Taipei, May 6 (CNA) A documentary compiled from thousands of hours of original footage from the World War II era that is to be shown in Taiwan is designed to show viewers the brutal war as a part of Taiwan's history and as it really happened, a political commentator said Thursday.
Taiwan, as a part of Japanese territory at the time, was a part of WWII and this should not be forgotten, said Cheng Hung-yi, a reporter-turned-TV commentator, in a press conference to announce the release of "WWII Lost Films, " a History Channel production.
The 10-part high definition film, which uses first-person narrative and diaries from the time to tell the stories of 12 Americans who experienced the war in Europe and the Pacific first-hand, will be shown on Taiwan's digital television channel May 10-14.
"History should be a mix of everything that has happened -- the good and the bad, " said Cheng, who recounted a story of his uncle, who served as a Japanese soldier in the Pacific War, in his review of the documentary.
"My uncle told me that Japanese soldiers were told to never surrender to the Americans because they were expected to be treated with no mercy and even be killed. Eventually he was captured and found out that the Americans provided the prisoners of war -- who had been starving prior to their capture -- with beef and milk, " he said.
The story shows how real history can be distorted and why people, and especially the media, should view and record history objectively, he added.
Taiwan's role in WWII remains a sensitive and controversial issue in local textbooks because political issues were involved, Cheng noted. However, he went on, the experiences of Taiwanese who served in the Japanese Imperial Army and fought against China in the Sino-Japanese War should be documented without prejudice because they were all real-life experiences and part of life for that generation.
The rare footage, some of which has not seen since the 1940s, draws upon more than 3,000 hours of film from archives and private collections across the globe, said Rosanne Lu, marketing director of AETN All Asia Network, which represents the History Channel in Asia. (By Chris Wang) ENDITEM/J