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
Thanbyuzayat ( my, သံဖြူဇရပ်မြို့; mnw, ဇြပ်ဗု, "Reid, Robert and Grosberg, Michael (2005) ''Myanmar (Burma)'' (9th edition) Lonely Planet Publications, Footscray, Victoria, Australiapage 159 ) is a town in ...
, Burma (now called
Myanmar
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 ...
). It was built from 1940 to 1943 by civilian labourers impressed or recruited by the Japanese and
prisoners of war taken by the Japanese, to supply troops and weapons in the
Burma campaign of
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 completed the rail link between
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...
, Thailand, and
Rangoon, Burma. The name used by the Japanese Government is ''Tai–Men Rensetsu Tetsudō'' (), which means Thailand-Burma-Link-Railway.
Between 180,000 and 250,000 Southeast Asian civilians and over 60,000
Allied prisoners of war were subjected to
forced labour during its construction. Around 90,000 of the civilians died, as did more than 12,000 Allied prisoners.
Most of the railway was dismantled shortly after the war. Only the first of the line in Thailand remained, with trains still running as far north as
Nam Tok.
History
A railway route between Burma and Thailand, crossing
Three Pagodas Pass
Three Pagodas Pass ( Phlone ; my, ဘုရားသုံးဆူ တောင်ကြားလမ်း, ''Paya Thon Zu Taung Za Lang'', ; th, ด่านเจดีย์สามองค์, , ) is a pass in the Tenasserim Hills on the ...
and following the valley of the
Khwae Noi river
The River Kwai (), more correctly Khwae Noi ( th, แควน้อย, , 'small tributary') or Khwae Sai Yok (, ), is a river in western Thailand. It rises to the east of the Salween in the north-south spine of the Bilauktaung range near, bu ...
in Thailand, had been surveyed by the British government of Burma as early as 1885, but the proposed course of the line – through hilly jungle terrain divided by many rivers – was considered too difficult to undertake.
Thailand was a neutral country at the onset of World War II. On 8 December 1941,
Japan invaded Thailand which quickly surrendered. Thailand was forced to accept an alliance, and was used as a staging point for the
attack on Singapore.
In early 1942,
Japanese forces invaded Burma and seized control of the colony from the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. To supply their forces in Burma, the Japanese depended upon the sea, bringing supplies and troops to Burma around the
Malay peninsula and through the
Strait of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...
and the
Andaman Sea. This route was vulnerable to attack by Allied submarines, especially after the Japanese defeat at the
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under ...
in June 1942. To avoid a hazardous sea journey around the Malay peninsula, a railway from Bangkok to Rangoon seemed a feasible alternative. The Japanese began this project in June 1942.
![Death Railway in Thanbyuzayat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Death_Railway_in_Thanbyuzayat.JPG)
The project aimed to connect
Ban Pong in Thailand with
Thanbyuzayat
Thanbyuzayat ( my, သံဖြူဇရပ်မြို့; mnw, ဇြပ်ဗု, "Reid, Robert and Grosberg, Michael (2005) ''Myanmar (Burma)'' (9th edition) Lonely Planet Publications, Footscray, Victoria, Australiapage 159 ) is a town in ...
in Burma, linking up with existing railways at both places. Its route was through Three Pagodas Pass on the border of Thailand and Burma. of the railway were in Burma and the remaining were in Thailand. The movement of POWs northward from
Changi Prison
Changi Prison Complex, often known simply as Changi Prison, is a prison in Changi in the eastern part of Singapore.
History First prison
Before Changi Prison was constructed, the only penal facility in Singapore was at Pearl's Hill, beside ...
in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
and other prison camps in Southeast Asia began in May 1942. On 23 June 1942, 600 British soldiers arrived at
Camp Nong Pladuk
Camp Nong Pladuk (also: ''Nompuradokku'') was a Japanese prisoner of war transit camp during World War II. It was located about five kilometres from the main railway station of Ban Pong near a junction station on the Southern Line to Bangkok. ...
, Thailand to build a camp to serve as a transit camp for the work camps along the railway.
After preliminary work of airfields and infrastructure, construction of the railway began in Burma and Thailand on 16 September 1942.
The projected completion date was December 1943. Much of the construction materials, including tracks and
sleepers
''Sleepers'' is a 1996 American legal crime drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 book of the same name. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin H ...
, were brought from dismantled branches of
Malaya's Federated Malay States Railway
The Federated Malay States Railways (FMSR) was a consolidated railway operator in British Malaya (present day Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore) during the first half of the 20th century. Named after the then recently formed Federated Malay ...
network and the
East Indies' various rail networks.
![Thailand Burma Railway Bridge](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Thailand_Burma_Railway_Bridge.jpg)
The railway was completed ahead of schedule. On 17 October 1943, construction gangs originating in Burma working south met up with construction gangs originating in Thailand working north. The two sections of the line met at kilometre 263, about south of the Three Pagodas Pass at
Konkoita (nowadays: Kaeng Khoi Tha,
Sangkhla Buri District,
Kanchanaburi Province). A holiday was declared for 25 October which was chosen as the ceremonial opening of the line.
The Japanese staff would travel by train
C56 31
C56 31 was the 31st of the Class C56 steam locomotives produced by Japanese Government Railways (JGR). It was manufactured by Nippon Sharyo in 1936 and was operated on the Nanao Line in Ishikawa Prefecture before the war. Royal Librar泰緬鉄 ...
from Nong Pladuk, Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma. A copper spike was driven at the meeting point by commanding General Eiguma Ishida, and a memorial plaque was revealed.
