Memories of violence and atrocities: no dram of mercy

Violence, fear, atrocities are common recurrent themes to characterise Japanese occupation in Malaya between 1942 until 1945 (Nair & Musa, 2020; Cheah, 2012; Wang, 2000). The literature on imperial power in Malaya is indeed overwhelming, however, the atrocities committed towards women in Malaya by the Japanese remains at the periphery. War is a controversial event to be remembered especially in South East Asia it is always a question of who remembers and what it was remembered. It is also crucial to note that memory is a contested terrain. Memory is selective and historians are reluctant to rely on it. Individual memories are said to be biased and not representative (Wang, 2000; Cheah, 2000; Abu Talib, 2000). This essay subscribes to Dwyer's (2011) argument that memoirs are personal narratives and should not be read as factual accounts. No Dram of Mercy by Sybil Kathigasu is viewed as a linguistic document thus making it a personal narrative. It illustrates the brutality and horrors inflicted upon a civilian woman, making this memoir an 'invaluable testimony' and one of the very few written accounts of a woman's suffering during Japanese occupation in Malaya (Wong, 2012). Kathigasu's recount can also be seen as a psycho-social approach in her attempt to seek justice for herself as a victim and for the public to know the truth. It gives the author a new meaning in reasserting her own subjectivity.