Recently, 18 descendants of British prisoners of war (POWs) during World War II visited Qingbang Island in Zhoushan City, East China’s Zhejiang Province.
They laid a wreath in front of the “Dongji Fishermen Rescuing British POWs Memorial” near Xiaohai Cave, one of the sites related to the Lisbon Maru incident, to commemorate the heroic acts of local fishermen who rescued British POWs under the threat of Japanese gunfire in 1942.
The bronze memorial bears the inscription “Boundless Love, Eternal Memory” and features two tightly clasped hands, symbolizing how, 83 years ago, the brave fishermen of Dongji reached out to pull the struggling British POWs from the sea. The left side of the monument is engraved in both Chinese and English, detailing the fishermen’s courageous rescue during the Lisbon Maru incident.
The final design went through over 40 revisions, inspired by the memory of an elderly fisherman, said Qu Xiaoshi, designer of the monument and head of the Institute of Public Art at the China Academy of Art. “When fishermen rescue people at sea, they grasp the other’s wrist tightly, and this connection links two lives together.”
Denise Viney (transliteration), 76, tearfully touched the monument. She is the daughter of a POW who survived the Lisbon Maru. She said that her father wished there was a memorial in Zhoushan years ago. Today, she came to the place with his lifelong wish.
In October 1942, the cargo vessel Lisbon Maru was converted into a troop carrier by the Japanese army during World War II. While carrying about 1,800 British prisoners of war from Hong Kong to Japan, it was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine off the coast of East China’s Zhejiang province.
The POWs were left to drown. Some of them managed to escape, but were fired upon by Japanese soldiers. Chinese fishermen heard the incident from the shore and rushed to save 384 British soldiers.
The ship sank with the loss of 843 people.