As an American engineer said after viewing the project, "What makes this an engineering feat is the totality of it, the accumulation of factors. The total length of miles, the total number of bridgesover 600, including six to eight long-span bridgesthe total number of people who were involved (one-quarter of a million), the very short time in which they managed to accomplish it, and the extreme conditions they accomplished it under. They had very little transportation to get stuff to and from the workers, they had almost no medication, they couldn’t get food let alone materials, they had no tools to work with except for basic things like spades and hammers, and they worked in extremely difficult conditionsin the jungle with its heat and humidity. All of that makes this railway an extraordinary accomplishment."
The Japanese Army transported 500,000 tonnes of freight over the railway before it fell into Allied hands.
Post-war
On 16 January 1946, the British ordered Japanese POWs to remove a four kilometre stretch of rail between Nikki (Ni Thea) and
Sonkrai
Ban Song Karia ( th, บ้านซองกาเรีย), also spelled Songkalia () and alternatively known as Songkurai (from ja, ソンクライ), is a village in the Sangkhla Buri District of the Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand near the ...
.
The railway link between Thailand and Burma was to be separated again for protecting British interests in Singapore.
After that, the Burma section of the railway was sequentially removed, the rails were gathered in
Mawlamyine
Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; th, เมาะลำเลิง ; mnw, မတ်မလီု, ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' south east of Yangon and south of Thaton, at th ...
, and the roadbed was returned to the jungle.
In October 1946, the Thai section of the line was sold to the
Government of Thailand
The Government of Thailand, or formally the Royal Thai Government ( Abrv: RTG; th, รัฐบาลไทย, , ), is the unitary government of the Kingdom of Thailand. The country emerged as a modern nation state after the foundation of ...
for £1,250,000 (50 million baht).
The money was used to compensate neighbouring countries and colonies for material stolen by Japan during the construction of the railway.
On 1 February 1947, two people including Momluang , the
Thai Minister of Transport, were killed on an inspection tour because the bridge near
Konkoita had collapsed. After the accident, it was decided to end the line at
Nam Tok and reuse the remainder to rehabilitate the line.
After the war the railway was in poor condition and needed reconstruction for use by the
Royal Thai Railway system. On 24 June 1949, the portion from
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 ...
to
Nong Pla Duk (
Thai
Thai or THAI may refer to:
* Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia
** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand
** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand
*** Thai script
*** Thai (Unicode block ...
หนองปลาดุก) was finished; on the first of April 1952, the next section up to
Wang Pho (Wangpo) was done. The two curved spans of the bridge which collapsed due to the British air attack were replaced by angular
truss spans provided by Japan as part of their postwar reparations, thus forming the iconic bridge now seen today. Finally, on 1 July 1958, the rail line was completed to Nam Tok (
Thai
Thai or THAI may refer to:
* Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia
** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand
** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand
*** Thai script
*** Thai (Unicode block ...
น้ำตก, 'waterfall', referring to the nearby
Sai Yok Noi Waterfall) The portion in use today is some long. The line was abandoned beyond
Nam Tok Sai Yok Noi;
the steel rails were salvaged for reuse in expanding the
Bang Sue railway yard, reinforcing the
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...
–
Ban Phachi Junction
Ban Phachi Junction ( th, สถานีชุมทางบ้านภาชี, ) is a railway junction located in Phachi District, Ayutthaya Province, Thailand. It is a Class 1 Station and serves as a junction for the North and Northeaste ...
double track, rehabilitating the track from
Thung Song Junction to
Trang, and constructing both the Nong Pla Duk–
Suphan Buri and
Ban Thung Pho–
Khiri Rat Nikhom branch lines. Parts of the abandoned route have been converted into a
walking trail
A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. T ...
.
Since the 1990s various proposals have been made to rebuild the complete railway, but these plans had not been realised. Since the upper part of the Khwae valley is now flooded by the
Vajiralongkorn Dam
Vajiralongkorn Dam ( th, เขื่อนวชิราลงกรณ; ), also called the Khao Laem Dam (), is a concrete-faced rock-fill dam (CFRD) in Thong Pha Phum District in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. The dam lies across the Khwae Noi Riv ...
,
and the surrounding terrain is mountainous, it would take extensive tunnelling to reconnect Thailand with Burma by rail.
Labourers
Japanese
Japanese soldiers, 12,000 of them, including 800 Koreans, were employed on the railway as engineers, guards, and supervisors of the POW and ''
rōmusha'' labourers. Although working conditions were far better for the Japanese than the POWs and ''rōmusha'' workers, about 1,000 (eight percent) of them died during construction. Many remember Japanese soldiers as being cruel and indifferent to the fate of Allied prisoners of war and the Asian ''rōmusha''. Many men in the railway workforce bore the brunt of pitiless or uncaring guards. Cruelty could take different forms, from extreme violence and torture to minor acts of physical punishment, humiliation, and neglect.
Civilian labourers
The number of Southeast Asian workers recruited or impressed to work on the Burma railway has been estimated to have been more than 180,000
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...
n civilian labourers (''
rōmusha''). Javanese,
Malayan Tamils of Indian origin, Burmese, Chinese, Thai, and other Southeast Asians, forcibly drafted by the Imperial Japanese Army to work on the railway, died in its construction.
During the initial stages of the construction of the railway, Burmese and Thais were employed in their respective countries, but Thai workers, in particular, were likely to abscond from the project and the number of Burmese workers recruited was insufficient. The Burmese had welcomed the invasion by Japan and cooperated with Japan in recruiting workers.
In early 1943, the Japanese advertised for workers in Malaya, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies, promising good wages, short contracts, and housing for families. When that failed to attract sufficient workers, they resorted to more coercive methods, rounding up workers and impressing them, especially in Malaya. Approximately 90,000 Burmese and 75,000 Malayans worked on the railroad.
