Gen. Walter Natynczyk, the Canadian chief of defence staff, bows his head with veterans Sunday at the Ottawa ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

Veterans and government representatives gathered in Ottawa on Sunday morning to mark the 65th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in the Far East.

More than 100 Canadian veterans gathered for a commemorative ceremony at the National War Memorial in downtown Ottawa at 10 a.m. local time to mark Aug. 15, 1945, when the Japanese army surrendered to allied forces.

As part of the ceremony, veterans, including Philip Doddridge of New Richmond, Que., watched a flyby of a vintage Dakota aircraft from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. It's a plane many veterans who fought in the Far East flew during the war, Veterans Affairs Canada said in a release.

More than 47,000 of the more than one million Canadians who served died in the war. About 10,000 Canadians served in various theatres in the Far East, including Hong Kong, India and Burma.

"Today we remember the courage and sacrifice of our brave veterans who served with such distinction in the Far East campaign," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement.

"They fought to defend the values that all Canadians cherish: freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Many made the ultimate sacrifice."

Harper encouraged everyone to reflect on the veterans' contributions and to remember the men and women now serving in Afghanistan, Haiti and Sudan.

In Asia, Japanese citizens also paused to mark the anniversary and listened to Prime Minister Naoto Kan apologize on behalf of his country for causing suffering in the region and to South Korea.

In Seoul, President Lee Myung-bak led a ceremony celebrating the liberation of the Korean peninsula from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule with the Aug. 15 surrender.

In Australia, veterans and representatives from New Zealand, the United States and Asian countries were among the more than 300 people gathered in downtown Sydney to mark the anniversary.

With files from The Associated Press