The Death Railway and the Bridge on the River Kwai
August 5th 2007 08:33
Mountains and fields, Kanchanaburi
Kanchanaburi, 130 kilometres to the west of Bangkok on the Myanmar border, is Thailand’s third largest province, covering 19,473 square kilometers. It is a region of breathtaking beauty, with dense mountainous jungles, calm, slow-flowing rivers, hidden caves, and waterfalls. There are pristine national parks which offer all kinds of jungle adventures from elephant treks to white-water rafting.
A farm in kanchanaburi province
There are farms, where rural life goes on peacefully, in a rhythm untouched by the rush of the outside world.
But Kanchanaburi has long, eventful history, marked by stories both famous and infamous, from the Neolithic Age to the Second World War. It is one of those infamous stories which brings most visitors to Kanchanaburi. - the story of the Burma Railway.
In the War Cemetery in Kanachanaburi city, row after row of simple white headstones tell of tragic, cruel and needless deaths of 6,982 British, Australian, Canadian, Dutch and New Zealand men, some as young as 16 years and some as old 56. Across the road, the War Museum tells how those lives were lost in the construction the of the Burma Railway.
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The Burma Railway, from the train
Also known as the Death Railway or the Thailand-Burma Railway, this 415 kilometre railway runs between Bangkok, Thailand and Rangoon Myanmar. Its route was first surveyed by the British at the beginning of the 20th century but plans were abandonned as the mountainous jungle terrain made construction almost impossible.
The Burma Railway, near the Myanmar border
On June 22, 1942, however, the Empire of Japan, seeking a route to supply their forces in the Burma Campaign, began work on the railway, starting at both the Thai and the Burma ends simultaneously. Most construction materials were carted overland from the dismantled rail system of the Federated States of Malaysia. About 200,000 Asian “slaves” and 60,000 Allied prisoners laboured on the railway, living and working under horrific conditions. On October 17, 1943, the project was completed but it had taken a horrific toll. It is estimated that 100,000 Asian and 16,000 Allied POW workers died from exhaustion, malnutrition, cholera, malaria and dysentery. The construction of the Burma Railway is a major part of the “Asian Holocaust” in which millions of people, both civilians and prisoners of war were killed.
The Burma Railway from the train
Today, only 130 kilometres of the railway are still in use. Tourists can ride, in rattling wooden carriages with open windows, along steep jungle cliffs which fall away to a slow yellow river below. Through the treetops on the far banks, the temples of Myanmar flash in and out of view. It’s beautiful, picturesque and tranquil but the ghosts of the men who gave their lives to build it still linger in the shadows of the trees, it’s impossible to forget them..
A glimpse of Myanmar from the Burma Railway
The most famous section of the Thai-Burma Railway is Bridge 277, over the Khwae Yai river, probably because it was immortalized in the movie classic The Bridge on the River Kwai with its unforgettable theme tune the Colonel Bogey march. But even here, the crowds picking their way across the worn planks are hushed and the river is audible, like a whispering phantom below.
The River Kwai
The Burma Railway is just one of the Second World War's stories of man's inhumanity to man, but it is a major event in the “Asian Holocaust” in which millions of civilians, soldiers and prisoners of war lost their lives.
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