We celebrate/commemorate neither the beginning nor the end of WW2. Our people were among the worse affected. The following accounts are very grim. If you don't like depictions or murder and rape, don't read. If you want to read it, highlight the texts in between. This is to avoid people accidentally reading what they don't want to read.

1) Before WW2, we were lorded over by the British, where we were servants on our own homeland.
2) When WW2 started, we begged the Japanese to come and liberate us.
3) When the Japanese arrived, the ones that came were the assholes who spent a lot of time torturing the Chinese in China.
4) So they thought they could do the same shit in our country too. Most that suffered were the Chinese, because for some reason, the Japanese had it in for the Chinese. But the others weren't spared either.
5) Food was scarce. Any grain produced in Malaya was shipped to Japan and China, but they were bombed by Allied bombers.
6) The Japanese continued to send our harvests to Japan. Leaving us and the Japanese army here starving.
7) That made the Japanese soldiers' mood even worse and they started harrassing locals even more, even rapes were common. My grandpa had to dig a hold under his house to hide his daughters whenever the Japanese soldiers came to their village on patrols.
8) Because of this, the people (mostly Chinese) formed the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (aka 3 Star communists), sponsored by the Allied countries.
9) Now we have a new problem, because the MPAJA was even worse than the Japanese, and the allies turned a blind eye on their doing while still providing support.
10) The MPAJA did everything the Japanese soldiers did and worse. If the Japanese soldiers came, they would at least send a messenger to inform the locals that they were coming, which alerts the villagers to hide their daughters. My grandpa said the Japanese knew this happened but they didn't push the issue. Only when it came to hiding radios that they became demons.
11) The MPAJA were local men and women. They came unannounced. Killed a few villagers, dragged a few women and shoot their husbands just for fun. Anyone who gave food to the Japanese would have their wives or daughters raped in front of their eyes, the shot or slaughtered. After that, head of the family would be either slaughtered or put up as firing target. Same goes if the locals didn't give food or women to the MPAJA.
12) Most of the locals who actually fought the MPAJA were actually on friendly terms or at least indifferent to the Japanese, probably because they consider the Japanese rightful rulers by right of conquest. But after the Japanese surrendered, they were labelled as terrorists, racists and their deeds likened to mass murder and ethnic cleansing by the MPAJA and the British. Many were sentenced to death after the Japanese surrendered.

If one were to ask the elders which overlords they would choose. Many would say the Japanese and the MPAJA were both bad, but they would choose the Japanese any day. Of course this depends on where you ask. In chinese populated areas, they worship the MPAJA although the MPAJA murdered their own neighbours, because the Japanese were way worse to them. Malaysians tried not to think about it, because if we do think about it, we'll end up with so much resentment, we would start WW3 just so we can do the same as the Japanese and the MPAJA.