An elderly Chinese war veteran's shin still bears the mark of a bullet wound he suffered when fighting the Japanese as a teenager, a year before the end of World War II.

Eighty years on, Li Jinshui's scar remains as testimony to the bravery of Chinese troops in a conflict that killed millions of their people.

But the story behind China's overthrow of the brutal Japanese occupation is deeply contested.

Historians broadly agree that credit for victory lies primarily with the Nationalist army, the dominant Chinese force at the time.

However, its leader, Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's communists, laying the groundwork for decades of cross-strait tensions that continue to this day.

Beijing argues that the Communist Party (CCP) played a central role in the war, bolstered by the stories of Li and his comrades' courage and sacrifice.

It is a narrative expected to prevail at a major military parade on September 3.

"With the country in trouble, Chinese people with conscience had to stand up," said Li, who turned 98 on Wednesday and was a soldier in the CCP-run Eighth Route........

© International Business Times