Other nationalities and ethnic groups working on the railway were Tamils, Chinese, Karen, Javanese, and Singaporean Chinese.
Other documents suggest that more than 100,000 Malayan Tamils were brought into the project and around 60,000 perished.
![Malaysian Tamils](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Malaysian_Tamils.jpg)
Some workers were attracted by the relatively high wages, but the working conditions for the ''rōmusha'' were deadly. British doctor Robert Hardie wrote:
Prisoners of war
The first prisoners of war, 3,000 Australians, to go to Burma left
Changi Prison
Changi Prison Complex, often known simply as Changi Prison, is a prison in Changi in the eastern part of Singapore.
History First prison
Before Changi Prison was constructed, the only penal facility in Singapore was at Pearl's Hill, beside ...
in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
on 14 May 1942 and journeyed by sea to near
Thanbyuzayat
Thanbyuzayat ( my, သံဖြူဇရပ်မြို့; mnw, ဇြပ်ဗု, "Reid, Robert and Grosberg, Michael (2005) ''Myanmar (Burma)'' (9th edition) Lonely Planet Publications, Footscray, Victoria, Australiapage 159 ) is a town in ...
(သံဖြူဇရပ် in the
Burmese language
Burmese ( my, မြန်မာဘာသာ, MLCTS: ''mranmabhasa'', IPA: ) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Myanmar (also known as Burma), where it is an official language, lingua franca, and the native language of the Burmans, the coun ...
; in English 'Tin Shelter'), the northern terminus of the railway. They worked on airfields and other infrastructure initially before beginning construction of the railway in October 1942. The first prisoners of war to work in Thailand, 3,000 British soldiers, left Changi by train in June 1942 to
Ban Pong, the southern terminus of the railway. More prisoners of war were imported from Singapore and the Dutch East Indies as construction advanced. Construction camps housing at least 1,000 workers each were established every 5–10 miles (8–17 km) of the route. Workers were moved up and down the railway line as needed.
The construction camps consisted of open-sided barracks built of bamboo poles with thatched roofs. The barracks were about long with sleeping platforms raised above the ground on each side of an earthen floor. Two hundred men were housed in each barracks, giving each man a two-foot wide space in which to live and sleep. Camps were usually named after the kilometre where they were located.
Atrocities
Conditions during construction
The prisoners of war "found themselves at the bottom of a social system that was harsh, punitive, fanatical, and often deadly." The living and working conditions on the Burma Railway were often described as "horrific", with maltreatment, sickness, and starvation. The estimated number of civilian labourers and POWs who died during construction varies considerably, but the Australian Government figures suggest that of the 330,000 people who worked on the line (including 250,000 Asian labourers and 61,000 Allied POWs) about 90,000 of the labourers and about 16,000 Allied prisoners died.
Life in the POW camps was recorded at great risk by artists such as
Jack Bridger Chalker
Jack Bridger Chalker (10 October 1918 – 15 November 2014), was a British artist and teacher best known for his work recording the lives of the prisoners of war building the Burma Railway during World War II.
Biography
Chalker was born in Lo ...
,
Philip Meninsky
Philip Meninsky (born 1919 in Fulham, England, died in 2007) was the son of Bernard Meninsky. Despite an early passion for art, at his father's wish, he initially trained as an accountant, before being called up for National Service.
After a firs ...
,
John Mennie
John George Mennie, A.R.M.S. D.A.(ABDN). ARMS., (26 November 1911 – 24 August 1982) was a Scottish artist who came to public attention in 2011 for his many contemporaneous drawings of his life as a prisoner of war during the Japanese occupatio ...
,
Ashley George Old
Ashley George Old (born 1913, d. 2001) was an artist best known for documenting the lives of prisoners of war forced to construct the Thailand-Burma Railway.
During World War II he was stationed in Singapore, and when it fell to the Japanese in F ...
, and
Ronald Searle
Ronald William Fordham Searle, CBE, RDI (3 March 1920 – 30 December 2011) was an English artist and satirical cartoonist, comics artist, sculptor, medal designer and illustrator. He is perhaps best remembered as the creator of St Trinian's S ...
. Human hair was often used for brushes, plant juices and blood for paint, and toilet paper as the "canvas". Some of their works were used as evidence in the trials of Japanese war criminals. Many are now held by the
Australian War Memorial,
State Library of Victoria, and the
Imperial War Museum in London.
![POWs Burma Thai RR](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/POWs_Burma_Thai_RR.jpg)
One of the earliest and most respected accounts is ex-POW John Coast's ''Railroad of Death'', first published in 1946 and republished in a new edition in 2014. Coast's work is noted for its detail on the brutality of some Japanese and Korean guards as well as the humanity of others. It also describes the living and working conditions experienced by the POWs, together with the culture of the Thai towns and countryside that became many POWs' homes after leaving Singapore with the working parties sent to the railway. Coast also details the camaraderie, pastimes, and humour of the POWs in the face of adversity.
In his book ''Last Man Out'', H. Robert Charles, an American Marine survivor of the sinking of the
USS ''Houston'', writes in depth about a Dutch doctor, Henri Hekking, a fellow POW who probably saved the lives of many who worked on the railway. In the foreword to Charles's book, James D. Hornfischer summarizes: "Dr. Henri Hekking was a tower of psychological and emotional strength, almost shamanic in his power to find and improvise medicines from the wild prison of the jungle". Hekking died in 1994. Charles died in December 2009.
