Bravery of fishermen remembered

Josephine Duff McIntosh Olsson searched intently for a man's name on the Lisbon Maru survivors' memorial wall at Zhoushan Marine Cultural and Art Center in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province — a man she had never met in person.

When she finally found it, she pointed to the name for those around her, tears streaming down her face.

"That's my great-uncle, Joseph Duff!"

In October 1942, Joseph Duff was among the 1,816 British prisoners of war being transported from Hong Kong to Japan aboard the Japanese cargo ship Lisbon Maru.

The vessel was not marked as carrying POWs, and it was torpedoed by a US submarine off the coast of Zhejiang province.

Japanese guards sealed the prisoners below deck, and those who managed to escape were met with gunfire. In all, 828 men died.

In the midst of the chaos, local fishermen from Dongji Island in Zhoushan risked everything to launch their small boats and rescue 384 survivors under Japanese gunfire.

On the island, they gave the starving prisoners their own meager supplies of fresh water and food.

Later, when Japanese troops landed to search for escapees, the fishermen hid three British POWs in a seaside cave, secretly bringing them food every day.

In time, they safely transferred the men all the way to Chongqing, where the survivors used a radio broadcast to reveal the truth about the sinking of the Lisbon Maru to the world.

Joseph Duff was among those rescued by the fishermen, but he was later recaptured by Japanese forces and taken to Japan.

It was not until November last year that his descendants, including Olsson, learned the truth: Joseph Duff had actually survived the sinking, only to die at the age of 28 in a Japanese POW camp in March 1945.

"We didn't know what had happened to him except that we thought he had died on a ship," Olsson says.

While compiling her family tree, the 56-year-old Scottish woman conducted extensive research into her great-uncle.

But it was only at a screening of Chinese director Fang Li's documentary The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru in Edinburgh last year that she finally came to understand the full story of this little-known chapter of World War II.

"He died before I was born, but I'm his namesake," she says emotionally.

"That means my name will carry forward his name and memory."

Recently, she and her sister Pamela Allison traveled to Zhoushan with 18 other descendants of the Lisbon Maru prisoners of war to visit the very island where her great-uncle was rescued.

"I really want to say thank you for giving him a bed, food and clothes. Thank you for giving him 24 hours of hope," she says.

She compiled the materials she had gathered during her research on Joseph Duff into a folder and donated it to the Lisbon Maru Rescue Memorial Hall on the island.

James Murphy, approaching 78, is also the namesake of his father.

His father served with the Hong Kong Company of the Royal Corps of Signals and was among the survivors rescued by Chinese fishermen. Murphy recalls that the few days his father spent on the island gave him a lifelong love of Chinese food.

As a child, he was often taken to Chinese restaurants by his father.

"None of us would be alive without the selfless courage and compassion of the fishermen and villagers who saved so many people," he says.

He traveled all the way from Plymouth to Zhoushan with his wife, Susan Murphy, to attend a series of commemorative events, including laying flowers at the memorial, planting trees, visiting the Lisbon Maru Rescue Memorial Hall on Dongji Island, and meeting with the descendants of those fishermen who took part in the rescue.

"It's been a real highlight of my life to come here, to meet all these wonderful people," he says.

"It's important that we hand that story and memory down, and it's pleasing to me, very touching, to hear that the Chinese generations, generation after generation, are similarly carrying the story on."

Christopher Borge, who made the trip with his sister Kirsteen Dugan, is the grandson of Lisbon Maru survivor John Borg.

He believes it is vital to share this story with a wider population.

"At school, they teach about the war in Europe and the UK, but not much about what happened in China and Japan," he says.

"We also need to focus on the details that reveal humanity, kindness, and cross-border friendship."

He is also the great-nephew of Duncan Edward Cameron, another Lisbon Maru survivor who was a friend of Borg.

After the rescue, the two were later taken by Japanese soldiers to Kobe House war camp in Japan, where they remained prisoners of war until the conflict finally ended.

As the two finally made their way back home, their families were anxiously waiting for their return at Edinburgh train station.

On that day, Borg fell in love at first sight with one of Cameron's sisters, Margaret.

They later married and had four children among whom the youngest son is the father of Borge and Dugan.

"Those moments of friendship, courage, and love are the very reason my sister Kirsteen and I are able to stand here.

"So, we remember not only the suffering of war, but the bonds it has created. We must carry on this bond between us in the UK and our friends here in China," says Borge.