Chungkai War Cemetery, also known as Chung Kai War Cemetery, is a war cemetery in Tha Ma Kham near

Kanchanaburi Kanchanaburi ( th, กาญจนบุรี, ) is a town municipality (''thesaban mueang'') in the west of Thailand and part of Kanchanaburi Province. In 2006 it had a population of 31,327. That number was reduced to 25,651 in 2017. The town ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. Established in the 1950s, the cemetery hosts the graves of 1,426 British and 313 Dutch prisoners of war who died during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. It was originally a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

camp on the

Burma Railway The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam–Burma Railway, Thai–Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). It was built from 1940 to 1943 ...

Description

The cemetery at Chungkai hosts the graves of 1,426 British and 313 Dutch servicemen who died during World War II. The majority of the interred died building the sections of the nearby

. The cemetery is built on the site of a prisoner of war camp used by the Japanese army to house Allied POWs during the conflict. In 1946, it was decided to re-bury the Burma Railway deaths which were buried in many graveyards along the line in three large cemeteries. The current Chungkai cemetery is an extension of the existing camp cemetery. American POWs were repatriated back to the United States. The status of the Australian soldiers is unclear. One source describes Australians being buried at the cemetery, while another states no Australians are buried there. or that it only contains several non-military Australian prisoners. The cemetery was designed by Colin St Clair Oakes.

Camp Chungkai

Chungkai (also: Thai No.2 Camp) was founded as a prisoner of war work camp. It was located 57 kilometres from the beginning of the line, at the edge of the jungle near the

Mae Klong River The Mae Klong (, , ), sometimes spelled Mae Khlong or Meklong, is a river in western Thailand. The river begins at the confluence of the Khwae Noi (Khwae Sai Yok) and the Khwae Yai River (Khwae Si Sawat) in Kanchanaburi, it passes Ratchaburi ...

. The first prisoners arrived in October 1942, and were tasked to work on the

bridges A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually someth ...

at Tamarkan and the section up to Wun Lun, at kilometre 68. One of the tasks was the Chungkai cutting, a railway cutting through solid rock. In November 1942, a hospital was constructed at Chungkai. Chungkai was considered one of the best camps with sufficient food. The camp and hospital closed in June 1945. The hospital had treated 19,975 patients during its existence.

References

External links

{{commons category
List of British POWs buried at Chungkai
at Commonwealth War Graves
List of Dutch POWs buried at Chungkai
at Oorlogsgraven Stichting (in Dutch) Burma Railway Kanchanaburi Buildings and structures in Kanchanaburi province Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Thailand World War II cemeteries Cemeteries in Thailand

Description

Camp Chungkai

See also

References

External links