BONE collector Santos Bayucca is set to burn over 1,000 fallen Japanese soldiers' bones at Barangay Uha of Ifugao on October 21 and 22.

This is in a bid to appease their spirits as well as their kin.

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Bayucca with Japanese national Kazuya Tomita have been scouring the country in search for Japanese remains since February.

The two want to lay the bones to rest.

The duo is backed by the Japanese non-government organization Kuentai.

So far, there have been 6,000 bones burned, blessed and brought back to Japan because "the bones which have been blessed are brought back to Japan so their relatives will not fall ill," Bayucca said.

It is a Japanese belief that if the bones of felled soldiers are not returned and blessed, family members from the ancestral line of the soldier will fall ill or experience bad luck.

There are estimated 5,180,000 Japanese soldier remains all over the country, said Bayucca.

There are also thousands of Japanese soldiers who died in Kiangan town and nearby Hungduan municipality where the Japanese Imperial Army made its last stand at the end of World War II.

It was on September 2, 1945 when General Tomoyuki Yamashita of the Japanese Imperial Army surrendered and together with the remnants of his 50,000 troops, surrendered to American and Filipino forces.

The burning this month will be the biggest the two has gathered.

Japanese and Ifugao rituals will be performed during the rites.

In the Cordilleras, retrieved bones were found in Barangays Hapao and Abatan, both in the municipality of Hungduan, Ifuguao, Bugias, Tuba and Tublay, Benguet and Baguio City.

There are also reports of bones in the Nueva Viscaya area, Cebu, Leyte, Aparri and the Batanes group of islands.