POW survivor condemns bid to raise war grave from sea
ONE of the survivors of a Japanese ship that sunk with hundreds of British prisoners of war aboard has condemned plans to raise the wreck, saying those who died should be left in peace.
Dennis Morley, a 22-yearold in the Royal Scots regiment when the Lisbon Maru was sunk in 1942, says that it should be left as a war grave in the East China Sea.
The plans to raise the ship are being led by Fang Li, a Chinese film-maker, who has the backing of some of the families.
More than 1,800 British prisoners of war were being taken from Hong Kong to Japanese labour camps in the hold of the cargo ship when it was hit on Oct 1 1942.
The guards battened down the hatches to try to drown the prisoners, before shooting at those who escaped. More than 820 died.
Mr Morley, now 98 and the only survivor left in Britain, told the BBC: “It’s no good getting them out. They’re all dead. They are probably bleached bones now. It’s wartime and a lot of horrible things happened during the war. They’re in peace. Leave them in peace.”
Mr Li, who commissioned the survey which discovered a wreck last year believed to be the Lisbon Maru near the Zhoushan archipelago, 100 miles south-east of Shanghai, has been searching for relatives of those who lost their lives.
He says: “All those boys were detained there against their will, that’s why I feel so sad today – they are still detained on the sea floor.
“They are on the Chinese sea floor in a Japanese jail. Shouldn’t we free them, and send them home?” Mr Li, who has been filming a documentary on the topic, has the backing of some of the soldiers’ families, including Amanda Christian, who says that visiting the gravestone of her grandfather is “not good enough”.
“If you send a man to war, you should bring him home, dead or alive,” she said.
The Lisbon Maru was sunk by an American submarine, the Grouper, but the crew had no idea that the 7,000-ton cargo ship had Pows aboard until they picked up a signal days later.
Mr Morley was in one of three holds and said that the men knew they had been hit by a torpedo as soon as the ship started listing, and that they had to get out fast.
Later this month, divers will visit the wreck to try to find proof that it is the Lisbon Maru.