Born in Taiwan, but forced to leave his home after Japan lost World War II, Kazuya Shimizu yesterday finally realized his dream of revisiting the site of the village in Hualien County where he was born.

The 70-year-old Shimizu is a wansei, the Japanese term used to describe someone born or who grew up in Taiwan and is a descendant of Japanese immigrants who had come to Taiwan during the Japanese occupation from 1895 to 1945.