Except for the worst months of the construction period, known as the "Speedo" (mid-spring to mid-October 1943), one of the ways the Allied POWs kept their spirits up was to ask one of the musicians in their midst to play his guitar or accordion, or lead them in a group sing-along, or request their camp comedians to tell some jokes or put on a skit.
After the railway was completed, the POWs still had almost two years to survive before liberation. During this time, most of the POWs were moved to hospital and relocation camps where they could be available for maintenance crews or sent to Japan to alleviate the manpower shortage there. In these camps entertainment flourished as an essential part of their rehabilitation. Theatres of bamboo and
attap
''Nypa fruticans'', commonly known as the nipa palm (or simply nipa, from ms, nipah) or mangrove palm, is a species of palm native to the coastlines and estuarine habitats of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the only palm considered adapte ...
(palm fronds) were built, sets, lighting, costumes and makeup devised, and an array of entertainment produced that included music halls, variety shows, cabarets, plays, and musical comedieseven pantomimes. These activities engaged numerous POWs as actors, singers, musicians, designers, technicians, and female impersonators.
POWs and Asian workers were also used to build the Kra Isthmus Railway from
Chumphon
Chumphon ( th, ชุมพร, ) is a town (''thesaban mueang'') in southern Thailand, capital of the Chumphon Province and Mueang Chumphon District. The city is about 463 kilometers (288 miles) from Bangkok. As of 2005 it had a population o ...
to
Kra Buri, and the
Sumatra or Palembang Railway from
Pekanbaru to
Muaro
Muaro Jambi Regency is a regency of Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. From the 4th until the 13th century, it was the seat of the Hindu-Buddhist Melayu Kingdom. It has an area of 5,246.00 km2 and had a population of 342,952 at the 2010 ce ...
.
The construction of the Burma Railway is counted as a
war crime committed by Japan in Asia.
After the completion of the railroad, over 10,000 POWs were then transported to Japan. Those left to maintain the line still suffered from appalling living conditions as well as increasing Allied air raids.
Death rates and causes
In addition to malnutrition and physical abuse,
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
,
cholera,
dysentery
Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
and
tropical ulcer
Tropical ulcer, more commonly known as jungle rot, is a chronic ulcerative skin lesion thought to be caused by polymicrobial infection with a variety of microorganisms, including mycobacteria. It is common in tropical climates.
Ulcers occur on ...
s were common contributing factors in the death of workers on the Burma Railway.
Estimates of deaths among Southeast Asian civilians subject to forced labour, often known as ''
rōmusha'', vary widely, because statistics are incomplete and fragmented. However, authorities agree that the percentage of deaths among the ''rōmusha'' was much higher than among the Allied military personnel. The total number of ''rōmusha'' working on the railway may have reached 300,000 and according to some estimates, the death rate among them was as high as 50 percent.
The labourers that suffered the highest casualties were Burmese and Indian Tamils from Malaysia and Myanmar, as well as many Javanese.
A lower death rate among Dutch POWs and internees, relative to those from the UK and Australia, has been linked to the fact that many personnel and civilians taken prisoner in the
Dutch East Indies had been born there, were long-term residents and/or had
Eurasian ancestry; they tended thus to be more resistant to tropical diseases and to be better acclimatized than other Western Allied personnel.
The quality of medical care received by different groups of prisoners varied enormously. One factor was that many European and US doctors had little experience with tropical diseases. For example, a group of 400 Dutch prisoners, which included three doctors with extensive tropical medicine experience, suffered no deaths at all. Another group, numbering 190 US personnel, to whom ''Lieutenant'' Henri Hekking, a Dutch medical officer with experience in the tropics was assigned, suffered only nine deaths. Another cohort of 450 US personnel suffered 100 deaths.
Weight loss among Allied officers who worked on construction was, on average, 9–14 kg (20–30 lb) less than that of enlisted personnel.
Workers in more isolated areas suffered a much higher death rate than did others.
War crimes trials
At the end of World War II, 111 Japanese military officials were tried for
war crimes for their brutality during the construction of the railway. Thirty-two of them were sentenced to death. The most important trial was against the general staff. Lieutenant General Eiguma Ishida, overall commander of the Burma Railway, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. His subordinates Colonel Shigeo Nakamura, Colonel Tamie Ishii and Lieutenant-Colonel Shoichi Yanagita were sentenced to death. Major Sotomatsu Chida was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
Hiroshi Abe, a first lieutenant who supervised construction of the railway at
Sonkrai
Ban Song Karia ( th, บ้านซองกาเรีย), also spelled Songkalia () and alternatively known as Songkurai (from ja, ソンクライ), is a village in the Sangkhla Buri District of the Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand near the ...
where 600 British prisoners out of 1,600 died of cholera and other diseases, was sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison, as a B/C class war criminal. He served 11 years. No compensation or reparations have been provided to Southeast Asian victims.
Notable structures
The bridge on the River Kwai
![Bridge over the River Kwai Art](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Bridge_over_the_River_Kwai_Art.IWMARTLD6035.jpg)
One of the most notable portions of the entire railway line is Bridge 277, the so-called "Bridge on the River Kwai", which was built over a stretch of the river that was then known as part of the
Mae Klong
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 ...
River. The greater part of the Thai section of the river's route followed the valley of the
Khwae Noi River
The River Kwai (), more correctly Khwae Noi ( th, แควน้อย, , 'small tributary') or Khwae Sai Yok (, ), is a river in western Thailand. It rises to the east of the Salween in the north-south spine of the Bilauktaung range near, bu ...
