Ronny Herman de Jong is a resident at Waltonwood Cary Parkway, but her journey to the senior living community was anything but normal. De Jong is a survivor of two Japanese concentration camps for women and children during World War II. She has since published four books on her life in captivity. The first one, “In the Shadow of the Sun,” was released in 1992 and is based on the secret camp diary of her mother Netty.

In 2011, de Jong published her memoir “Rising from the Shadow of the Sun: A Story of Love, Survival and Joy.” It details her years in captivity and adds cameos of her life after the war. The final two books were published in 2014 and 2015. “Survivors of WWII in the Pacific” is an anthology with stories by Navy men and survivors who were teenage prisoners during the war, including a story about the Navajo Code Talkers, who were instrumental in ending the War in the Pacific. De Jong will share her story of survival at the community located at 750 SE Cary Parkway on Tuesday, August 15 at 2:30 p.m. The event is open to the public and those interested in attending need to RSVP to (919) 275-0983.

De Jong was born in the Dutch East Indies in 1938. When she was three years old, the island of Java was conquered by the Japanese and her family was forced into prison camps where they suffered until August 1945. De Jong, her mother and sister endured starvation, disease and uncertainty under the brutal regime of the Japanese. They lived one day at a time without contact with the outside world. They were unaware of the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki until the Japanese surrendered and the war was over. De Jong’s story is also about life after the war. She went on to graduate from high school and attend college in the Netherlands where she earned a B.A. in English Literature. She married her husband Mike and emigrated to the United States with two daughters, a baby son and their dog. They recently moved from Arizona to North Carolina and now call Waltonwood Cary Parkway home.

The presentation will be held in the Independent Living Theater on August 15 at 2:30 p.m.