Ocean rescue

On the docks of Qingbang Island, one of four wave-battered rocks that make up the Dongji Islands chain, Liang Yijuan, 86, walked slowly among the fishmongers and women mending nets.

When Liang was 13, he stood on the same spot and scanned the horizon for any sign of his parents. They had been among 198 locals who had hurriedly cast off in 46 sampans early in the day, called out to sea by a noise like thunder and a rising column of smoke.

It was Oct 1, 1942, and the Japanese transport ship Lisbon Maru had just been torpedoed by a US Navy submarine about three nautical miles from Qingbang.

Unknown to the sailors aboard the USS Grouper, in addition to carrying 700 Japanese troops, below decks the holds of the Lisbon Maru were crammed with nearly 2,000 British servicemen taken prisoner after the fall of Hong Kong. As the ship sank, a high-ranking Japanese officer (not the captain) gave the order to secure the hatches and leave the captives to their fate.

The POWs who managed to break out were met with deadly machine gun fire.

Shen and Liang's parents were part of the Chinese fishing fleet that arrived at the scene. Despite being fired upon, the fishermen decided to risk all to save the foreigners. Eventually, nearly 400 British soldiers were rescued.

Tony Banham, author of The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru: Britain's Forgotten Wartime Tragedy, said the British death toll would have been much higher if the Chinese fishermen had not intervened.

"In many cases, the fishermen pulled the British from the water right under the noses of the Japanese. They could have been shot. Some survivors believe the Japanese only joined in the rescue efforts because they saw what the Chinese had done and realized that some of the prisoners would now survive (to tell the tale)."

Liang said he remembered the moment his parent's fishing boat arrived at the docks carrying a cargo of emaciated British soldiers. "It was a bit strange," he said. "I had never seen a foreigner before."

Each fishing family took a few of the POWs into their homes, fed them, and in some cases clothed them. When three of the British soldiers indicated they wanted to hide, it was Liang who helped them, taking them into the jungle to a cave that had once been used as a shelter for children during pirate raids.

"I used to play in that cave, and I suggested we hide the soldiers there," he said. It was lucky he did, because the next day the Japanese returned in force. "I wasn't afraid," he added, although he later realized he should have been.

Doctor Karl James, a senior historian at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia, said China remains the "unappreciated fourth ally" of World War II, and much of its contribution has been overlooked, a fate shared by Allied forces deployed on the Chinese front.

Roughly 27,000 US troops made up the bulk of Allied forces in China in 1944 and 1945. "There was camaraderie, but I wouldn't want to say it's an uncomplicated story of everyone simply mucking in together," Mitter said. "There are tensions as well during that time."

But on the island of Qingbang in 1942, Liang said the solidarity ran both ways. Knowing that to do anything else would risk the lives of the fishermen and their families, all but the three British POWs that Liang had hidden surrendered to the Japanese army.

"The Japanese came many times looking for the (three hidden) soldiers," Liang recalled. "They captured some villagers and pointed guns at their heads and asked where the UK soldiers were hiding. No one told them anything."