(''khwae'', 'stream, river' or 'tributary'; ''noi'', 'small'. ''Khwae'' was frequently mispronounced by non-Thai speakers as ''kwai'', or 'buffalo' in Thai). This gave rise to the name of "River Kwai" in English. In 1960, because of discrepancies between facts and fiction, the portion of the Mae Klong which passes under the bridge was renamed the
Khwae Yai (แควใหญ่ in the
Thai language; in English, 'big tributary'). On 26 October 1942, British prisoners of war arrived at
Tamarkan to construct the bridge. Initially, 1,000 prisoners worked on the bridge and were commanded by Colonel
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 ...
.
In February 1943, 1,000 Dutch prisoners of war were added to Tamarkan.
An unknown number of Malayan workers were housed in a nearby camp.
The bridge was made famous by
Pierre Boulle
Pierre François Marie Louis Boulle (20 February 1912 – 30 January 1994) was a French novelist best known for two works, '' The Bridge over the River Kwai'' (1952) and ''Planet of the Apes'' (1963), that were both made into award-winning films. ...
's novel ''
The Bridge over the River Kwai
''The Bridge over the River Kwai'' (french: Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï) is a novel by the French novelist Pierre Boulle, published in French in 1952 and English translation by Xan Fielding in 1954. The story is fictional but uses the construct ...
'' and its film adaptation, ''
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, th ...
''. However, the film and book contain many historical inaccuracies, and should be considered works of fiction.
A first wooden railroad bridge over the Khwae Yai was finished in February 1943, which was soon accompanied by a more modern
ferro-concrete
Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low ultimate tensile strength, tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion ...
bridge in June 1943, with both bridges running in a NNE–SSW direction across the river. The newer steel and concrete bridge was made up of eleven curved-truss bridge spans which the Japanese builders brought from Java in the
Dutch East Indies in 1942.
This is the bridge that still remains today. The wooden bridge was reused for pedestrians and cars.
It was this Bridge 277 that was to be attacked with the help of one of the world's first examples of a
precision-guided munition, the US
VB-1 AZON MCLOS
Manual command to line of sight (MCLOS) is a method for guiding guided missiles.
With an MCLOS missile, the operator must track the missile and the target simultaneously and guide the missile to the target. Typically the missile is steered with a ...
-guided 1,000 lb aerial ordnance, on 23 January 1945.
Bad weather forced the cancellation of the mission and the AZON was never deployed against the bridge.
The two bridges were successfully bombed and damaged on 13 February 1945 by bomber aircraft from the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
(RAF). Repairs were carried out by forced labour of POWs shortly after and by April the wooden railroad
trestle bridge
A trestle bridge is a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by closely spaced frames. A trestle (sometimes tressel) is a rigid frame used as a support, historically a tripod used to support a stool or a pair of isosceles triangl ...
was back in operation. On 3 April, a second bombing raid, this time by
Liberator heavy bombers of the
U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF), damaged the wooden railroad bridge once again. Repair work soon commenced afterwards and continued again and both bridges were operational again by the end of May. A second air-raid by the RAF on 24 June finally severely damaged and destroyed the railroad bridges, and put the entire railway line out of commission for the rest of the war.
The new railway line did not fully connect with the Burmese railroad network as no railroad bridges were built which crossed the river between
Moulmein
Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; th, เมาะลำเลิง ; mnw, မတ်မလီု, ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' south east of Yangon and south of Thaton, at th ...
and
Martaban
Mottama ( my, မုတ္တမမြို့, ; Muttama mnw, မုဟ်တၟံ, ; formerly Martaban) is a town in the Thaton District of Mon State, Myanmar. Located on the west bank of the Thanlwin river (Salween), on the opposite side ...
(the former on the river's southern bank and the latter to the opposite on the northern bank). Thus, ferries were needed as an alternative connecting system. A bridge was not built until the
Thanlwin Bridge
Thanlwin Bridge (Mawlamyaing) was the longest bridge in Myanmar before the construction of Pakouku Bridge and connects the city of Mawlamyaing with Mottama. Constructed at the confluence of the Thanlwin River, the Gyaing River and the Attayan Ri ...
(carrying both regular road and railroad traffic) was constructed between 2000 and 2005.
Hellfire Pass
![Hellfire Pass - June 2004](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Hellfire_Pass_-_June_2004.jpg)
Hellfire Pass in the
Tenasserim Hills
The Tenasserim Hills or Tenasserim Range ( my, တနင်္သာရီ တောင်တန်း, ; th, ทิวเขาตะนาวศรี, , ; ms, Banjaran Tanah Seri/Banjaran Tenang Sari) is the geographical name of a r ...
was a particularly difficult section of the line to build: it was the largest rock cutting on the railway, it was in a remote area and the workers lacked proper construction tools during building. The Australian, British, Dutch and other Allied prisoners of war, along with Chinese, Malay, and Tamil labourers, were required by the Japanese to complete the cutting. Sixty-nine men were beaten to death by Japanese guards in the twelve weeks it took to build the cutting, and many more died from
cholera,
dysentery
Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
,
starvation, and
exhaustion
Fatigue describes a state of tiredness that does not resolve with rest or sleep. In general usage, fatigue is synonymous with extreme tiredness or exhaustion that normally follows prolonged physical or mental activity. When it does not resolve ...
.
Significant bridges
Cemeteries and memorials
![Kanchanaburi War Cemetery 2, Thailand](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Kanchanaburi_War_Cemetery_2%2C_Thailand.jpg)
In 1946, the remains of most of the war dead were moved from former POW camps, burial grounds and lone graves along the rail line to official war cemeteries.
Three cemeteries maintained by the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations m ...
(CWGC) contain the vast majority of Allied military personnel who died on the Burma Railway.
Kanchanaburi War Cemetery
The Kanchanaburi War Cemetery (known locally as the Don-Rak War Cemetery) is the main prisoner of war (POW) cemetery for victims of Japanese imprisonment while building the Burma Railway. It is on the main road, Saeng Chuto Road, through the town ...
