As Europeans commemorate the end of World War II 60 years ago people in Asia are remembering the end of the Sino-Japanese war. The brutal conflict between Japan and China, which ran from 1937 to 1945, resulted in the deaths of about 35 million Chinese people and three million Japanese.
The war still casts a shadow over Asia and continues to influence relations between China and Japan. Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi recently acknowledged that the conflict 'caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries'.
Six decades later, memories of the misery it caused have not diminished.
Earlier this year, angry protests erupted in China following the publication of a school textbook in Japan which glossed over wartime atrocities committed by the Japanese army. The textbook outraged Chinese people. The controversy resulted in several days of demonstrations in Chinese cities, and Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated to their worst level in 30 years.
The end of the war in 1945 marked an important turning point for the mainland. It helped pave the way for the development of modern China - finally free from foreign interference.
As Jasper Becker noted in The Chinese: 'With the defeat of Japan at the end of the Second World War, the civil war in China between the Kuomintang and the Communists intensified. The KMT was defeated and fled to Taiwan and in October 1949, Mao [Zedong] announced the founding of the People's Republic of China.'
The seeds of the Sino-Japanese conflict had been sown decades earlier. As Japan developed into a modern military power in the 19th century, a showdown with traditional rival China became inevitable. While Japan modernised, China - under the rule of Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty - remained antiquated and disunited.