Sqoop throws OutOfMemory exceptions / Java heap space errors when importing large tables from PostgreSQL

:~$ sqoop import --connect 'jdbc:postgresql://db.example.com:5432/
example' --username user -P --as-sequencefile --table largetable
Enter password:
11/01/20 13:40:32 INFO tool.CodeGenTool: Beginning code generation
11/01/20 13:40:33 INFO manager.PostgresqlManager: Executing SQL statement: SELECT t.* FROM largetable AS t LIMIT 1
[...]
11/01/20 13:40:35 INFO mapred.JobClient: Running job: job_201101191544_0013
11/01/20 13:40:36 INFO mapred.JobClient:  map 0% reduce 0%
11/01/20 13:41:10 INFO mapred.JobClient: Task Id :
attempt_201101191544_0013_m_000002_0, Status : FAILED
Error: Java heap space
[...]
11/01/20 13:43:40 INFO mapreduce.ImportJobBase: Transferred 0 bytes in 184.8609 seconds (0 bytes/sec)
11/01/20 13:43:40 INFO mapreduce.ImportJobBase: Retrieved 0 records.
11/01/20 13:43:40 ERROR tool.ImportTool: Error during import: Import job failed!

2011-01-20 13:41:11,387 INFO org.apache.hadoop.util.NativeCodeLoader: Loaded the native-hadoop library
2011-01-20 13:41:11,843 INFO org.apache.hadoop.metrics.jvm.JvmMetrics: Initializing JVM Metrics with processName=MAP, sessionId=
2011-01-20 13:41:42,880 INFO com.cloudera.sqoop.mapreduce.AutoProgressMapper: Auto-progress thread is finished. keepGoing=false
2011-01-20 13:41:42,894 FATAL org.apache.hadoop.mapred.Child: Error running child : java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
	at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredFields0(Native Method)
	at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredFields(Class.java:2291)
	at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredField(Class.java:1880)
	at java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReferenceFieldUpdater$AtomicReferenceFieldUpdaterImpl.<init>(AtomicReferenceFieldUpdater.java:181)
	at java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReferenceFieldUpdater.newUpdater(AtomicReferenceFieldUpdater.java:65)
	at java.sql.SQLException.<clinit>(SQLException.java:353)
	at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.processResults(QueryExecutorImpl.java:1817)
	at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.execute(QueryExecutorImpl.java:257)
	at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.execute(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:500)
	at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.executeWithFlags(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:388)
	at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.executeQuery(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:273)
	at com.cloudera.sqoop.mapreduce.db.DBRecordReader.executeQuery(DBRecordReader.java:100)
	at com.cloudera.sqoop.mapreduce.db.DBRecordReader.nextKeyValue(DBRecordReader.java:225)
	at org.apache.hadoop.mapred.MapTask$NewTrackingRecordReader.nextKeyValue(MapTask.java:448)
	at org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.MapContext.nextKeyValue(MapContext.java:67)
	at org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.Mapper.run(Mapper.java:143)
	at com.cloudera.sqoop.mapreduce.AutoProgressMapper.run(AutoProgressMapper.java:187)
	at org.apache.hadoop.mapred.MapTask.runNewMapper(MapTask.java:639)
	at org.apache.hadoop.mapred.MapTask.run(MapTask.java:315)
	at org.apache.hadoop.mapred.Child$4.run(Child.java:217)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at javax.security.auth.Subject.doAs(Subject.java:396)
	at org.apache.hadoop.security.UserGroupInformation.doAs(UserGroupInformation.java:1063)
	at org.apache.hadoop.mapred.Child.main(Child.java:211)

  protected ResultSet executeQuery(String query) throws SQLException {
    this.statement = connection.prepareStatement(query,
        ResultSet.TYPE_FORWARD_ONLY, ResultSet.CONCUR_READ_ONLY);
    return statement.executeQuery();
  }