In the city of Bagac on Bataan peninsula in the Philippines stands a soaring edifice known as the Friendship Tower. At a height of 27 meters (89 feet), it consists of three pillars encircled by rings. It was dedicated on April 8, 1975 and today symbolizes the renewed amity between the Philippine and Japanese peoples.

The tower stands about 200 meters (660 feet) from the site known as the starting point of the World War II Bataan Death March. In 1942, the Japanese army forced some 76,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war to walk a distance of 88 kilometers (54.5 miles) from this point to internment camps. Nearly 10,000 of the prisoners, weakened by hunger and disease and unable to endure the tropical heat, expired along the way.