, in the city of Kanchanaburi, contains the graves of 6,982 personnel comprising:
* 3,585 British
* 1,896 Dutch
* 1,362 Australians
* 12 members of the
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...
(including British officers)
* 2 New Zealanders
* 2 Danes
* 8 Canadians
A memorial at the Kanchanaburi cemetery lists 11 other members of the Indian Army, who are buried in nearby Muslim cemeteries.
Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery
The Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery ( Burmese: သံဖြူဇရပ်စစ်သင်္ချိုင်း) is a prisoner of war cemetery for victims of Japanese imprisonment who died building the Death Railway in Burma. It is at the Burmes ...
, at
Thanbyuzayat
Thanbyuzayat ( my, သံဖြူဇရပ်မြို့; mnw, ဇြပ်ဗု, "Reid, Robert and Grosberg, Michael (2005) ''Myanmar (Burma)'' (9th edition) Lonely Planet Publications, Footscray, Victoria, Australiapage 159 ) is a town in ...
, 65 kilometres south of
Moulmein
Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; th, เมาะลำเลิง ; mnw, မတ်မလီု, ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' south east of Yangon and south of Thaton, at th ...
, Myanmar (Burma) has the graves of 3,617 POWs who died on the Burmese portion of the line.
* 1,651 British
* 1,335 Australians
* 621 Dutch
* 15 Indian Army
* 3 New Zealanders
*1 Canadian
Chungkai War Cemetery
Chungkai War Cemetery, also known as Chung Kai War Cemetery, is a war cemetery in Tha Ma Kham near Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Established in the 1950s, the cemetery hosts the graves of 1,426 British and 313 Dutch prisoners of war who died during Wo ...
, near Kanchanaburi, has a further 1,693 war graves.
* 1,373 British
* 314 Dutch
* 6 Indian Army
The remains of United States personnel were
repatriated
Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...
. Of the 668 US personnel forced to work on the railway, 133 died. This included personnel from
USS ''Houston'' and the 131st Field Artillery Regiment of the
Texas Army National Guard. The Americans were called the
Lost Battalion as their fate was unknown to the United States for more than two years after their capture.
![The train at Yasukuni Shrine](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/The_train_at_Yasukuni_Shrine.JPG)
Several museums are dedicated to those who perished building the railway. The largest of these is at
Hellfire Pass
Hellfire Pass ( th, ช่องเขาขาด, known by the Japanese as ''Konyu Cutting'') is the name of a railway cutting on the former Burma Railway ("Death Railway") in Thailand which was built with forced labour during the Second Wo ...
(north of the current terminus at
Nam Tok), a cutting where the greatest number of people died. An Australian memorial is at Hellfire Pass.
One museum is in Myanmar side Thanbyuzayat, and two other museums are in
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 ...
: the
Thailand–Burma Railway Centre
The Thailand–Burma Railway Centre ( th, พิพิธภัณฑ์ทางรถไฟไทย-พม่า) is a museum and research centre in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. It is privately funded and is run by Rod Beattie, an Australian who is ...
, opened in January 2003, and the
JEATH War Museum
The JEATH War Museum ( th, พิพิธภัณฑ์อักษะเชลยศึก) is a war museum in Kanchanaburi, Thailand about the Death Railway built from 1942 to 1943 by Allied POWs under the direction of the Japanese, a part ...
. There is a memorial plaque at the Kwai bridge itself, and an historic wartime steam locomotive is on display.
A preserved section of line has been rebuilt at the
National Memorial Arboretum
The National Memorial Arboretum is a British site of national remembrance at Alrewas, near Lichfield, Staffordshire. Its objective is to honour the fallen, recognise service and sacrifice, and foster pride in the British Armed Forces and civilian ...
in England.
Notable labourers
* Sir
Harold Atcherley
Sir Harold Winter Atcherley (30 August 1918 – 29 January 2017) was a businessman, public figure and arts administrator in the United Kingdom.
Early life
The son of L. W. Atcherley and his wife Maude Lester Nash, Atcherley was educated at Gres ...
, businessman, public figure and arts administrator in the United Kingdom
*
Idris James Barwick, author of ''In the Shadow of Death'', died in 1974
*
Theo Bot
Theodorus Hendrikus "Theo" Bot (20 July 1911 – 24 September 1984) was a Dutch politician and diplomat of the defunct Catholic People's Party (KVP) now merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and jurist.
Bot attended a Gymnasiu ...
(1911–1984), Dutch politician and diplomat, government minister and ambassador
*
Leo Britt
Leo Ernest Britt (27 March 1908 – 1979) was a British-American actor. He made about 40 film and television appearances between 1933 and 1975, both in England and the United States. He is perhaps best-remembered as the storyteller at a party ...
, British theatrical producer in Chungkai, Kachu Mountain, and Nakhon Nai
*
Sir John Carrick, Australian senator
*
Norman Carter
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
, Australian theatrical producer in Bicycle Camp, Java, in numerous camps on the Burma side of the construction, and later in
Tamarkan, Thailand
*
Jack Bridger Chalker
Jack Bridger Chalker (10 October 1918 – 15 November 2014), was a British artist and teacher best known for his work recording the lives of the prisoners of war building the Burma Railway during World War II.
Biography
Chalker was born in Lo ...
, artist best known for his work recording the lives of prisoners of war in World War II
*
Anthony Chenevix-Trench
Anthony Chenevix-Trench (10 May 1919 – 21 June 1979) was a British schoolteacher and classics scholar. He was born in British India, educated at Shrewsbury School and Christ Church, Oxford, and served in the Second World War as an artillery of ...
