To celebrate the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan in WWII, a special screening of The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru will take place at Central Saint Martins in London.
What happened to those British soldiers in East Asia during the Second World War? Central Saint Martins will host a special screening of the award-winning documentary The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru to explore this overlooked wartime tragedy and the acts of bravery and humanitarian efforts that emerged.
The screening will take place on December 12th from 5:30pm at Central Saint Martins.
The documentary was directed and produced by Fang Li. It takes viewers through the tragedy of the sinking of the Lisbon Maru.
In October 1942, the Japanese freighter Lisbon Maru was en route to Japan from Hong Kong, which had fallen to Japanese attacks on Christmas Day the previous year. The ship was packed with 1,800 British Prisoners of War being taken to Japan to be used for manual labour. Unbeknownst to the allies, the Lisbon Maru was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine off the coast of China. Over the next dozen hours, the ship slowly sinks as the prisoners of War are left to die. Finally managing to escape, over 300 are rescued from the water and Japanese bullets by Chinese fishermen from the nearby Zhoushan archipelago.
Following the screening, there will be a Q&A chaired by Iris Yau (CSM Lecturer I Historian I Curator) with speakers Ken Salmon (Descendant of the ‘384 Libson Maru Survivors’, Lisbon Maru Memorial Association) and Dr Hui Man Chan (Founder & Director of UK-China Film Collab).
This special screening is made possible with the support of and in collaboration with UK-China Film Collab (UCFC), UAL Equality, Diversity, Inclusion (UAL-EDI), Group for the Equality of Minority Staff (UAL-GEMS), Central Saint Martins (CSM Events).
If you like this article, why not read: The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru Review
