大象传媒

Chris Pix
22nd May 2005

The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru/3 鈥� Originally by G.C. Hamilton.

By dawn on 2nd October, it was apparent to Capt. Kyoda Shigeru, according to his evidence at his trial, that the ship was in imminent danger of sinking, and he sent a flag message to the 鈥淭oyokuni Maru鈥� at 8.10 am asking permission for everyone to abandon ship. At 8.45 am he was informed that a ship would be sent alongside to take off the Japanese guards and the crew, but NOT the prisoners. 鈥淎ll the Japanese, of course, were prepared to share a common fate with the British Prisoners of War鈥�, said the official Japanese account. 鈥溾�漈hat was why we all put on our life-buoys at the same time鈥�. It seems probable, in fact, that nearly ALL the Japanese had been removed from the ship at this time, leaving only a small rearguard of about five guards to keep the prisoners from escaping.

The Break Out.

By about 9 am, 24 hours after the torpedoing, the air in the holds was dangerously foul and it was evident that the men could not survive much longer. Then the ship gave a heavy lurch and it was apparent that she could not last much longer. Lt. Col. Stewart ordered Lieut. Howell to try again to force the hatch covers. This time he found the rickety wooden staircase which led to the hatch cover. He mounted the stairs, forced his knife between the timbers, cut the rope, sliced the tarpaulin and then with great effort forced up one of the baulks of timber.
He then climbed through the aperture, followed by Lieut. Potter and a few other men.
After reporting to Lt. Col. Stewart that he could see an island, Howell noticed some British Gunners from No. 3 hold struggling to get out through portholes on to the well deck. He unscrewed a bulkhead door to release them and then made a second opening in the hatch at the point where the iron rung ladder led up from the hold.

The Japanese (it is believed that only about five of them were left by this time) had taken no action up to this point, but they now opened fire from the bridge. Howell ducked and the shots went through the hole that Howell had made, killing one man in the hold and slightly injuring Lieut. G,C. Hamilton (author of this account). The Japanese then fired again at the escape party and wounded Lieut. Potter. Lieut. Howell assisted him back into the hold where he died.
As soon as Lt. Howell returned to the hold he was asked by Lt. Col. Stewart about the state of the ship. There was a long pause in the silence of the hold before Howell replied that the position was desperate and that the ship would sink at any moment. The ship then gave a further lurch; possessions began to slide across the hatch and water poured in through the first opening in the hatch which Howell had made. Lt. Col. Stewart then gave the order for all to leave the hold. This was soon after 9 am. Led by Howell a number of men rushed up the staircase on to the deck and plunged over the side of the ship into the water, where they started to swim towards the islands. They were fired at from the bridge and some were hit.
For the first time since the torpedo struck the ship there was some panic in the hold, as men raced up the wooden stairway and climbed the iron ladders, desperately trying to push aside the heavy baulks of timber. Some men climbed over each other鈥檚 shoulders, some fell to the bottom of the hold and there was great noise and shouting. But this lasted only for a short time and order was quickly restored, the men forming up into long queues at the stairways and ladders.

Water continued to pour in through the openings in the hatch and there seemed little hope of getting out before the ship sank. In the dim light which filtered into the hold, Capt. Cuthbertson, Adjutant of the Royal Scots, carefully put on his Tam O鈥橲hanter, and in reply to a question on whether caps were to be worn on this parade 鈥� answered that he preferred to meet his God properly dressed. Had the ship sunk at this stage, few would have escaped, but by good fortune the stern had come to rest on a sandbank leaving the forepart of the ship as far as the bridge sticking out of the water, with successive waves pouring into the hold.
She remained in this position for about an hour, which gave sufficient time for all live men to climb or be assisted out of the three holds.

On arrival on deck some men immediately plunged into the water, while others remained on deck, wondering at their survival and seeking some place where they could at last respond to a long outstanding call of nature. Some men through ropes down into the hold to increase the number of exits, and Lt. Col. Stewart, despite a bad leg, climbed one of the ropes and was helped onto the deck, immaculate as usual, complete with cap and swagger cane. Captain Cuthbertson, the last to leave the No. 2 hold, first descended to the bottom to ensure that no live person remained there. Lt. J.T. Pollock, RN, who had been entrusted by the officers in Hong Kong with some funds for the use of the men in Japan, went back into No.1 hold and succeeded in rescuing the money. By this time the firing had stopped, for there were no longer any Japanese on board. Where or how they had gone remains a mystery; but it seems probable that the Gunners, released by Howell into the well deck, had managed to make their way to the bridge, and had effectively silenced them. It is certainly NOT possible to believe Captain Kyoda鈥檚 claim at his trial that he remained on board and assisted the prisoners to launch rafts, or, according to the official report: 鈥渞emained on the bridge until the last of the prisoners was transferred to the lifeboats鈥�.

