Lu Zuofu

Lu Zuofu founded the Minsheng Industrial Company in 1925 and by 1937 it owned 46 ships of more than 10,000 tons and nearly 4,000 employees, the largest national shipping enterprise in China. In January 1938 he was appointed executive vice minister of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. After Wuhan fell in October he went to Yichang, where people and cargo were piling up faster than the river could carry them away, and ran the evacuation up the Yangtze into Chongqing. He received the Brilliant Jade Medal in January 1939, the Propitious Clouds Medal in May 1944 and the Victory Medal in October 1945.