hehe its always important to stay open minded :)
I think the reason the Chinese man talked the way he did about the Japanese is most likely this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War
"The Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century.[27] It accounted for the majority of civilian and military casualties in the Pacific War, with between 10 and 25 million Chinese civilians and over 4 million Chinese and Japanese military personnel dying from war-related violence, famine, and other causes."
He might have been alive during the conflict his parents most certainly were and all these deaths were a result of Japanese aggression.
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from July 7, 1937, to September 2, 1945. It began with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937 in which a dispute between Japanese and Chinese troops escalated into a battle.
During the Marco Polo Bridge Incident Japanese military demanded permission to enter the Chinese city of Wanping to search for a missing soldier. The Chinese refused.
@wikitextbot and the @the-one-true-dan - yes indeed - the history goes deep but I did not want to presume. He gave us his views - we preferred to listen.