Saysitlikeitis comments

It depends heavily on the nations/people's self-perception. Prior to being given to Japan after the Sino-Japanese war, Taiwan was already a Chinese colony. Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, India, all colonies of other Major Powers before Japan came along. These are nations that didn't have independence until after the Japanese came and went. They never "lost independence because of Japan" or had "independent sovereignty infringed on by Japan". What happened was one day their masters were white, the next day their masters were Japanese, then the Japanese left and they got independence. For most of ASEAN, they can say "WWII sucked, but all's well that ends well, we got independence out of it anyhow". The sentiment is very different in China which long saw themselves as the one and only super power in Asia, a people with a long and rich history of being the conquerers, being the colonizers. Japanese invasion is seen as a humiliation. It's a lot more personal.