New options were needed to support the Japanese forces in the Burma Campaign, and an overland route offered the most direct alternative. [29], 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 Asian civilian labourers (rmusha). It completed the rail link between Bangkok, Thailand, and Rangoon, Burma. Most of the camps were right alongside the railway track and some were near bridges and other vulnerable points. Deel 8 De tragedie van de Birma-Siam Spoorweg", "The Railway Man: Australian keeps legacy of Thailand's 'Death Railway' alive helping relatives of POWs gain closure", Captive Audiences/Captive Performers: Music and Theatre as Strategies for Survival on the Thailand-Burma Railway 19421945, Works of Ashley George Old held by the State Library of Victoria. They were set to work building a camp at Nong Pladuk which would form a base for future groups of POWs. Since the upper part of the Khwae valley is now flooded by the Vajiralongkorn Dam,[19] and the surrounding terrain is mountainous, it would take extensive tunnelling to reconnect Thailand with Burma by rail. There are good reasons for this. utilisation of prisoner of war labour in japanese prisoner of war camps. Special British prisoner parties at Kinsaiyok bury about 20 coolies a day. Now they find themselves dumped in these charnel houses, driven and brutally knocked about by the Jap and Korean guards, unable to buy extra food, bewildered, sick, frightened. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Thanbyuzayat, Myanmar, holds 621 Dutch graves, Copyright 2023 Burma Thailand Railway Memorial Association. Powered by WordPress. From Thai-Burma railway to Sandakan, WWII history buff unearths stories of Australian POWs. Australians were not the largest national group on the railway. [33] Other documents suggest that more than 100,000 Malayan Tamils were brought into the project and around 60,000 perished.[35][36]. [64] Hiroshi Abe, a first lieutenant who supervised construction of the railway at Sonkrai where 600 British prisoners out of 1,600 died of cholera and other diseases,[65] was sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison, as a B/C class war criminal. Download Ground News for free here: https://ground.news/megaprojectsSimo. Also sketches by POWs. The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam-Burma Railway, Thai-Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a 415 km (258 mi) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar).It was built from 1940 to 1943 by civilian laborers impressed or recruited by the Japanese and prisoners of war taken by the Japanese, to supply troops and weapons in the . Aside from the classic British-American film in 1957, Bridge on the River Kwai, the struggles prisoners of war endured in Burma and the making of the "death railway" became a "forgotten war" - it got lost in the Western Front's heroics and the ugly truth about the horrifying gas chambers found in the Nazis' prison camps. The first contingent of around 3000 reached Thailand some months before the Australians in June 1942. [77], Hellfire Pass in the Tenasserim Hills 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. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Includes Changi, the Burma-Thailand Railway, Sandakan, Timor, Ambon, Rabaul and Japan, and the prisoners who died . Among the Allied POWs were some 30,000 British, 13,000 Australians, 18,000 Dutch, and 700 Americans. The railway was to run 420 kilometres through rugged jungle. After the Japanese were defeated in the Battles of the Coral Sea (May 48, 1942) and Midway (June 36, 1942), the sea-lanes between the Japanese home islands and Burma were no longer secure. In 1941 these were adjusted to 19 and 40 years. 37,583 prisoners from the United Kingdom, Commonwealth and Dominions, 28,500 from Netherlands and 14,473 from the United States were released after the surrender of Japan. Estimates vary but the number who worked on the railway was possibly as high as 18 000. More than one in five of them died there. The list contains over 1700 names and is particularly interesting as a record of the decimation, by disease or untreated wounds, of prisoners working on the Burma-Thailand railway. Contact our Media sales & Licensing team about access. The Japanese wanted the railway completed as quickly as possible, and working units were comprised of massive numbers of prisoners scattered over the entire length of the proposed route. Vegetables and other perishables long in transit arrived rotten. Some rosters show if living, dead or killed in action (KIA), cause of death and burial site. A great deal of equipment was improvised by the medical officers and orderlies, and food and medicines were clandestinely obtained. More than 22 000 Australians were taken prisoner in the Asia-Pacific region in the early months of 1942. The total length of miles, the total number of bridges over 600, including six to eight long-span bridges the 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. The higher deaths in F Force were probably attributable to the fact that British workers contained a high proportion of men who were already ill when they left Singapore. A total of 50,000 troops were captured at one time there."He then got moved to Malai POW Camp 1 in Thailand, and transferred to Camp 2 to build the Burma Railway."He was liberated in 1945 . 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. [27], After the war the railway was in poor condition and needed reconstruction for use by the Royal Thai Railway system. CHAPTER 2. [53], The construction of the Burma Railway is counted as a war crime committed by Japan in Asia. Railway Construction Camp - Kanya, Thailand. In 1943 Dutch prisoners were sent to Thailand where they suffered the same hardships as other Allied POWs. Contact our Media sales & Licensing team about access, whole: Dimensions: 30x21cm., Pagination: [5] leaves 4 plans. Australian POW Prisoners of War Books about Thai Burma Railway Hellfire Pass Military Books DVD Docos. Work on the railway started at Thanbyuzayat on 1st October 1942 and somewhat later at Ban Pong. Some have even brought wives and children. [62], Workers in more isolated areas suffered a much higher death rate than did others. Dutch chemist Van Boxtell. It was built from 1940 to 1943 by civilian laborers 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. A newly wealthy English woman returns to Malaya to build a well for the villagers who helped her during war. [17] A holiday was declared for 25 October which was chosen as the ceremonial opening of the line. [50] Charles died in December 2009. Hekking died in 1994. Initially, 1,000 prisoners worked on the bridge and were commanded by Colonel Philip Toosey. Omissions? WATCH VIDEO NOW : Captain (doctor) Peter Hendry - part 1: Prisoner of War Experiences. It was to be built by a captive labour force of about 60,000 Allied prisoners of war and 200,000 romusha, or Asian labourers. 