negotiate.  And, then sometimes you would get to some place and the driver would say, “We cannot take this route because the Japanese have occupied it.” So you had to turn around and go back and find a different route.  It was an interesting experience looking back, but at the time—I didn’t know better—but my mother was very worried.” 
(To be continued.  Next: One Good Teacher Makes Difference.)