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![[ENCORE] The Empire's Last Solider (29 Years, 3 Months, and 16 Days)](https://getpodpage.com/image_transform_gate_v3/zRBNVbv2U9nR0BScscUND5S9tvRk9MSsPOBWV9q-gMk=/?image_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%2Fredwood-labs%2Fshowpage%2Fuploads%2Fimages%2Fe99a06aa-db6b-4079-bf32-52d547e99504.jpg&w=1200&h=630&fill=blur "[ENCORE] The Empire's Last Solider (29 Years, 3 Months, and 16 Days)")
The last Japanese "holdout" of World War II was an Indigenous Amis Taiwanese named Attun Palalin, but in Japanese Formosa, he was Nakamura Teruo (中村 輝夫). Palalin was one of a group of Indigenous Taiwanese who served in the Japanese military as part of the Takasago Volunteer Unit 高砂義勇隊. The Takasago Unit was built on the idea that Indigenous Taiwanese were best suited for guerilla-style fighting in Southeast Asian jungles as they could live off the land and were accustomed to tropical climates, etc. Several thousand Indigenous men were recruited. Many Formosans served under the flag of the Rising Sun with distinction during the Second World War; no one, however, was apparently more dedicated than "The Empire's Last Solider," Attun Palalin, who kept "fighting" on an island in modern-day Indonesia until 1974! Enjoy your summer, catch up on episodes, and check out this encore episode, first released in October 2021.
Cover image: Members of the Indigenous Taiwanese Takasago volunteers (高砂義勇隊). Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Almost 210,000 Formosans fought for Japan as Taiwanese Imperial Japan Servicemen (台籍日本兵); more than 30,000 lost their lives.
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
