Remembering China's merchant navy heroes

This underlines arguably the greatest tragedy of the affair. It was not just the injustice done to those taken away, but the equally large one done to the innocents left behind, including hundreds of children who grew up with no knowledge of what had happened to their fathers.

The story was covered in a recent podcast and documentary movie for History Hit TV, which featured Lucienne Loh, a reader in English literature at the University of Liverpool, who has been involved in raising awareness of the forced deportation story.

She told China Daily that there were a number of elements unique to Liverpool and its Chinese population that contributed to the incident, its consequences and the current revived interest.

"I first came across the story when I worked with members of the Chinese community on the story of their history in Liverpool, and one thing many of them had in common was a family link to the Blue Funnel line," she explained. "Its longevity and size means Liverpool's Anglo-Chinese community is unique in the UK, because of its extensive integration with the white British and Irish community, which is what first drew me to the story.

"As far as I know, the sailors weren't even necessarily returned to the ports or cities they came from, they were just dumped in the nearest colonial port, so overnight, people lost their fathers and husbands, with no idea where they'd gone.

"People often ask why the fathers didn't try to reconnect with their families, but a lot of the mothers didn't really want to draw attention to what had happened, or their children's ethnicity, so they often moved out to the suburbs and remarried, not drawing attention to the children's heritage, making any contact much harder."

The lost sailors are now commemorated with a memorial on the Pier Head in Liverpool docks, which honors "the many Chinese merchant seamen … required to leave … for their wives and partners who were left in ignorance… for the children who never knew their fathers… this is a small reminder of what took place. We hope nothing like it will ever happen again".