After Liu Shiyue lost almost everything he held dear during Japan's occupation of China, his hatred for 'the invaders' was intense and long-lived. However, years later when he worked with a group of Japanese physicians, the Chinese ophthalmologist gradually learned how foes can become friends, as Zhang Yu and Pei Pei report from Shijiazhuang.

Editor's Note: This is the fifth in a series of special reports about the experiences of foreigners who either lived or served in China between 1937 and 1945.

The hardest time in Liu Shiyue's life came in 1945, when he discovered that his mother had been murdered three years earlier.