Homecoming of the Overseas

During the Japanese colonial era, large numbers of Taiwanese were mobilized or voluntarily traveled throughout the Japanese Empire. After the war ended, Taiwanese scattered across mainland China, Southeast Asia, and Japan proper faced the question of repatriation. Some returned to the "motherland" filled with anticipation, only to find their homeland utterly transformed.

Ong Iok-tek — a linguist from Tainan and pioneer of the Taiwan independence movement — chose to remain in Japan after the war, becoming a key figure in the overseas Taiwan independence movement. Su Ni-uo — a Taiwanese intellectual residing in mainland China — witnessed the upheaval of the Chinese Civil War and eventually returned to Taiwan only to face the White Terror.

This volume presents the diaspora experiences and identity struggles of overseas Taiwanese in the aftermath of empire through these personal stories.