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the movie "the sinking of the lisbon maru" was released in theaters nationwide at the beginning of this month. with the release of the movie, this "sunken" history for 82 years finally surfaced, and the movie has become the highest-rated domestic film so far this year.

"everyone knows the story of the titanic, but almost no one knows the story of the lisbon maru." the lisbon maru incident described in the film took place at china's "doorstep", but has been on the verge of being forgotten for more than 80 years. in the autumn of 1942, this japanese transport ship carrying more than 1,800 british prisoners of war set sail from hong kong. when it reached the waters of my country's dongji island, it was sunk by a us torpedo. the british prisoners of war broke into the cabin to escape, but were frantically shot by the japanese guarding the ship. in the critical moment, hundreds of chinese fishermen risked their lives to rescue them, rowing small sampans back and forth in the hail of bullets, and personally rescued 384 young allied prisoners of war. from sailing to sinking, and then to surviving in despair, the three-act play reproduces the cruelty and restores the truth, and also shows the simple and great moral glory of chinese fishermen on the screen.

history is made up of specific people. the reason why this documentary film "completely based on historical facts" is so touching is that it tells "people's stories". in order to fully reflect the atrocities of the japanese army in world war ii, the trauma of the families of british prisoners, and the heroic deeds of zhoushan fishermen, the crew visited nearly 100 british towns and cities, and also traveled to canada, japan, and the united states, collecting tens of thousands of historical photos and interviewing more than 100 people face to face, including two british prisoners of war survivors and zhoushan fisherman lin agen who participated in the rescue. history is created by people and witnessed by people. returning to the historical scene 82 years ago, chinese fishermen would not have thought that it was their selfless rescue that made the japanese army afraid that their crimes would be made public and stopped the brutal slaughter of prisoners of war. today, when the names of victims, survivors, and rescuers flashed on the big screen one after another, every audience member is also a witness. we should remember those names that were once ignored and the voices that were forgotten.

as the most devastating conflict in human history, there are countless literary and artistic works on the theme of world war ii, but many historical stories with china as the main line have rarely received international attention, so that they have gradually faded out of the collective memory of a generation as time goes by. some scholars have pointed out that there has been a wrong tendency in the international research on world war ii for many years, that is, the focus on the research of the european battlefield has been neglected, especially the research on the tenacious struggle and great sacrifice of the chinese people. this is not only subject to a certain universal "cultural forgetfulness", but more importantly, it is probably due to the serious inequality of international discourse power. take the lisbon maru as an example. for the united states, which sank the warship, it was embarrassing to accidentally hurt the allies, and for the heinous japan, it was even more eager for the whole world to forget its sins. for a long time, there has been no shortage of japanese right-wingers who lied that the lisbon maru prisoners of war rescued by chinese fishermen were a minority, and most of the prisoners of war were rescued thanks to the japanese navy. forgetting history means betrayal, and there is even a risk of being distorted and tampered with by humans. in this sense, saving history and restoring the truth is itself the greater charm of the movie.

"it happened on chinese soil, we should not only tell it, but also speak loudly." as the director of the film said, the story of the lisbon maru is too dramatic, and no screenwriter can write the brutality and morality in this story. history is the most vivid "work". the major powers that participated in the second world war, whether victorious or defeated, are committed to the study of the second world war. for a long time, we have focused more on the macro level and not enough on the micro level in historical research. and the scoundrels with ulterior motives are just the best to take advantage of such loopholes and make trouble by picking words and details. fortunately, we are not far away from that cruel period. we can still see many figures of that era and rescue many historical materials that have not yet disappeared. we must take responsibility and ingenuity, do our best to beat time, and carefully dig out the historical stories and historical details related to us. this is the best commemoration of history and the responsibility to the nation.

the last scene of the movie shows a string of numbers, which are the coordinates of the wreck of the lisbon maru. today, the lisbon maru, which sank 82 years ago, is finally no longer "silent", and we also hope that more world war ii stories related to china will no longer be silent.

written by: gao yuan

source: changan street governor