In remembrance: Troops marching during a training session in Beijing as they make preparations ahead of China’s Victory Day military parade on Sept 3. — China Daily/ANN
ON Sept 27, 1942, Lisbon Maru, a cargo ship carrying more than 1,800 British prisoners of war (PoWs), mostly soldiers from Britain’s Hong Kong garrison, to Japan was torpedoed by a US submarine. The Americans didn’t know the vessel was carrying PoWs.
Those POWs who managed to break through the hatches faced machine-gun fire from Japanese guards on nearby ships. Some survivors who made it to the Chinese coast found salvation in an unexpected place: local fishermen who, despite their own hardship, risked everything to pull the strangers from the water and give them food and clothes.
