The 2014 film "The Future of Life" directed by Han Han was filmed on Dongji Island in Zhejiang. At that time, the clear blue waters and beautiful scenery on the island left a deep impression on the audience. The hit of the 2025 movie "Dongji Island" has brought a history of selfless assistance to the British army in 1983 years of Chinese Dongji Island fishermen have returned to the public's vision. But the real historical events themselves are even more exciting than the plot of the movie screen.

Dongji Island and the origin of the movie

Now, we see the prototype of a historical fact behind the movie, that is, on October 1, 1942, fishermen on Dongji Island, Zhejiang, China risked their lives to save the 384 surviving prisoners of war in Japan's "Lisbon Maru" and placed them on the island.

The movie narrative ends here, but the real history is even more thrilling than the movie plot. The rescue activities of fishermen in history have not ended here. Two days later, the Japanese army knew that it was the fishermen who rescued these British prisoners of war, so they dispatched ships and bombers to siege the island, and then landed on the island for a search. Under the threat of the Japanese army slaughtering the village, British prisoners of war showed their gentlemanly demeanor and took the initiative to stand up to save the lives of the fishermen.

After

, a total of 381 British prisoners of war were arrested by the Japanese army. But three of the British soldiers hid in a cave on the island, escaped the search by the Japanese army, and under the cover of fishermen, they crossed the Japanese army's blockade line and traveled thousands of miles to Chongqing, the National Government's wartime atrocities, exposed the Japanese army's atrocities to the world for the first time, uncovered Japan's hypocritical face in the Lisbon Maruho incident, and made the Japanese army's atrocities clear to the world. Today, this article tells the history of the three surviving British people on Dongji Island who escaped thousands of miles away.

The three surviving British people are:

Farrones (Theodore Fennessy): Lieutenant of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom.

Edwin Evans: Senior manager of HSBC Bank in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and some information also calls him a businessman of Hong Kong Tobacco Company.

Johnston: A British government diplomat in Hong Kong is a "China Connect". Before World War II, he was a senior diplomat at the British Embassy (or government office) in Hong Kong.

Before the outbreak of the Pacific War, the three of them worked and lived in Hong Kong, a British colony. However, on December 8, 1941, a few hours after the Japanese army attacked Pearl Harbor, in order to quickly open the major transportation route from mainland China to Southeast Asia, it attacked Hong Kong, the then British colony.

Hong Kong during World War II

Hong Kong falls, the tragedy of prisoners of war

The then President of Hong Kong Sir Mark Young led the defenders of Hong Kong (British, Canadian, Indian soldiers and Hong Kong Volunteers) to resist bravely. The Japanese army launched a fierce attack with the accumulated troops. The Hong Kong defenders finally resisted for 18 days after desperate resistance after 100 days of desperate resistance on the afternoon of December 25, which was therefore called Hong Kong's "Black Christmas".

The Japanese army occupied Hong Kong, and the fall of Hong Kong marks the temporary end of Britain's colonial rule over Hong Kong, and the three-year and eight-month period of Japanese occupation was launched.

After the fall of Hong Kong, more than 11,000 Allied officers and soldiers and civilians became prisoners of war. According to the recollections of many survivors, they were driven by the Japanese army to the Sham Shui Po Military Camp on the Kowloon Peninsula, the Stanley Detention Camp on the Hong Kong Island, and the Stanley Camp on the Stanley Island. The environment was quite harsh, with water and food shortages, and diseases (dysenterology, malaria) were rampant.

The three British prisoners of war in this article, Fallens, Evans and Jameston, experienced a series of tragic encounters after that, and were all locked up in Japanese prisoners of war camps. On September 27, 1942, the Japanese army used bayonets to force 1,816 British prisoners of war to board the Lisbon Maru, including these three British people.

Cause of the Lisbon Pill No.

Lisbon Maru was originally a passenger and cargo ship expropriated by Japan from Brazil.The Japanese army made triple transformations of the cargo ship with portholes, closed cabins, and removed all prisoners of war transport signs. They also hung the Japanese military flag and disguised as a military transport ship.

As on the Lisbon, these British prisoners of war were locked in a small cabin by the Japanese army. The ventilation was extremely poor, and the stuffy and humid environment was filled with musty smell and sweat, which made many people have difficulty breathing. British prisoners of war could only eat a small amount of moldy rice and turbid water, and were often hungry and thirsty at sea. The Japanese army treated prisoners of war very rudely, and if they were not obedient, they would be beaten or scolded or punished innocently.

When the Lisbon Maru was sailing in the Dongji Islands of the Zhoushan Islands in the East China Sea, China, it was discovered by the US submarine "Perce". Because the ship did not have a prisoner of war logo on it, the US military mistakenly thought it was a Japanese military ship, so it fired four torpedoes, and the third hit the stern accurately, causing the sea water to surge into the cabin and the ship to sink.

