China film tribute to lost British POWs
Print Edition
鈥淲here are you? Looking for Relatives of Lisbon Maru POWs.鈥
Fang Li, a Chinese film-maker, posted this notice in British newspapers last month, seeking relatives of 828 British soldiers who died when a Japanese prison ship sank in the East China Sea during World War II.
He has so far received about 200 replies and has visited more than 30 families in Britain. He hoped to keep these last memories in a documentary.
Fang, 64 years old, first heard the story in 2014 from a ferry captain in the Zhoushan archipelago, near the site of the sinking.
More than 1,800 prisoners of British army were aboard the unmarked Lisbon Maru freighter, sailing from Hong Kong to Japan, when it was torpedoed by an American submarine in October 1942.
As the vessel slowly slipped into the water, Japanese troops locked the unarmed men in the hold and shot those who tried to escape. The Japanese fled to another ship, where they kicked off British POWs who followed them and 828 soldiers died.
鈥淚f you had been to hell, you鈥檇 know what it was like. It was hell,鈥 Dennis Morley, 98, the British survivor of the disaster, told Fang Li.
A group of Chinese fishermen in 46 sampans spotted the men in the water. Over 65 desperate journeys, they saved 384 British soldiers from drowning, according to local wartime records.
鈥淭hey had extraordinary courage and rescued hundreds under Japanese fire,鈥 Major Brian Finch, 77, told Fang. Finch wrote a book about the Lisbon Maru in October 2017 and became the documentary adviser.
鈥淭he story is not widely known. The people who lived didn鈥檛 talk about their experiences mostly until very later,鈥 Finch said.
The Japanese later recaptured 381 of the POWs in China and many died of disease, starvation and exhaustion in Japan.
Fang, who is also a geophysical engineer, started an investigation. He led his team to Dongji Island, Zhoushan, and found the ship with sonar in 2016.
Then he had the idea to find relatives of the fallen soldiers, to tell their stories and make a documentary film. And, if possible, bring them home.
The stories confirmed Fang鈥檚 determination to finish the documentary, The 828 Unforgotten.
Fang hopes to complete the film in time for the 100th birthday of Dennis Morley on October 26, 2019.
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