In the Philippines, people have attended the annual ceremony to remember the victims of the Bataan Death March during the Pacific War. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and diplomats from the US and Japan participated this year.

Monday's ceremony was held by the cenotaph at Mount Samat, where Filipino and American soldiers fought one of their fiercest battles against the Imperial Japanese Army 81 years ago. The Day of Valor national holiday marks the anniversary of their surrender after Japan's occupation of the Bataan Peninsula on Luzon Island.

Some 70,000 US and Philippine soldiers were forced to walk more than 100 kilometers to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. A study by a US military historian suggests as many as 10,000 soldiers died or were killed on the brutal march.

President Marcos called for strengthening unity in the fields of security and the economy, saying, "Those who once faced each other in battle now work together for peace."

The Philippines is ramping up security cooperation with the US and Japan amid a territorial dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea. The Senate president has told NHK that Manila is considering creating a new security framework with the two countries.