The Japanese rescue ship arrived, but only picked up the Japanese crew and sealed the hatch of the prisoners of war with wooden boards, hoping to drown these British prisoners of war alive. When the prisoners of war smashed open the hatch door and escaped, the Japanese army actually fired the sea with machine guns. Survivor Dennis Morley recalls:

"The Japanese army stood on the boat next to us, watching us struggle but remained indifferent."

When you are in a difficult situation, fishermen are fearless in rescue

In the end, of the 1,816 prisoners of war, a total of 828 lost their lives during the escape, and the blood dyed the Dongji waters red. Fortunately, in the early morning of October 2, the 16-year-old Lin Agen, a fisherman from Kiyohama Island on Dongji Island, was the first to discover an abnormality.

Lin Agen, a fisherman living today

At that time, Lin Agen was drying fishing nets on the beach like usual. Under the dawn of the morning, he saw black heads floating on the sea, and people holding British soldiers' hats high on the sea, which was a signal of asking for help!

Lin Agen immediately reported to the village leader. The patriarch Shen Wanshou is a 72-year-old fisherman. He led the villagers to look at the reefs on the sea and knew that he must be a blonde and blue-eyed foreigner, not a compatriot. However, given the simple and moral concept of fishermen who "will be saved when they fall into the sea", they decided to use fishing boats to go out to sea to save people.

So, Shen Wanshou beat the gong and shouted, "Save people!" So, he called on 198 fishermen in Dongji Island to rush into the Japanese blockade area on 46 small wooden boats to save these unfamiliar British prisoners of war.

A British prisoner of war's legs were pressed against iron plates. In order to save the prisoner of war, Lin Agen jumped into the biting sea water and pried it up with an iron stick for twenty minutes. His nails broke and he was finally able to catch him on the boat.

Fishers treat British prisoners of war well

At twelve o'clock, hundreds of corpses were floating on the sea, and the boats of the fishermen on Dongji Island were crowded with people. The fishermen were still hungry and were still driving the fishing boats back and forth to save people.

In this way, the fishermen on Dongji Island drove back and forth 65 times in total. In the stormy waves, they rescued a total of 384 prisoners of war with cables and harpoons, and all of them were placed on the island in the afternoon.

In the era of chaos in World War II, although the fishermen on Dongji Island lived in poverty, they gave the only food they had at home to the hungry British army for food. According to the memories of the surviving British prisoners of war, he was swallowing the porridge made of the remaining rice at the fishermen's home. He was so moved that he shed tears. He could not speak and could only gesture with his hands to thank him.

At dinner, the fishermen all gave the fish, shrimps and oysters they couldn't bear to eat to fill their hunger, burned hot water to bathe them, and settled these strange foreigners.

British prisoners of war

In the early morning of October 3, Japanese reconnaissance planes hovered over the Dongji Island area, and the fishermen immediately hid these British prisoners of war in their homes. Among them, 16-year-old fisherman Lin Agen hid six prisoners of war in his sweet potato kiln, with firewood on the kiln entrance to cover up the Japanese air force reconnaissance.

Although the fishermen on Dongji Island hide the British army, all this was noticed by the Japanese army. So at 8:00 a.m. on October 3, the Japanese army landed on Dongji Island, gathered the whole village together, and used bayonets to force the fishermen to hand over the prisoners of war they were hiding.

At that time, village chief Shen Wanshou refused to say that, and was beaten by the Japanese army and his face was covered in blood. Afterwards, the Japanese army issued a letter of not handing over the prisoners of war, and the whole village would be killed!

At the juncture of life and death, the British army hid also thanked the fishermen for their selfless assistance, showed their gentlemanly demeanor, and took the initiative to stand up.

British prisoners of war in Japanese concentration camps

British prisoners of war escaped

In this way, at 12 noon on October 3, 381 prisoners of war were taken away by the Japanese army, avoiding the fishing village from a catastrophe! But at three o'clock in the afternoon, Lin Agen found three British prisoners of war hidden in a cave on the reef by the sea. One of them is Evans, a senior manager of HSBC Bank in Hong Kong and Shanghai, who was bleeding from a shark's leg.

So, Lin Agen pretended to be a shell digger every day, hid rice and medicine in his clothes and avoided the Japanese army's post, and hid the rice and medicine bags in the cracks of the reef.

Lin Agen even deliberately dropped himself on the reef to cover the rice and medicines hidden in the stone peaks with blood, so that the three British prisoners of war hidden in the reef cave could eat and use medicines.

Two days later, fisherman Lin Agen. In the middle of the night, they rowed small boats with three other fishermen, and braved the storm on the sea to freeze the three prisoners of war to nearby Huludao.

Sinking Lisbon Pill No.

The villagers of Huludao warmly welcomed the three British prisoners of war and asked the village medical doctors in Huludao to bandage Evans' foot wounds with herbs. Later, on October 7, with the help of the underground anti-Japanese guerrillas in Zhoushan Islands, Lin Age and other fishermen, as well as guerrillas, disguised as fish sellers, hid three British prisoners of war in wooden barrels loading fish, skillfully avoided the layers of investigations by the Japanese army, and sent these three British prisoners of war to a church in Ningbo, Zhejiang.

