When the Japanese invaded Malaya, a plain-faced Eurasian woman named Sybil Kathigasu was living in the town of Ipoh with her doctor-husband, Addon, and their four-year-old daughter, Dawn. The Kathigasus moved into the interior, took up farming, and started a "grow more food'' campaign. After a while the Japanese discovered what else the Kathigasus were doing: a radio in Sybil's bedroom picked up information which was relayed to the guerrillas; wounded resistance fighters and British stragglers were sheltered and given medical treatment in their house.
The Japanese caught and tortured Sybil to extract information about the underground. At one point they...