Eighty years after the end of World War II, China and Japan are marking the anniversary with major events, but on different dates and in different ways.

Japan remembers the victims in a solemn ceremony on August 15, the day when the Emperor Hirohito announced in a crackly radio message that the government had surrendered, while China showcases its military strength with a parade on September 3, the day after the formal surrender on an American battleship in Tokyo Bay.

Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945, in a ceremony on board the American battleship U.S.S. Missouri.

China designated the next day as Victory Day.

Ten years ago, China staged a military parade on the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.

A decade later, preparations are underway for another grand parade with missiles, tanks and fighter jets overhead. Russia's President Vladimir Putin is among those expected to attend.

Japan occupied much of China before and during WWII in a devastating and brutal invasion that, by some estimates, killed 20 million people.

The wartime experience still affects relations between the two countries today.

Nowadays, it is China’s military that raises alarm as it seeks to enforce the government’s territorial claims in the Pacific.