An update about Sybil Kathigasu and "No Dram of Mercy"

 I found some information about Sybil Kathigasu and "No Dram of Mercy" from the book titled " Colonial to Global : Malaysian Women's Writing in English" by Nor Faridah Abdul Manaf and Mohd A-Quayum.

Lim describes Sybil Kathigasu as " a privileged woman in a colonized society who counted white professionals and white women among her friends( Writing South East/ Asia In English 166) because of her "uprooted" background. However, this does not make Kathigasu's work any less Malayan than those of Han Suyin or Katharine Sim, especially in terms of social themes.

"No Dram of Mercy" is a war memoir of the Japanese Occupation in Malaya from 1941- 1945. The work depicts the struggles, woes and steadfastness of a woman caught up in the horrors of the Second World War in Southeast Asia. According to Cheah Boon Kheng who writes the preface to  the book, Kathigasu's autobiography is one of the  four books on Japanese atrocities in Malaya which were published after the war( Chin Kee Onn, Gurchan Singh and Ahmad Murad)." No Dram Of Mercy" is important as its account of war is from the perspective of a woman. The analysis of the book will focus on the female voice and female experience as portrayed by the writer.

The memoir has 20 chapters. An epilogue written by someone else is also included because Kathigasu died before completing her story as a result of  the injuries  she received during her imprisonment in Japanese Malaya. She died at a London hospital in 1949.

"No Dram of Mercy" is not only historically appealing because of its authentic accounts of the Second World War in Southeast Asia, but also spiritually attractive as a text on and by a religion woman who "manipulates" her adverse situation through the strength of her faith. Later in the memoir, Kathigasu writes about the family's settlement in a little village called Papan. Like Han Suyin and Katharine Sim, Kathigasu also thinks that it is necessary to provide her readers with an historical background for each local setting.

Chapter 1 of the book shows much evidence of Kathigasu who became the force behind every action of care and protection, not only of her family members, but also her household servants and her medical patients.

Excerpt from the story
" You had better all keep indoors unless there is bombing,"I said." If the planes come over, take shelter under cover of the hedge. And now I must go back to the house. The servants are waiting for me. They want to go home."