(1919–1979), headmaster of
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...
, 1964–1970 and
Fettes College
Fettes College () is a co-educational independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, with over two-thirds of its pupils in residence on campus. The school was originally a boarding school for boys only and became co-ed in 1983. In ...
1972–1979
*
Sir Albert Coates
Sir Albert Ernest Coates OBE, FRCS (1895–1977) was an Australian surgeon and soldier. He served as a medical orderly in World War I serving on Gallipoli, and as a senior surgeon for the Australian Army Medical Corps in World War II in M ...
, chief Australian medical officer on the railway
*
John Coast (1916–1989), British writer and
music promoter
A promoter works with event production and entertainment industries to promote their productions, including in music and sports. Promoters are individuals or organizations engaged in the business of marketing and promoting live, or pay-per-view ...
. He wrote one of the earliest and most respected POW memoirs, ''Railroad of Death'' (1946).
*
Col. John Harold Henry Coombes
Colonel John Harold Henry Coombes CBE (1906–1978) was the first principal of Cadet College Petaro, one of the earliest public schools built in Pakistan in 1957. During his military career, he served in the British Army and fought the Second Wo ...
, founder and the first Principal of
Cadet College Petaro in Pakistan
*
Sir Ernest Edward "Weary" Dunlop, Australian surgeon renowned for his leadership of POWs on the railway
*
Ringer Edwards
Herbert James "Ringer" Edwards (26 July 1913 – June 2000) was an Australian soldier during World War II. As a prisoner of war (POW), he survived being crucified for 63 hours by Japanese soldiers on the Burma Railway. Edwards was the basis for ...
, Australian soldier who survived
crucifixion
Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagi ...
at the hands of Japanese soldiers while working on the line
* Arch Flanagan (1915–2013), Australian soldier and father of novelist
Richard Flanagan and
Martin Flanagan
*
Keith Flanagan
Keith may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Keith (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters
* Keith (surname)
* Keith (singer), American singer James Keefer (born 1949)
* Baron Keith, a line of Scottish barons i ...
(d. 2008) Australian soldier, journalist and campaigner for recognition of Weary Dunlop
*
William Frankland, British immunologist whose achievements include the popularisation of the pollen count as a piece of weather-related information to the British public and the prediction of increased levels of allergy to penicillin
*
Ernest Gordon, the former
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
dean of the chapel at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
*
R. M. Hare
Richard Mervyn Hare (21 March 1919 – 29 January 2002), usually cited as R. M. Hare, was a British moral philosopher who held the post of White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford from 1966 until 1983. He subseque ...
, philosopher
*
Wim Kan
Willem Cornelis "Wim" Kan (15 January 1911 – 8 September 1983) was a Dutch cabaret artist. Together with Toon Hermans and Wim Sonneveld, he is considered to be one of the Great Three of Dutch cabaret.
In 1936, he established the ABC Cabar ...
, Dutch comedian and cabaret producer on the Burma side of the railway during the construction period and later in Nakhon Pathom Hospital Camp in Thailand
*
Hamilton Lamb
George Hamilton Lamb (1 January 1900 – 7 December 1943) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1935 until his death in 1943, representing the electorate of Lowan for the Country Party.
Early ...
(1900–1943), Australian politician and member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, died of illness and malnutrition at railway camp 131 Kilo in Thailand
*
Eric Lomax
Eric Sutherland Lomax (30 May 1919 – 8 October 2012) was a British Army officer who was sent to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in 1942. He is most notable for his book, '' The Railway Man'', about his experiences before, during, and after Wor ...
, author of ''
The Railway Man'', an autobiography based on these events, which has been made into
a film of the same name starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman
*
Jacob Markowitz, Romanian-born Canadian physician (1901–1969), AKA the "Jungle Surgeon", who enlisted with the RAMC
* Tan Sri Professor Sir
Alexander Oppenheim
Sir Alexander Oppenheim, OBE FRSE PMN (4 February 1903 – 13 December 1997) was a British mathematician and university administrator. In Diophantine approximation and the theory of quadratic forms, he proposed the Oppenheim conjecture. He was ...
, British mathematician, started a POW university for his fellow workers
*
Frank Pantridge
James Francis Pantridge, (3 October 1916 – 26 December 2004) was a Northern Irish physician, cardiologist, and professor who transformed emergency medicine and paramedic services with the invention of the portable defibrillator.
Early life ...
, British physician
*
Donald Purdie (d. 1943), British chemistry professor and department head at Raffles College, Singapore; Purdie died during construction of the railway
*
Rowley Richards, Australian doctor who kept detailed notes of his time as a medical officer on the railway. He later wrote a book detailing his experiences
*
Rohan Rivett
Rohan Deakin Rivett (16 January 1917 – 5 October 1977) was an Australian journalist and author, and influential editor of the Adelaide newspaper '' The News'' from 1951 to 1960. He is chiefly remembered for accounts of his experiences on the Bu ...
, Australian war correspondent in Singapore; captured after travelling 700 km, predominantly by rowboat, from Singapore; Rivett spent three years working on the Burma railway and later wrote a book chronicling the events.
*
Ronald Searle
Ronald William Fordham Searle, CBE, RDI (3 March 1920 – 30 December 2011) was an English artist and satirical cartoonist, comics artist, sculptor, medal designer and illustrator. He is perhaps best remembered as the creator of St Trinian's S ...
, British cartoonist, creator of the
St Trinian's School characters
*
E. W. Swanton (1907–2000), Cricket writer and broadcaster. Mentioned in his autobiography – ''Sort of a cricket person''
*
Arie Smit
Adrianus Wilhelmus "Arie" Smit (15 April 1916 – 23 March 2016) was a Dutch-born Indonesian painter who lived on Bali.