After ten days of twists and turns, the three escaped British prisoners of war finally arrived at the British military office in Yunhe, Zhejiang and arrived at a safe area.

In this way, Lin Agen said goodbye to the three escaping British prisoners of war. Before leaving, three British prisoners of war expressed their gratitude to the fishermen who saved their lives. Evans, who is already middle-aged, even hugged the 16-year-old young fisherman Lin Agen and cried bitterly: "You are my reborn father, who saved my life!"

In mid-October 1942, three rescued British prisoners of war, Evans, Fallens and Jameston, took a photo with Chinese military and civilians in Zhoushan

Expose the atrocities of the Japanese army

After British parties arranged the three escaped British prisoners of war also arrived in November when China's anti-Japanese rear, Chongqing, the National Government's wartime accompaniment capital. Their arrival immediately caused a sensation in the diplomatic circle and the press.

Why is this sensation? Because after the sinking of the Lisbon Maru, the Japanese media weaved a series of hypocritical lies for militarism.

A few days after the ship sank, on October 8, the official and media mouthpiece of Japan, the Asahi Shimbun, published a related report, only revealing that the ship was "sinked by a US submarine attack", and left the blame to the Allied United States. The second report intends to prove the inhumanity of the "British and American enemy". He completely ignores the suffering suffered by British prisoners of war on the ship, and launches torpedoes, covering up the occurrence of all the tragedies that the Japanese army is brewing!

Route from Chongqing to Zhoushan

As for Japan Times' report on October 20, 1942, after knowing that the ship was attacked, the first reaction of the Japanese army was to rescue these British prisoners of war, pretending to be a Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Circle and a "friendly" and humanitarian face.

At that time, due to the witnesses - the remaining 381 British prisoners of war, all were arrested by the Japanese army, the Japanese army strictly controlled public opinion in Hong Kong and other occupied areas. The British and American allies and anti-fascist countries can only understand the incident based on one-sided information provided by the Japanese army, and it is difficult to understand the overall picture of the matter, and it is difficult for the British to negotiate with the Japanese side.

The truth is revealed

But when the three British prisoners of war rescued by fishermen from Dongji Island arrived in Chongqing safely, the situation turned around. At that time, the first thing three British prisoners of war in Chongqing was to tell the Chongqing Embassy in detail about the results of the "Lisbon Maru" incident to the Chongqing Embassy in the UK, and disclosed for the first time the Japanese army's inhumane abuse and massacre of British prisoners of war. The British Times published a communication report on this.

At that time, the Chongqing National Government also vigorously promoted China's anti-Japanese war to the world in order to obtain Allied forces and more international assistance. The testimony of these three high-level British prisoners of war on the atrocities of the Japanese army such as robbery, torture, massacre, etc. is far greater than that of searching. For this reason, Chongqing's "Central Daily" reported on this matter.

At that time, Evans not only disclosed the atrocities of the Japanese army in Lisbon Maru on the Chongqing radio, but even said affectionately:

"The fishermen on Dongji Island, risk their lives being killed to save us. They are the real heroes, and we are so grateful!"

So, the testimony of the abuse of the three British prisoners of war in the Lisbon was quickly passed to London and Washington in the United States through diplomatic channels. It was reported in international media such as the Associated Press and Reuters, and righteously refuted the hypocritical propaganda of Japan's kindness and the "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Circle", which made the people of the world clearly see the brutal and inhuman nature of Japanese militarism, aroused strong condemnation of Japanese militarism in the international community, and aroused the anti-fascist fighting spirit of the people of the world!

Historical memory and inheritance

Three British prisoners of war fled to Chongqing and later returned to Britain from Chongqing. Among the 381 British prisoners of war who were rescued by fishermen, they suffered from labor in Japan. Only about 110 survived, with a survival rate of less than 30%. However, the surviving prisoners were grateful for the selfless assistance of the fishermen on Dongji Island that year!

The net of sky is vast and sparse without leakage! In 1946, Japanese related personnel who participated in the abuse and massacre of prisoners of war in Lisbon Maru were all under fair trials in Hong Kong, China. At that time, the British government sent a letter of thanks to the fishermen of Dongji Island. Since it was a collective rescue, no one knew who should be given to it. The fishermen posted the letter on the village’s ancestral hall, saying that this was the dignity of the entire island and passed on as the spirit of "rescue when you fall into the sea" in the village.

The rescued British prisoners of war also collected 2,000 pounds to the fishermen on Dongji Island after World War II. They were all returned intact by the fishermen, and the postscript reads: "It is the duty to save people."

Now, on the coast of Qingbang Island, Dongji Island, stands a monument cast in naval bronze, called Dongji Fishermen's rescue of British prisoners. It is a permanent memory of the transnational rescue in 1942, a witness to the Sino-British Allied forces fighting side by side, and a shining of the kindness of human nature!

Conclusion

In short, the real history behind the scenes of Dongji Island is a magnificent song written by the Chinese military and civilians in pursuit of justice, and is worth remembering by history. It tells us that history cannot be forgotten and justice overcomes evil!