<div class="image-200">
<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/bagac.webp" alt="Friendship Tower" />
</div>
<p>
The peace monument is located about 200 meters (660 feet) from  where the "Bataan Death March" of the World War II started. It is 27 meters (89 feet) in height and consists of three pillars encircled by rings.
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<p>
Earlier, in April 1942, the Japanese invading troops at gunpoint forced some 76,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war to walk to San Fernando, Pampanga, some 120 kilometers northeast, then taken by rail further north to Capas, Tarlac, where they walked the final 13 kilometers to Camp O'Donnel.
</p>
<p>
Nearly 10,000 of the prisoners, weakened by hunger and diseases and unable to endure the tropical heat, expired along the way.
</p>
<p>
Peace monuments are created for many different reasons. Some celebrate the peace which follows the end of armed conflict. Some express religious concepts of peace. Some monuments, especially those in the form of gardens or parks, are places of repose and beauty intended to invoke feelings of peace and love.
</p>
<p>
In general, peace monuments reject war and violence and help promote a culture of peace.
</p>

<h4>
Source:
</h4>
<ol class="article-sources">
<li>
Philippine News Agency archives
</li>
</ol>



April 8, 1975: the Friendship Tower was inaugurated in Bagac, Bataan