Early life
Smit was the third of eight children of a trader in cheese and confectionery in Zaandam. His family moved in 19 ...
(1916–2016), Dutch artist and colonial army lithographer; captured in East Java by Japanese in March 1942, sent to Changi Prison and worked on Thai section of railway
*
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 ...
, senior Allied officer at the Bridge on the River Kwai
*
Reg Twigg (1913–2013), British author ''Survivor on the River Kwai: Life on the Burma Railway'', Private in the Leicestershire Regiment
*
Tom Uren
Thomas Uren (28 May 1921 – 26 January 2015) was an Australian politician and Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1975 to 1977. Uren served as the Member for Reid in the Australian House of Representatives from 1958 to 1990, bei ...
, Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party; Minister for Urban and Regional Development in Whitlam government
*
Alistair Urquhart, former Gordon Highlander, born in Aberdeen, Scotland. (1919–2016), author of the book ''The Forgotten Highlander'' in which he recalls how he survived his three years on the railway
*
Ian Watt
Ian Watt (9 March 1917 – 13 December 1999) was a literary critic, literary historian and professor of English at Stanford University. His ''The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding'' (1957) is an important work in the h ...
(1917–1999), literary critic, literary historian and professor of English at
Stanford University
*
David Neville Ffolkes
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
(1912–1966), film and theatre set and costume designer. He won a Tony award in 1947 for his costumes for the play Henry VIII.
Cultural references
The construction of the railway has been the subject of a novel and an award-winning 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, th ...
'' (itself an adaptation of the French language novel ''
The Bridge over the River Kwai
''The Bridge over the River Kwai'' (french: Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï) is a novel by the French novelist Pierre Boulle, published in French in 1952 and English translation by Xan Fielding in 1954. The story is fictional but uses the construct ...
''); a novel, ''
The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' by
Richard Flanagan, and a large number of personal accounts of POW experiences. More recently, the motion picture ''
The Railway Man'' (based on the
book of the same name) also gives insight into the barbaric conditions and suffering that were inflicted upon the workers who built the railway. Flanagan's 2013 book ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' centres on a group of Australian POWs and their experiences building the railway as slave labour, and was awarded the
2014 Man Booker Prize The 2014 Man Booker Prize for fiction was awarded at a ceremony on 14 October 2014. Until 2014, only novels written in English and from authors in the Commonwealth, including the UK, the Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe were eligible for considerat ...
. The book ''
Through the Valley of the Kwai'' and the 2001 film ''
To End All Wars
''To End All Wars'' is a 2001 war film starring Robert Carlyle, Kiefer Sutherland and Sakae Kimura and was directed by David L. Cunningham. The film is based on ''Through the Valley of the Kwai'', an autobiography of Scottish captain Ernest Gor ...
'' are an autobiography of British Army captain
Ernest Gordon.
See also
*
"Death Railway" (''Spyforce'' episode)
*
Far East prisoners of war Far East prisoners of war is a term used in the United Kingdom to describe former British and Commonwealth prisoners of war held in the Far East during the Second World War. The term is also used as the initialism FEPOW, or as the abbreviation Far ...
*
Hellship
*
Kra Isthmus Railway
*
Military railways
The military use of railways derives from their ability to move troops or materiel rapidly and, less usually, on their use as a platform for military systems, like very large railroad guns and armoured trains, in their own right. Railways have ...
* ''
Siam–Burma Death Railway'' (film)
*
Slavery in Japan
Japan had an official slave system from the Yamato period (3rd century A.D.) until Toyotomi Hideyoshi abolished it in 1590. Afterwards, the Japanese government facilitated the use of "comfort women" as sex slaves from 1932 – 1945. Prisoners of wa ...
*
Strategic railway
A strategic railway is a railway proposed or constructed primarily for military strategic purposes, as opposed to the usual purpose of a railway, which is the transport of civilian passengers or freight. Although the archetypal strategic railwa ...
*
Sumatra Railway
Notes
References
Sources
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External links
''The Prisoner List''. Short online film about prisoners of the Japanese during World War II. Depicts life on the Burma Railway.Burma railway trip report 2012Captive Audiences/Captive Performers: Music and Theatre as Strategies for Survival on the Thailand-Burma Railway 1942–1945Works of Ashley George Old held by the State Library of VictoriaAustralian Government death statisticsfor reference only
for reference only
TourismThailandPrisoner of War FX Larkin NX43393 AIF– Detailed web site with documentation and photographs relating to the POW experiences of Frank Larkin in Malaya, Singapore, Thailand and Japan.
Articles on the Australian medical personnel working on the railway. Also sketches by POWs.The Will to Live, by Len (Snowie) Baynes, a first-hand account of working on the Railway.
Kanchanaburi War Cemetery CWGCfor reference only
Kanchanaburi Memorial CWGCfor reference only
Chungkai War Cemetery CWGCfor reference only
Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery CWGCfor reference only
Death Railway list for redressfor reference only
Construction of the Burma Railway
{{coord, 14, 02, 27, N, 99, 30, 11, E, display=title, region:TH_type:landmark_source:dewiki
Myanmar–Thailand relations
History of rail transport in Thailand
Japanese prisoner of war and internment camps
Japanese war crimes
Metre gauge railways in Myanmar
Logistics routes of World War II
Railway lines in Thailand
South-East Asian theatre of World War II
Thailand in World War II
Strategic railways
Tourist attractions in Thailand
World War II sites in Burma
Railway lines opened in 1943
Railway lines closed in 1947
Railway lines opened in 1957