HERE’S A SHOCKING TRUE STORY. Americans torpedo a ship. British victims are drowning. Japanese soldiers fire guns to kill survivors. Chinese fishermen come to the rescue.
This unbelievable but true story is a complex real life incident. It took place more than 80 years ago, during World War II, but I was reminded of it recently.
The current hugely complex geopolitical situation, involving the US, and China, and other powers in the west and the east reminds me of the complexities of that tragic story, now captured in a documentary film, The Sinking of Lisbon Maru.
FIRST, THE STORY ITSELF:
On 2 October 1942, the Lisbon Maru, a Japanese cargo ship-turn-armed troop carrier was taking more than 1,800 British POWs from Hong Kong to Japan.
A U.S. submarine, the USS Grouper, was off the coast of Zhejiang province, when it spotted the vessel. The US says the Japan-run vessel was not showing Red Cross signs or other indicators that it was a prison ship.
The Americans decided to torpedo the ship – the underwater missiles hit their target and the vessel began to sink.
Instead of trying to save the POWs, Japanese soldiers mercilessly sealed them below deck, left them to drown, and even shot at those who tried to escape. Why doing that? The Japanese soldiers wanted to cover the war atrocities they had committed.
A group of Chinese fishermen from a nearby fishing village on Dongji Island risked their lives amid the shooting and managed to rescue about 384 survivors. Their bravery somehow caused the Japanese to stop the shooting.
HUGE NUMBER OF DEATHS
However, some 828 lives were lost with the ship. The surviving POWs were re-captured by the Japanese soldiers but the fishermen managed to hide three POWs in a sea cave. The three men were finally escorted to Chongqing, a southwestern city in China serving as the temporary capital of the country during the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
The incident has become a bond between China and the UK – and you can read about Xi Jinping’s personal involvement in commemorating the event and see images of the incident if you click the image below.
A film about this astonishing incident was shown in Hong Kong last month. Looking back, it is a timely wake-up call for world peace while the world is entangled with the escalating US-China rivalry, the renewed fighting in the Gaza Strip and the continuing Russia-Ukrainian War.
The world needs to act with urgency to defuse the current crises so that none of them will develop into full-scale hot wars. Mindful if any nuclear superpowers become belligerent in a hot war, the consequences to mankind will be unthinkable.
AN ANNIVERSARY
The film is significant to Chinese people, too, as this year also marks the 80th anniversary of the ending of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Both Hong Kong and Zhejiang, a coastal province in East China, were involved in the Lisbon Maru incident, therefore, Zhejiang Film Bureau co-organized with Sil-Metropole Organization Ltd to stage public screenings of the documentary in Hong Kong, aiming to foster cultural exchange between the two places.
Hong Kong people need to recognize this piece of forgotten history, not only because the documentary emotionally depicts the worst of humanity and the best of humanity in wartime, but the tragedy itself also started in Hong Kong. It even included a touching story between a Chinese girl and a British soldier who fell in love with each other and they got married in Hong Kong. However, their romance was tragically shattered by the war.
DISCRIMINATORY AND RACIST
It is also essential for people around the globe to know more about this piece of wartime tragedy, especially the contribution of Chinese people to world peace amid the rise of the so-called ‘China threat’ in the Western world in recent years. If unchecked, the ongoing dissimilation of this discriminatory and racist belief will definitely cause great harm to mankind. We must not let the ethnic cleansing incidents and massacres during WW II happen again.
‘The Sinking of Lisbon Maru’ was directed and produced by Chinese filmmaker and geophysicist Fang Li. It tells a long-buried story about the heroic rescue of 384 British POWs by Chinese fishermen from the brutal hands of Japanese soldiers on the eastern coast of China during WW II.
HONG KONG HISTORIAN
Fang’s film is based on a book The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru: Britain’s Forgotten War Tragedy written by Tony Banham, a Hong Kong-based British historian. Banham wrote the book some 20 years ago. Fang was shocked after reading the book and he decided to find out more details of the incident. He and his team conducted extensive research in Hong Kong, the UK, Canada, the US, and Japan having successfully located the sunken ship in 2016.
To race against time, he even posted advertisements in British newspapers, looking for descendants of the POWs. Fang and his team eventually interviewed nearly 150 people across continents and engaged with about 380 families, gathering documents to bring personal stories to life. He also organized memorial events at the sinking site with descendants of the survivors and fishermen. They laid wreaths and rose petals over the wreck site to pay their last respects to the victims.
Fang’s research also found a wartime romance between a Chinese girl, Leung Sou Kam, and a British soldier, Lance Corporal John Douglas Haig Weaver. Leung fled to Hong Kong from Xiamen, Fujian Province after Xiamen had fallen to the militant Japanese. The couple met in Hong Kong and they got married. However, Hong Kong was soon occupied by Japan, Weaver became a POW and died in the Lisbon Maru incident. Having learnt about her husband’s death, Leung decided to save his pension for his mother despite she was leading a miserable life in Hong Kong. After returning to Xiamen, Leung married to another man and had children of their own. She passed away in 1997.
