ABSTRACT
Sybil Kathigasu and Elizabeth Choy are Malaya’s two best-known war heroines.1 They were ordinary women, living useful and uneventful lives, until war discovered in them a courage and stubbornness they had not known before. Their narratives are extraordinary: firstly, because at a time when Asian women were practically invisible, they were articulate and decisive; and secondly, because they were tested and remained uncowed. Sybil Kathigasu was a nurse in Ipoh, and Elizabeth Choy was a teacher in Singapore. They shared a similar background in being middle class, English educated, and happily married: nothing that would have prepared them for what was to come. This chapter will discuss similarities and differences in their narratives and show how they rose above the trauma of captivity.
