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One episode in Taiwan’s forgotten, even deliberately buried, past has been recovered in the documentary Wansei Back Home. Wansei refers to Japanese who were born in Taiwan during the colonial period (1895 - 1945). After WWII, wansei were repatriated to Japan; since then, painful separation stories have occurred throughout Taiwan and Japan.

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This documentary took 12 years of field interviews and five years of filming production, it was a passion project of Taiwan-based producer Mika Tanaka and director Ming-Cheng Huang. The documentary film and book, Wansei Back Home, which tells the remarkable life story of civilians, was born because of Mika’s hard work and dedication to the cause. Wansei Back Home features interviews with eight wansei; the film incorporates historical footage, old family photos, and animation, to tell their story of enforced separation from childhood friends and relatives in the Japanese settlements in Taiwan, and the peculiar sensation of being estranged from their own hometowns.