Tamarkan (also: ''Tha Makhan'') was a Japanese prisoner of war work camp 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 opposin ...

. The camp was initially used for the construction of the

bridge 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 somethi ...

over the Khwae Yai or Mae Klong River and not the River Kwai. The camp was located about five kilometres from the city of Kanchanaburi. In November 1943, Tamarkan was turned into a convalescent camp and hospital. By 1945, the camp was gone. The bridge was made famous by the 1957 film, ''

The Bridge on the River Kwai ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' is a 1957 epic war film directed by David Lean and based on the 1952 novel written by Pierre Boulle. Although the film uses the historical setting of the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–1943, the pl ...

'', which was a fictitious and inaccurate account. Inaccuracies include the identification of the wrong river, construction was not in the jungle, but near a city, two bridges had been built, which were destroyed at the end of World War II, and commander

Philip Toosey Brigadier Sir Philip John Denton Toosey (12 August 1904 – 22 December 1975) was, as a Lieutenant Colonel, the senior Allied officer in the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp at Tha Maa Kham (known as Tamarkan) in Thailand during World War II. Th ...

did not collaborate with the Japanese.

History

In 1939, plans had been developed by the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

to construct a rail road connecting

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 bo ...

with

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. Construction of the Burma Railway started on 16 September 1942. On 26 October 1942, British prisoners of war arrived at Tamarkan, 56 kilometres from the start of the railway, to construct a bridge over the

Khwae Yai River The Khwae Yai River ( th, แม่น้ำแควใหญ่, , ), also known as the Si Sawat ( ), is a river in western Thailand. It has its source in the Tenasserim Hills and flows for about through Sangkhla Buri, Si Sawat, and Mueang ...

. The wooden bridge was meant as a temporary bridge, and would be replaced by a concrete and steel bridge. Even though the railway makes an apparent detour by crossing at Tamarkan instead of Kanchanaburi, the ground was more stable and there was less chance of flooding. The prisoners were commanded by Colonel

. The camp consisted of five attap huts surrounding by a perimeter fence. In February 1943, 1,000 Dutch prisoners of war commanded by Captain Hendrik Anthonie Tillema arrived, and five more huts were added. The Dutch were placed under the command of Toosey increasing the total amount of troops to about 2,000. In January 1943, there was a

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

outbreak in the nearby

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

n conscript labour camp. In March 1943, the wooden bridge was finished, and the first train crossed the bridge. A bridge in

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

had been dismantled, and the spans were transported to Tamarkan to construct a concrete and steel bridge. In May 1943, the concrete and steel bridge was finished, and the wooden bridge was redesignated for pedestrians and cars. Most of the prisoners were moved to work camps further up the line. In November 1943, Tamarkan was turned into a convalescent camp and hospital. Toosey was ordered to oversee the conversion. He was transferred to Camp Nong Pladuk in December 1943. Tamarkan was not a proper hospital and the medical supplies were limited. The camp was home to about 1,500 men. On 29 November 1943, the camp was hit by allied bombs killing 18 prisoners and wounding 68. Between December 1944 to June 1945, the bridges were attacked multiple times, and in February 1944, a span of the steel bridge was destroyed. By October 1945, the camp was gone, and only the Thayanusorn monument remained. The monument was revealed on 21 March 1944, and made by POWs in honour of their fallen comerades. After the war, the bridge was rebuilt. The condition of the prisoners in the camp were described as horrendous with emaciated and diseased prisoners dressed in rags, There was a large graveyard near the camp. After the war, the bodies were re-buried at the Chungkai and the Kanchanaburi War Cemeteries except for the Americans who were repatriated back to the United States.

References

Bibliography

* {{commons category, position=left Japanese prisoner of war and internment camps Military history of Thailand during World War II Buildings and structures in Kanchanaburi province World War II prisoner of war camps Burma Railway Kanchanaburi