Many Pacific War survivors still bitter about Japanese aggression (8min)

Sixty years after World War II ended in Asia, memories are still vivid and raw about Japan's aggression and brutal occupation of many countries in the region. Millions of people died in fighting, from starvation, disease and, what survivors generally describe as, the sheer cruelty of the Japanese.

In the days following the December 8 attacks, British and Chinese forces fought the Japanese Army advancing from southern China. But it was futile, with no gun ships and no air cover, Hong Kong fell on December 26, 1941.

And so would the rest of Asia. Asia's European and U.S. colonial rulers, their mighty ships and airplanes destroyed by the surprise Japanese attack, were forced to a humiliating retreat from capitals like Manila, Rangoon and Singapore.

For nearly four years, the Japanese occupied much of Asia from parts of China to the Pacific islands. Accounts of those years almost unanimously paint a picture of cruelty. The Japanese sent thousands of captured Allied soldiers to decrepit prisons and labor camps. People were indiscriminately killed, women raped or used as sex slaves.

Japanese forces justified their occupation by promising an "Asia for Asians" to a region then widely controlled by European and American governments. In some places like the Philippines, the Japanese installed a puppet government made up of collaborating local elites. In Burma, independence leader, Aung San, initially sided with the Japanese in the hope of driving the British out of Burma. But the brutality of the occupation failed to convince many.

Sixty years after the conflict, many survivors are still angry at Japan, specifically at what they say is Japan's lack of atonement for its wartime aggression. Gunner Billy Wong says the Japanese still have to show remorse for the suffering of millions of people during the occupation.

On August 2, Japan's parliament, noting the 60th anniversary of the end of the war, passed a resolution expressing "deep regret" for the "suffering" caused by Japan's past actions. The resolution lacked the unequivocal apology so many Asians say they want to hear.

Hundreds of war veterans in Asia, their numbers dwindling because of old age, will gather at different memorials across the region to remember colleagues who fell and to honor the courage of those who survived.

In Hong Kong, no Japanese official has been invited to ceremonies on August 14 -- a sign that some war memories still refuse to heal.