Chinese filmmaker digs up truth of Lisbon Maru
August 10, 2018 / News
A group of Chinese filmmakers have been trying to dig up the truth about Lisbon Maru – during its final voyage in 1942 where more than 1,800 British prisoners of war were locked up and left to drown.
CGTN’s reporting team interviewed the film director, Fang Li, to find out the ups and downs he faced during the shooting process.
Tracking the truth
Lisbon Maru was a Japanese Cargo ship which was transformed into an armed troopship during the WWII. It was transporting 1,800 British prisoners from Hong Kong to a labor camp in Japan when it was torpedoed down on October 2 of 1942. More than 800 of them died, after Japanese ships locked them down and shot at them while they were drowning.
Fang Li first heard the story five years ago, from a ferry captain in the Zhoushan archipelago of eastern China’s Zhejiang Province, where the ship sank.
Like many others, he was surprised that the story was rarely known. Two years later he carried out an investigation at the scene and captured images of a wreck, which is 140m long and 40m wide, which he believes is the Lisbon Maru.
To get in touch with the soldiers and their families, Fang went to the UK. He was interviewed by British reporters, before the news coverage had been noticed by Amanda Christian, the granddaughter of a man who went down with the Lisbon Maru.
“It was that conversation that really pushed me and touched me [to shoot the film],” Fang told CGTN, referring to the meeting between him and Christian.
He also launched a campaign in the British mainstream media including the Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator.
Liang Yijuan, 86, helped hide and save three British PoWs in 1942. /China Daily Photo
During the rescue operation, Chinese fishermen from the nearby islands arrived at the scene. Despite being fired upon initially by the Japanese, the fishermen risked it all and saved the lives of 382 British soldiers, according to Archives of Zhejiang Province.
“For anyone who is a sailor or a fishermen, they all care about everyone in the water, especially after they heard they were allied soldiers,” Fang Li said in the interview with CGTN.
Facing dilemma
A documentary is not the only goal of Fang Li and his teammates what to achieve. They have also been trying to help British soldiers and their descendants collect the bodies of the deceased.
Some of the victims’ families support the idea, but Dennis Morley, one of the last two survivors, says it’s a war grave thus should be left where it lies. Major Brain Finch, the consultant of the film, also backed the idea of not raising.
However, to Fang Li, the prisoners of the Lisbon Maru were “in a jail”. “You really want to free them and send them home, or at least bury them properly there as a real war grave,” he told CGTN.
Fang said it is “totally different” with cases including the Pearl Harbor attack, during which hundreds of American soldiers lost their lives. “That’s their home, that’s American territory.”
Dennis Morley, now 98, was a then 22-year-old, remained in a Japanese labor camp until the end of the war. /Courtesy of Dennis Morley
Fang Li conducted a group of interviews in the UK. /Courtesy of Fang Li
For Fang Li, it is hard to deal with the dilemma of interviewing and suffering: on the one hand, he has to collect as much information as possible through talking to the soldiers and their families; on the other hand, he disliked raking through the painful memories.
“Going through the whole process, you really feel the pain [every day] because you hear those sad stories, and you also, from time to time, hear those very warm family stories, so you become so much appreciative of life. I am really against the idea that human beings should have a war,” Fang Li told CGTN.
Conveying belief
As a Chinese-American, what prompts Fang to reproduce the experiences of British PoWs?
“Many of them have never had children nor got married, just sleep there. Let us remember them, let us not forget them,” he said. “Every audience should appreciate the opportunity for peace. Let’s love but not hate each other. Don’t ever start a war,” Fang Li said.
The film has attracted people, including many young volunteers, offering their help “unconditionally”. “Every one we have met has offered their help…from news media [organizations], film production companies, [to] my friends in the technology community and even those marine servant people. They understand that what we are doing here is for the soldiers, today’s audiences and the history,” Fang said.
The film, currently named “The 828 Unforgotten”, is expected to debut on October 26 next year. It is the birthday of Dennis Morley, and it also happens to be Fang’s daughter’s as well.
“We’d love to have Morley at the premier in London and all the PoWs’ families to watch the documentary and the story of their loved ones.”
（CGTN）
