(CNN)On Thursday, there will be a major parade in the heart of Beijing, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Asia.
In the West, many will see the military hardware and the troops that will, no doubt, be at the center of the event.
But relatively few will remember a historical fact that underpins the ceremony: China was the first country to enter what would become the Second World War, and it was the ally of the United States and the British empire from just after Pearl Harbor in 1941, to the Japanese surrender in 1945.
