Documentary explores the experiences of Taiwanese WWII prisoners of war

A documentary exploring the history of Taiwanese soldiers detained by the Soviet Union in prisoner of war camps after fighting for Japan in World War II was screened in Tokyo on Saturday last week.

Memories Frozen in Time (冰封的記憶), directed by Hsu Ming-chun (許明淳), traces the lives of Taiwanese soldiers held by the Soviet Union after Japan’s surrender in 1945.

Hsu spent three years researching records and visiting Taiwan, Japan and Russia, and interviewing former prisoners and their families. Among those featured is 99-year-old Wu Cheng-nan (吳正男), believed to be the only surviving Taiwanese ex-prisoner of war who spent time in the Soviet Union.

Film director Hsu Ming-chun, right, and former prisoner of war Wu Cheng-nan are pictured during a premiere of Hsu’s documentary Memories Frozen in Time in Tokyo on Saturday last week.

Photo: CNA

Wu said he considers himself fortunate to have survived the war and about two years of captivity.

During WWII, when Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule, more than 200,000 Taiwanese joined the Japanese military and were sent to battlefields across Asia, with about 30,000 killed or reported missing in the war, the National Human Rights Museum said.

Wu was born in 1927 in Tainan Prefecture. He went to Japan to study at the age of 14 and joined the Japanese military at 17.

According to the National Cultural Memory Bank, Wu was serving at Sondok Airport in Korea toward the end of the war. While awaiting repatriation to Japan after the war, he was taken prisoner by Soviet forces. He was transported to a detention camp in Kazakhstan, where he was subjected to two years of forced labor.

After Japan’s surrender, the Soviet Union transported Japanese prisoners of war to Siberia and other areas for forced labor, many of whom died as a result.

Wu was repatriated in July 1947. Because he was still using his Japanese name and had provided the address of relatives in Japan, he was sent to Japan rather than Taiwan. He completed high school and university in Japan and eventually settled there.

The screening was followed by a discussion with Hsu and Wu, who said the film was an opportunity to open a dialogue across generations about memories of war and what it means to be Taiwanese.

“My greatest happiness in life is that I came back alive from the battlefield,” Wu said, adding that despite the hardships he endured, he did not reject the experience, because it ultimately became part of the life he was able to live.

People should remember not only the survivors, but the thousands of Taiwanese who never returned from the war, he said.

Many had their own lives and stories, but those stories were never passed on to later generations, he added.

Reflecting on Taiwan’s complicated historical memories and questions surrounding identity, Hsu said his generation has a responsibility to share different aspects of Taiwanese history with others and younger generations.

The film ends with two people born in 2005, including Hsu’s son.

Hsu said he had never seriously discussed history and identity with his son before making the documentary, prompting him to realize that such conversations needed to start within his own family.

He said he hoped the film would encourage audiences to ask their parents and grandparents about their experiences.

Wu said he spent decades seeking a place in Japan to commemorate Taiwanese who died during the war. A memorial site was established last summer in Yokohama, which he said was a source of great comfort.

He said he hopes people would remember not only the stories of the few who survived, but also those of the tens of thousands who never had the chance to speak.

“More important than the dozen or so people who are still alive to tell their wartime experiences are the 30,000 who are no longer with us,” he added.