I think the reason the Chinese are so angry about WWII is straightforward. Japan tried to delete their civilization. Killing people is different from killing *a people*. The former is just history. The latter requires Germany-level penance, and even then Jews hold grudges.
I understand this well because this «civilizational» thinking is very natural for Russians, and WWII was a similar experience in Russia. WWI was just another, bigger, bloody horror. Had we lost WWII, we would have ceased to exist as a people. People have collective identities.
