The forgotten soldiers: New documentary brings Taiwan's hidden World War II history to light

A new documentary that premiered in Taipei shed light on the largely forgotten story of more than 200,000 Taiwanese who served under the Japanese Empire during World War II.

A missing chapter reclaimed

For many outside Taiwan, and indeed for many Taiwanese themselves, the island's role in World War II remains one of East Asia's least understood historical narratives.

That omission stood at the heart of the new documentary, "120°0′0″E–135°0′E Blazing Youth" (Taiwan Soldiers: Blazing Youth), which premiered in Taipei on June 28, seeking to restore a forgotten generation to Taiwan's collective memory.

Rather than recounting the Pacific War through the familiar perspectives of the Allies or Imperial Japan, the film examines the conflict through the experiences of colonial subjects. It explores how Taiwan — then Japan's most strategically important colony for its Southeast Asian policy — became deeply entwined in the war after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

The documentary traces the complex motivations that drew Taiwanese into military service, ranging from voluntary enlistment and economic necessity to social pressure, colonial indoctrination, and a desire for dignity within the Japanese imperial system.

History told by those who lived it

The documentary relied almost entirely on extensive first-hand testimony from surviving Taiwanese veterans who served in the Imperial Japanese military, mostly as laborers.

Instead of centering on a single protagonist or relying heavily on historians' interpretations, the film assembled numerous oral histories into a collective narrative.

Supported by archival materials, it reconstructed Taiwan's wartime experience through the voices of those who witnessed it firsthand. This approach helped the audience understand not only what happened, but why so many Taiwanese found themselves fighting in a war that was ultimately not their own.

Interviewees recounted serving as military laborers, nurses, and logistical personnel. Indigenous Taiwanese were recruited into the famed Takasago Volunteers, valued by Japanese commanders for their mountain survival skills, combat abilities, and medical knowledge before being deployed across Southeast Asia and places like New Guinea.

As Japan's military fortunes deteriorated, colonial restrictions were relaxed. People from the colonies, such as Taiwanese and Koreans who were previously restricted from serving as combatants, were even trained as members of special attack units intended for suicide missions.

Many never returned from the war. Others survived only to recall bitterly that they had nearly sacrificed their lives for an external empire.

Numerous Taiwanese who served the Japanese empire but were never recognized as equals died overseas and were buried anonymously, effectively becoming stateless casualties of war.

An overlooked legacy

The Kaohsiung-based Taiwan Veterans Association, producer of the documentary, said that according to statistics compiled in 1973 by the Japanese government, 80,433 Taiwanese served as military personnel and another 126,750 as laborers during the Pacific War, bringing the total to 207,183.

More than 30,000 were killed in action, while the combined official number of those killed or listed as missing exceeded 53,000.

With Taiwan's population standing at approximately 6.13 million in 1943, the Taiwan Veterans Association said that roughly one in every 30 residents became part of Japan's wartime military apparatus.

Yet despite the scale of that participation, the story largely disappeared from public consciousness after the Republic of China government assumed control of Taiwan in 1945.

For decades, educational curricula emphasized a broader Chinese nationalist historical narrative, while the political climate during the White Terror discouraged open discussion of experiences that complicated official interpretations of history.

As a consequence, the memories of Taiwanese veterans gradually faded alongside the generation that lived them.

Preserving memory before it vanishes

Following the premiere, Zhu Jia-huang (朱家煌), the doctor-turned chairman of the Taiwan Veterans Association, introduced two surviving Taiwanese veterans in attendance. He added that another veteran had recently joined him on a remembrance visit to Okinawa.

He said that while people in the United States, Japan, South Korea, Okinawa, and other places have knowledge and memories of World War II, Taiwanese people seem to have had their related memories deliberately suppressed.

Zhu lamented that Taiwan's wartime history had long been marginalized and said the documentary represented years of painstaking effort to preserve rapidly disappearing testimony.

He said that this part of history is neglected by the curriculum, textbooks as well as public discourse. He stated that he wanted to make everyone’s voice heard and thus in the documentary there are Taiwanese, English, Japanese, Mandarin and Taiwanese Indigenous languages.

He expressed regret that such oral history projects had not begun decades earlier, noting that most surviving veterans are now in their 90s or over 100 years old, with many struggling to recall or communicate their experiences.

He also observed that many Taiwanese remain unfamiliar with even the most basic facts of the island's wartime past. When discussing the 1945 bombing of Taipei, for example, he said he was often surprised to encounter people who mistakenly believed Japan had bombed Taiwan, unaware that Taiwan was then part of the Japanese Empire and that the bombing had been carried out by Allied forces.

Among those attending the screening was a centenarian veteran who reflected on the extraordinary trajectory of his life: After returning to Taiwan in a Japanese uniform following Japan's defeat, he was later conscripted by the Republic of China and sent to fight in the Chinese Civil War. "Taiwanese people," he remarked, "have long been made to fight wars for others."

As the world marks more than eight decades since the end of World War II, the documentary argues that confronting neglected historical truths is not merely an exercise in remembrance.

By recovering the stories of those whose experiences have long remained absent from textbooks, it seeks to foster historical justice, deepen human rights education, and encourage dialogue across generations about the enduring human cost of war.