It was pleasant on deck in the sunshine of a bright October day. Some men sat quietly down in the bows of the ship and discussed what they should do next. Some produced rare cigarettes. About five miles to the west were some islands; this looked like a long swim for men in poor condition. Moreover, a large proportion of the men had no life belts. Major Walker, second in command of the Royal Scots, gave his life belt to a non swimmer and was not seen again.
Near at hand, to the west, between the ship and the islands, were a number of Japanese auxiliary vessels and tugs, some of them surrounded by men in the water vainly asking to be picked up and being pushed back into the water; and the firing of shots could be heard.
To the east was the open sea. This to some looked inviting, since death by drowning in the open air seemed almost attractive by comparison with the rigours of the hold or the indignity of a futile attempt to be rescued by the inhospitable Japanese ships.

In the Sea

But the matter was again decided by accident because there was a strong tide flowing westward towards the Japanese ships and the islands. In fact, the incipient tidal wave, famous in Hangehow Bay at that time of year. As men plunged into the sea, hanging onto boxes, baulks of timber or even dismantled latrines, they were carried inexorably in that direction. While they were in the water, there was the sound of another explosion, looking back they saw the bows of the ship sinking beneath the waves. The time was about 10.30 am. At some stage further orders must have been issued, for the Japanese boats started to pick up those prisoners who had not yet drifted past them towards the islands. The reason for this policy is not known, but it seems possible that the Japanese, observing that some men were reaching the islands and would tell their story, decided that they had better rescue those who still remained.

The Islands, which had been seen from the ship, turned out to be the Sing Pang Islands in the Chusan Archipelago off the coast of Chekiang Province. The coast was rocky and the powerful tide dashed against the seaward faces of the cliffs. Howell was one of the first to reach the largest of the islands and was picked up by sampan. Speaking Shanghai dialect, he was able to explain to the villagers that the swimmers bobbing about in the water were British prisoners of war and not Japanese, whose fate the Chinese villagers had been contemplating with equanimity. As a result the Chinese set off in junks and sampans in order to assist the survivors. They picked up a considerable number of exhausted swimmers, while other villagers assisted those who had swum or had drifted to the islands and helped them to land on the rocky shore. Many, however, were unable to obtain a footing and were swept past the islands and eventually drowned. Some 200 survivors were assembled on the islands, where the villagers fed and clothed them from their own scanty supplies and treated them with great kindness, until the Japanese landed a force from destroyers on the following day and collected all but three of the prisoners. These three, Mr A. J. W. Evans, Manager of the British Cigarette Co., Mr. W. C. Johnstone and Mr Wallace were hidden by the village representative, Mr Woo Tung Ling who later arranged their escape to Chungking.

Those who were picked up in the water by Japanese vessels were collected together on the deck of a large gunboat which for three days and nights steamed around collecting survivors from the islands and, presumably, waiting for orders. The prisoners, who had previously suffered the intense heat of Lisbon Maru鈥檚 holds, now had to endure the cold and exposure of the deck, which was partially protected by a tarpaulin. Rain fell, the tarpaulin leaked, and the best clothed of the prisoners possessed only a shirt and a pair of shorts. Others were clad only in underpants, and a few were naked. Food was very scanty. When rations were first issued on the night of the 2nd October, no one had touched any food for two days. For the next three days food consisted of a twice daily ration of two biscuits and a cigarette tin of warm soya bean milk. Then, at last, when some men had died from exposure and exhaustion, the gunboat sailed for the Railway Wharf in the Whangpoo River, half way between Woosung and Shanghai, where the prisoners were landed on the docks on 5th October. There were many pleasant reunions as friends met each other again, but there were also many absent faces.

The Roll Call

Then began the group roll call taken by the subaltern in charge or by the senior N.C.O., assisted by Interpreter Niimori who beat the men into line with a stick. There were many who did not answer their names. Out of 50 prisoners of war in Group 20, 26 men , including C.Q.M.S. Henderson, were no longer there. Less than half of Lt. Howell鈥檚 group remained, and this was the common pattern. Of the 1816 officers and men who had left Hong Kong, only 970 answered their names, leaving 843 (taking into account the three who escaped) who were assumed to have been killed or drowned. When the roll call was complete, the Japanese issued each man a light corduroy jacket and trousers, a shirt and a pair of felt slippers. This was to be their only clothing for the next few weeks in the cold Japanese weather, and these items turned out to be infested with lice.