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. [90], Three cemeteries maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) contain the vast majority of Allied military personnel who died on the Burma Railway.[90]. These pages are dedicated to the prisoners who lost their lives working as slave labour for the Japanese to build a railway between Thailand and Burma in WW2. 69 miles (111km) of the railway were in Burma and the remaining 189 miles (304km) were in Thailand. [30][31][32] 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. Burma-Siam Railway 1942-1945, Second World War. In 1943 Dutch prisoners were sent to Thailand where they suffered the same hardships as other Allied POWs. BBC News Bob Reynolds spent four years as a prisoner of war in Burma and Taiwan. More than a third of these men and women died in captivity. Some of their works were used as evidence in the trials of Japanese war criminals. Repeated reconnaissance flights over the Burma end of the railway started early in 1943, followed by bombings at intervals. More than 250 miles of railway, from Thanbyuzayat in Burma to Ban Pong in Thailand, remained to be constructed, much of it through mountainous country and dense jungle, in a region with one of the worst climates in the world.The Japanese aimed at completing the railway in 14 months, or at least by the end of l943. In 1939 the age limits for enlistment in the AIF were 19 to 35 years of age (higher for officers and some NCOs). [73] Bad weather forced the cancellation of the mission and the AZON was never deployed against the bridge. The only cover for the prisoners was that afforded by the flimsy bamboo and thatch huts, where they were made to shelter while the raids were in progress, and the inevitable casualties were heavy. Japanese Medical Orderly. These became more and more frequent when, towards the end of October 1943, trains full of Japanese troops and supplies began to go through from Thailand to Burma. This is the bridge that still remains today. In mid-1942, large numbers of POWs began to be transported to Thailand and Burma for the construction of the Thai-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 415 km (258 mi) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). There, approximately 20% of the Allied POWs died during its construction. Navy and the auxiliary forces of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. The first contingent of British to work on the ThaiBurma railway was sent to Burma (now Myanmar) from Sumatra in May 1942, as part of the 500-strong Medan Force. The larger number of British deaths overall reflects the fact that there were simply more British working on the railway than Australians or Dutch POWs. Except for the worst months of the construction period, known as the "Speedo" (mid-spring to mid-October 1943),[51][52] 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. George, from Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Scotland, was a POW in Java in 1942. 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. As well as these deaths, Japanese civilians were nearly 10,000 lost at sea in this attack and Australia lost about 2800 soldiers to American operations. Sidi Barrani, on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt, had been occupied by the Italian 10th Army, during the Italian invasion of Egypt (9-16 September 1940) and was attacked by British, Commonwealth and imperial . The first cut at Konyu was approximately 1,500 feet (450 metres) long and 23 feet (7 metres) deep, and the second was approximately 250 feet (75 metres) long and 80 feet (25 metres) deep. For the railways of the country Burma, see, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The Japanese invasion of Thailand, 8 December 1941", "How was Thailand Impacted in World War 2? The Japanese Army transported 500,000 tonnes of freight[citation needed] over the railway before it fell into Allied hands. They utilised a labour force composed of prisoners of war taken in the campaigns in South-East Asia and the Pacific, and coolies brought from Malaya and the Dutch East Indies or conscripted in Siam and Burma. Unbeknown to his captors, and at the risk of losing his life if discovered, he kept a diary documenting life. [42][43] Workers were moved up and down the railway line as needed. The Dutch formed the second largest contingent of Allied prisoners of war on the ThaiBurma railway, after the British. The Japanese kept no records and it was impossible for anyone else to do so, nor were the graves marked, but between 80,000 and 100,000 perished. Alternatively, search more than 1 million objects from 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. Neither drugs or surgical instruments were supplied by the Japanese, and although later on certain medical supplies were made available they were always inadequate. These activities engaged numerous POWs as actors, singers, musicians, designers, technicians, and female impersonators. The quality of medical care received by different groups of prisoners varied enormously. 493.8 Records of the Peiping headquarters Group 1946-47 493.1 Administrative History Related Records: Records of U.S. Army Service Forces (World War II), RG 160. Source 4 - Sleepers Map of the Thai-Burma Railway Sleepers from Hellfire Pass Source 1 - The Wreaths The youth of many Australian prisoners of war was very evident and many enlisted at an age younger than 20. [21][22] The railway link between Thailand and Burma was to be separated again for protecting British interests in Singapore. Much of the excavation was carried out with inadequate hand tools, and, because work on the railway had fallen behind schedule, the pace of work was increased. Allied prisoners of war Experiences 22 ] the railway were in Burma the... Large numbers of POWs began to be separated again for protecting British interests in Singapore,. 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