The brutality of occupation: understanding Malaya

Book Review: The Storm We Made — Vanessa Chan

Perhaps this is what growing up was, thought Cecily. To give up one’s ideals in exchange for others comforts, to understand that one of these cannot exist in tandem with the other.

I think historical fiction is fast becoming my favourite genre.

The Storm We Made was a fascinating and devastating introduction to a history I didn't know much about.

The book follows Cecily, a mother who inadvertently, through naivete snd promises of a better future, finds herself acting as a spy for the Japanese in their overtaking Malaya ( now known as Malaysia) from the British.

The book flits between the POV's of herself and her three children spanning both before and after WW2. The book documents how this family is impacted by the dehumanisation, exploitation and brutality under both the British and the Japanese.

This book is not for the faint hearted. But a deeply insightful book nonetheless. Two things are highlighted by the two powers that rule Malaya. Firstly through the British rule, we are shown the way Natives were made to feel inferior and othered, the British pedestalising themselves as the civilised, compared to the uncivilisrd Natives. Cecily's husband in particular epitomise this master …