On 9 November 2022, 35 ladies from MCG gathered at GMBB, in Bukit Bintang to hear the fascinating history of Doris Van Der Stratten, as told by Andrew Barber, non-fiction author and amateur historian. GMBB, a creative community mall offering distinctive and stunning displays of art on almost every level, made the trip across town even more worthwhile.

Andrew Barber has, once before in 2016, narrated the saga of Doris’s tragic life to MCG, and has since had the opportunity to further research his subject, offering us a deeper understanding of her life. Although no photographs or personal written accounts by Doris exist, Mr. Barber has, with the aid of genealogists in Adelaide, various archives and court documents worldwide, managed to stitch together a believable historical account, as he strictly adhered to the facts which have been uncovered by years of research.

Born 1904 in British India (now Bangladesh), Dulcima Louise Budd (Doris), returns to the United Kingdom, with her mother, Pauline, in 1908/9. Pauline marries Neil Henry Heath, and in 1910 they move to Adelaide, Australia, seemingly abandoning Doris in London. No other records surface with any trace of Doris, until 1921, a manifest shows the arrival of Doris in Adelaide, with her previous address seen as a Salvation Army Home in the East End of London. A rough part of London, indicating a difficult upbringing.

Shortly after Doris arrives in Adelaide, she meets and marries WW1 veteran, Richard Wall, with whom she has two children. Nine years of marriage is ended when Richard files for divorce citing his own infidelity as cause. Strangely, he keeps custody of their two daughters.  Not long after, Doris meets Ceylonese Eurasian, Phillip Van Der Stratten. Phillip, a mining engineer, hails from a large, respectable family in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya and was in Adelaide for further training. They soon marry and move to Southern Thailand, where Phillip is employed as one of a community of engineers, at a tin mine.

8 December, 1941 the Japanese attack. The swift movement of the Japanese military across Thailand caught the mining community unaware and trapped behind the front lines. Allegedly, some of the engineers were trained British Commandos, and it was more than likely this accusation which led to the Japanese capturing and imprisoning the mining group, within various houses on the property. At which point they attacked the houses with bayonets and grenades. Of twenty-five to thirty people in each home, approximately half were killed in the attack. Doris managed to flee into the jungle, where she came across another escapee, Edward Peters, and the two continued South together. Philip miraculously survived the attacks, and was sent to an internment camp in Bangkok, all the while believing that Doris had perished. Doris too, believed Philip had been killed.

Three months of flight through the jungle, ended in Perak. Taking refuge with a small group of Chinese, hiding in the jungle, the difficulty of their situation came to be too much. Doris and Peters surrendered to the Japanese. Sent to Taiping prison, under the command of Colonel Koda, Doris was the only female, with six or seven hundred male internees. Doris, not wishing to leave the relative safety of the familiar group of prisoners, is reluctantly persuaded to move to a nearby Convent. Unknown to her, in May 1942, the male prisoners are sent on to Pudu Prison, in Kuala Lumpur before being sent on to Changi and other places. She is now alone, in a Catholic Convent, in Taiping.

Colonel Koda, Commander of the Western Garrison, moves to Kuala Lumpur, taking charge of Pudu prison. Koda sends for Doris, and places her in a colonial home, introducing her as Dulcima, his Italian mistress. Philips family did not live far from Doris, and it was an open secret that she was now the mistress of the Japanese commander, even though there is no written history of their relationship.

Within a year, rumours abound that Colonel Koda is “skimming” from military supplies and that his ‘Italian’ mistress is actually a British spy. Japanese Military Police, from outside Kuala Lumpur are sent in to investigate. Under the command of Murakami Shuji, the military police, known as Kenpeitai (also known as Kempeitai), set up base in the Lee Rubber Building and bring in Dulcima (Doris) for questioning. Within three days she is dead. The July 1946 Small War Crimes Trials in Kuala Lumpur records show that Murakami Shuji never denied the interrogation of Doris Van Der Stratten. With allegations of having inflicted mental and physical torture on Doris, he claimed she jumped to her death from the top floor of the Lee Rubber Building. No evidence that she may have been pushed to her death was found and could not be proved. Koda was never implicated, and Shuji walked away, a free man.

The Lee Rubber Building still stands. The former residence of the feared Kenpeitai, and the final location in the tragic life story of Doris Van Der Stratten, was constructed in 1930, in the Art Deco style, as a four-floor building. A fifth floor was added in the 1950’s, and is today a boutique Hotel where “everyone will have the opportunity to live well, at their own pace” (Javier Perez; co-founder,  Else Boutique Hotel).

Elza Mellet