Editor's note: Zheng Haizhen, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is an assistant researcher at the Department for Global Governance and International Organization Studies, China Institute of International Studies. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

In late September 1942, the Japanese army confined more than 1,800 British prisoners of war (POWs) in the hold of the sinking Lisbon Maru, sealing the hatchways with wooden planks and canvas in a deliberate attempt to drown them all. At this life-and-death moment, fishermen from Zhoushan, breaking through the Japanese blockade and braving enemy shellfire, rowed out in their simple wooden sampans, risking their own lives to save 384 British POWs who were on the brink of death. The fishermen brought them ashore, and provided them with food, clothing and shelter.

This real episode, kept in the shadows for over 80 years, is now brought to the global screen through the film "Dongji Rescue." The movie does not seek to overwhelm with sweeping depictions of war, but instead focuses on the moment when the fishermen plunged into mortal danger. It vividly recreates a rescue imbued with the compassion and warmth of the East – a "Dunkirk" rendered in a distinctly Chinese way.

The truth of history must not be distorted by lies

"Dongji Rescue" is not a legend about a single superhero, but a collective portrait of countless ordinary Chinese people. The fishermen knew all too well that venturing out to sea under the Japanese blockade could cost them their lives; yet they resolutely chose to extend a helping hand to save British strangers they had never met.

This readiness to sacrifice one's own life for people of another nation was not only an Eastern embodiment of universal humanitarian values but also a magnificent chapter in which innumerable ordinary people, guided by conscience and courage, contributed to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War.

However, the truth of history has not always been told as it was. Over the eight decades since the end of World War II (WWII), right-wing forces in Japan have sought to whitewash their history of aggression and deny war crimes by rewriting textbooks and manipulating public opinion.

Through the language of film, "Dongji Rescue" not only lays bare the atrocities committed by the Japanese military but also sets them against the backdrop of present-day efforts by Japan's right wing to distort historical truth. What shocks the audience is not only the cruelty of war itself but also the pressing sense of crisis when historical truth is rewritten: To distort history is far more insidious and more dangerous than to forget it.

The enduring value of "Dongji Rescue" lies in breaking through such deliberate distortion and fabrication, ensuring that history is not buried beneath lies and that justice is not eroded by the passage of time.

Young people across the Straits united in preserving historical memory

After the film was released, many of Taiwan young people living on the Chinese mainland went to watch it at the first opportunity. As one of them, Fan Huaifang said, "It felt as though I was seeing those who stood firm amid the smoke and flames of war." Another Taiwan youth Liao Jiaxing said, "To remember and to pass on this episode is to show respect for the truth of history." Such sentiments are not only a tribute to the past, but also a commitment to the future.

Eighty-three years ago, the fishermen protected not only the lives of the POWs, but also the truth of history itself. Eighty-three years later, when young people from both sides of the Straits walk into cinemas and share their thoughts after watching the film, they are likewise taking part in protecting that truth.

"Dongji Rescue" reminds us that the victory in the global war against fascism was never the triumph of a lone superhero, but the result of countless ordinary people standing side by side in the struggle. To remember history is not to get fixated on the past, but to allow it to serve as a beacon guiding us toward peace and unity. It is for this reason that remembering history is, for every young person across the Straits, not only an act of heartfelt commemoration but also a shared and solemn historical responsibility.

Carrying forward the spirit of harmony to create a shared future of peace

The young people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits are both inheritors of history and builders of the future. They must draw from their shared historical memory a profound understanding of the spiritual essence of the Chinese nation, and carry forward the torch passed down to them by their forebears.

When faced with a life-or-death choice, the fishermen's thoughts were plain and direct: "The ship is sinking. People are dying. We must save them." Behind this simple resolve lies the moral integrity and inner fortitude ingrained in the Chinese character. It gives Chinese people the courage to hold fast to the bottom line of humanity in moments of peril, and a kindness and sense of duty that transcend nationality and borders.

From the bravery of the Dongji Island fishermen to the spirit of resistance in the Wushe Uprising, compatriots across the Straits have, in different chapters of history, demonstrated the same unyielding will and fierce resolve flowing in our shared bloodline. It is a living record of the Chinese nation's resolve to resist foreign aggression, and a reminder to the international community that peace is never a gift granted from above, but an achievement that must be safeguarded willingly and resolutely generation after generation.

At this moment, whether in countering the Japanese right wing's distortion of historical facts or the Democratic Progressive Party authorities' peddling of "Taiwan independence" by denying the cross-Straits cultural ties, it falls upon every young person on both sides of the Straits to keep the truth alive by telling the story again and again so that truth is heard, by defending it time and again so that lies lose their power; and by making steadfast choices that let the historical responsibility – borne on the waves of Dongji Island – gather into a force strong enough to break through lies and oblivion, and be transformed into a light that illuminates the future.

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