Shanghai to Japan

Thirty five of the prisoners who were seriously ill were left in Shanghai and the remainder were then loaded in the holds of a Japanese transport, the 鈥淪hensei Maru鈥�, in conditions similar to those on the Lisbon Maru. Dysentery and Diphtheria were now rife and the men in poor shape, five of them dying on the journey to Japan. The ship docked at Moji on the 10th October, where 36 of the worst cases of dysentery were removed to hospital. The remaining prisoners were directed into two groups, the larger, consisting of about 500 men destined for Kobe, and the remainder for Osaka. Press representatives spoke to some of the prisoners, who had been warned not to speak freely about their experiences because of inevitable reprisals, for it was obvious that the Japanese would not tolerate an accurate account of the matter.
This reticence enabled the Japanese to claim that: 鈥渨ith one voice and in the highest possible terms these surviving British prisoners referred to the strength and warm heartedness of the Imperial Forces, and lauded the gallantry of the Japanese鈥�.

To their great surprise the prisoners were loaded on a comfortable passenger train at Moji and were provided with regular meals of excellent quantity and quality. After several hours travelling, the train stopped at a station and an announcement was made that the prisoners who were most ill would be taken off the train and sent to hospital. About 50 of the worst cases were dropped off at Kokura, where 21 of them died, and others were off loaded at a place which was later to become well known: Hiroshima. The remaining 326 were carried on to Osaka, where they were accommodated in barracks in the middle of the town.

The prisoners had now lost all their possessions for the second time. At the time of surrender in Hong Kong, those who had been out in the hills lost everything except that which was carried in their haversacks. In the ensuing months they had managed to buy, scrounge or purchase through the wire some modest necessities. Now everything was lost once more and they had nothing except the clothes on their backs, no even a towel, soap, toothbrush or handkerchief, and it was many weeks before they obtained these necessary articles.

The Casualties:

The men were so weakened by their experiences that casualties were high during the next few months. Lt. Col. Stewart and Capt. Cuthbertson both died soon after arrival. During the first year in Japan 244 died: in Kobe 114, in Osaka 55, in Kokura 21, in Moji 24 and an estimated 30 in other places. Most of them could have been saved by proper care and attention. Thus, out of the original 1816 officers and men, 843 were drowned or killed during the sinking, 5 died on the Shensei Maru en route to Japan and 244 died subsequently in Japan making a total of 1,092, leaving just 724 survivors. Of those who died, some (in particular members of the Royal Artillery in No. 3 hold) were drowned before they could leave the hold; some drowned in the sea; some were shot; some were killed on the rocky shores of the islands; some died of exposure and exhaustion, and some of disease.

In December 1942, the Japanese Army Secret Order No. 1504 contained the following:
鈥淩ecently, during the transportation of prisoners of war to Japan, many of them have been taken ill or have died, and quite a few of them have been incapacitated for further work due to their treatment on the journey, which at times was inadequate鈥�. Instructions then followed: 鈥渢hat prisoners should arrive at their destinations in a condition to perform work鈥�. This order had little effect, and in March 1944 Vice Minister for War Tominaga, foreseeing the wrath to come, drew attention to the high death rate among prisoners, and added: 鈥淚f the present conditions continue to exist, it will be impossible for us to expect World opinion to be what we would wish it to be鈥�. HOW RIGHT HE WAS !!

Aftermath

Lt. H.M. Howell was awarded the M.B.E. for his gallantry in breaking open the hold to permit the prisoners to escape; and Lt. Norman Broenlow, Royal Scots, received a similar award for rescuing from the sea the men who were trying to clamber ashore on the islands.
Interpreter Niimori Genichiro was tried in September 1946 and received 15 years imprisonment. Expecting the death sentence, he danced with joy as the sentence was read out.
Captain Kyodo Shigeru, Master of the Lisbon Maru, was tried before a different Tribunal in October 1946 and was also sentenced to 15 years. Lt. Wada died before he could be brought to trial. After the War, Capt. (now Major General) C.M.M. Mann M.C., of the Middlesex Regiment, organized a fund among the survivors in order that the proceeds might be sent to the Sing Pang Islanders as a token of gratitude.

In February 1949, His Excellency the Governor of Hong Kong presented to Mr Woo Tung-Ling and other representatives of the islands a motor fishing launch and some monetary awards. Thirteen of the survivors were present: H.M. Howell M.B.E., G.C. Hamilton, F.K. Garton, J. Hill, A. Salmon, W.A. Taylor, W.C. Johnstone (who escaped from the islands) T.H. Gorman, T.C. Evans, J. Robson, J. McDougall, A. Woodhead and J. Campbell.

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