This year marks the 50th anniversary of both the establishment of diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level between China and the UK as well as the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan. It is also the 80th anniversary of the sinking of the Lisbon Maru and the heroic rescue that followed.

In the first installment of what will be a two-part feature, we’re going to talk about the sinking of the Lisbon Maru, a Japanese transport ship carrying more than 1,800 British prisoners of war that was torpedoed by a US submarine off the eastern coast of China during World War II.