FAMILIES RECONNECTED
Weaver’s family members tried to contact Leung in vain since the incident. Nevertheless, the documentary shed light on their romantic story and the two families finally reconnected.
The film premiered in London in 2023, and special screenings were also arranged in Shanghai and other Chinese mainland cities as well as in San Francisco, U.S. in 2024. In all screenings, applause erupted and many in the audience shed tears. My wife and I attended one of the public screenings in Hong Kong and both of us could not help weeping, too.
Chinese people’s contribution to the rescue of POWs did not end with the Lisbon Maru incident. Another seldom-told brave rescue story of POWs by members of the East River Column (ERC), a Southern China-based anti-Japanese guerrilla unit, after the fall of Hong Kong to the Japanese invaders in Dec 1941 also testifies to the peace-loving virtue of Chinese people.
HONG KONG’S DARK PERIOD
Since the Japanese occupation in Dec, 1941, British Hong Kong entered a dark period of three years and eight months. Nevertheless, the Hong Kong Independent Battalion of the ERC (Dongjiang Column) actively and persistently carried out resistance throughout the Japanese occupation. The Dongjiang Column freed at least 89 foreigners out of enemy control, including British officers and soldiers. The guerrilla band also provided the U.S. military with intelligence information on airports and docks in Hong Kong and the defense of the Japanese troops.
The Lisbon Maru incident and Dongjiang Column guerrillas’ brave acts testify to the dedicated and unwavering commitments of Chinese people to world peace even if they have to risk their lives for the cause. This noble spirit of sacrifice for the sake of others is called ren (humaneness or benevolence). It is one of Confucianism’s foundational virtues, which has become a major social conduct of Chinese people for more than 2,500 years.
SACRIFICE AND CONFUCIANISM
In essence, Confucianism is an ethical and philosophical system that promotes human-centered virtues such as respect, altruism, and humility for living a peaceful life. It affects the world positively through the idea of cosmic harmony. The belief was first formed by Confucius (551–479 BC) and then developed by numerous philosophers in ancient China. Its influence had extended globally, first to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam some 2,000 years ago, then to Europe through the reports of Jesuit missionaries working to spread the Christian faith in China some 400 years ago.
Today, Confucianism is important not only to China but also to the world. In 1988, 75 Nobel prizewinners said that if mankind is to survive it must go back 25 centuries in time to tap the wisdom of Confucius.
Unfortunately, the increasing geopolitical tension and the keen competition among great powers, especially the peaceful rise of China in the past forty years have regretfully brought about distorted, exaggerated, and defamatory information against the Chinese Socialism government, Chinese people and Chinese culture.
CHINA THREAT
To add fuel to the accusations, some malicious Western politicians have also played around with the so-called ‘China threat’ for political and economic gains. The non-profit making Confucius Institutes (CIs) founded in 2004 by the Chinese government to promote Chinese language and culture globally has become a scapegoat. Allegations of industrial espionage, the influence of academic freedom, and the promotion of Chinese propaganda have forced many universities in the US, Canada, and Europe to close their CIs or reduce their activities.
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What is the “China threat”? We investigated.
The vicious politicians’ attempt to block China’s cultural influence and its soft power serves no good to world peace amid the current tense global situation. Modern China’s strong commitment to world peace is reflected in the Global Security Initiative (GSI) proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in April 2022. “Security is the precondition for development. We humanity are living in an indivisible security community”, he said at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference to announce the initiative.
In his first reaction to the recent escalation of the US-China trade war, Xi said,” There are no winners in the tariff war and going against the world will only lead to self-isolation”. He pledged to establish better ties with neighboring nations.”We are entering a pivotal stage deeply intertwined with shifts in regional dynamics and global developments”
Achieving lasting world peace is a concerted effort for all mankind. China always advocates solidarity to foster a community of shared security and a shared future for mankind. It wants to build a world free from fear so that all people can enjoy universal security and prosperity. China launched the One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR), also officially known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013. It aims to enhance global trade, investment, and connectivity by building a network of railways, highways, ports, and energy pipelines across Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Since its launch, the BRI has attracted more than 150 countries and international organizations, making it one of the most extensive economic and diplomatic projects in modern history.
China’s diplomatic mediation philosophies are dialogue, not confrontation, partnership, not alliance, and win-win not zero-sum game. China’s dedicated efforts to create a positive environment for dialogue in various international conflicts have earned her a reputation as a prime international peace mediator.
The episodes of Chinese civilians and guerrillas risking their lives to rescue allied POWs during WW II have shown the inherited benevolent and altruistic virtues of Chinese people. The virtues are part of the Chinese culture.
Globalization has made the world interwoven and interdependent. We are experiencing great changes amid the turbulent and chaotic geopolitical situations. Cooperation but not confrontation is the key to world peace. May all nations work together to promote durable peace and development of the world so that war tragedies will not happen again and again.
Image at the top from the Shanghai Film Festival.