Preserving Taiwanese WWII voices in?‘The Day the War Ended’｜Taiwan News

Bilingual text here: https://english.ftvnews.com.tw/news/2026821W03EA?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description 雙語文字版: https://english.ftvnews.com.tw/news/2026821W03EA?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description Our official website: ➔ https://english.ftvnews.com.tw/ Follow us on Facebook: ➔ https://www.facebook.com/ftvformosanews X (Twitter): ➔ https://x.com/FTV_Taiwan_News “The Day the War Ended” is a documentary playing across select theaters in Taiwan. It sheds a unique light on Taiwan’s experiences of World War II through the personal accounts of elderly survivors, including the late Taiwan independence pioneer Peng Ming-min. The youngest person to give their story was aged 90 so the film preserves a slice of history that’s about to fade from living memory. Let’s find out more. - How terrifying! Half of the Presidential Office collapsed. - That night, over 100,000 people died within two hours. - Aircraft machine-gunned down the area; someone was hit, knocked unconscious and lost their left hand. Older adults who experienced the war firsthand recall both fear and sorrow vividly in their minds. The documentary "The Day the War Ended" takes movie fans back to Taiwan during World War II. - When you scrambled up, I saw that you had lost an arm - It was hanging by just a strip of skin. I grabbed my arm and ran off the boat as fast as I could, searching the streets everywhere for a doctor. This year marks the 81st anniversary of the end of World War II and the 4th anniversary of the death of Peng Ming-min, the godfather of Taiwan independence. He had given an oral account of his life experiences during World War II. Lu Tzu-ying The Day the War Ended director This book filled in the gaps in my understanding and memory of the war. It showed how people in Taiwan lived on the home front—away from the front line battlefields—and how the war impacted their daily lives. Brought to life from books into color imagery, older adults share their firsthand experiences of war and how their lives transformed in its aftermath. Lu Tzu-ying The Day the War Ended director When the decision was made to adapt the book, it was already 2020, 75 years after the end of the war. So the interviewees we were able to track down were all quite old. The youngest interviewee who we ended up with in the film was 90 years old, and the oldest was 98. Freddy Lim, an interviewer throughout the film, readily agreed to join despite his packed schedule as a sitting legislator at the time. Lu Tzu-ying The Day the War Ended director When we pitched the project to him, he agreed right away, which completely surprised me. When they brought up the Tapani Incident, I didn’t understand it at all, but Freddy jumped right into the conversation. He had already done extensive research on Taiwanese history when writing his songs, so he was able to connect with them immediately. I feel so incredibly lucky. Dry historical subject matter is transformed into an easy-to-understand documentary. The 97 minutes are not just about war, but about preserving personal memories before they slip away from living memory. For more Taiwan news, tune in: Mon to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152 Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53 #Thedaythewarended #Taiwanfilm #Taiwandocumentaries #Worldwar2 #Freddylim #Taiwanhistory #台灣新聞 #TaiwanNews #民視新聞 #FTV新聞 #Taiwan