The Lisbon Maru resurfaces on screen

Documentary about wartime atrocity seeks to remind world of an overlooked event, Chen Ye reports.

Fang Li, a 70-year-old director with 42 years of experience in exploration and marine surveying, and 24 years in the film industry, is both director and producer of The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru. During the documentary's recent national roadshow, Fang shared the emotional and historical significance of his latest project with China Daily. The interview took place online as he was traveling between theaters and universities in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Fang refers to the tour as "the film returning home", as the story of the Lisbon Maru took place in Zhejiang.

In 2014, during a visit to Dongji Island in Zhoushan with his friend and director Han Han for the filming of The Continent, Fang first heard the story of the Lisbon Maru from local boatmen.

Late in September 1942, the Japanese military used the ship to transport more than 1,800 British prisoners of war from Hong Kong to Japan. In the waters off Dongji Island, it was torpedoed by a US submarine. Over the course of the next 25 hours, as the ship began to sink, the Japanese sealed the POWs in three holds, nailing the doors shut with wooden planks and canvas. In a heroic act of survival, the POWs managed to break free. Seeing the sinking ship, more than 200 fishermen from Zhoushan risked their lives to save 384 POWs, sheltering some from Japanese search efforts, in a spirit of selflessness and bravery.

Fang was shocked. "How had we in China never heard of the Lisbon Maru? We know of the Titanic, the Taiping, and even the sinking of the Awa Maru, but no one here ever mentioned the Lisbon Maru. And for more than 70 years, no one had found its wreck," he says.

This mystery piqued Fang's curiosity, leading him to begin the search for the ship in 2016. After a fruitless 10-day effort, his team eventually located a large wreck. In 2017, using sonar technology and robots, they confirmed that its physical properties, contour, and structure matched those of the Lisbon Maru. Fang was elated.