Sweet Land
of Liberty

“Two miniature purple velvet slippers hang in my china cabinet, little emblems of good luck given to me when we left the Philippine Isles after we had spent many happy and adventurous years there.”

In December 1941 the Japanese landed on the beach below Kay Fox's home in Legaspi, beneath the perfect cone of Mt. Mayon. With her husband Ren and two small sons she fled — by banca, by night, from island to island across Albay Gulf — sheltered for eighteen months by Filipinos for whom the words “You're welcome, Mam” could have meant death. This is her account of those years: of hiding and hunger, of kindness and courage, of internment at Santo Tomas and Los Baños, and of liberation at the very hour set for execution.