With an enormous pool of captive labour at their disposal, the Japanese forced approximately 200,000 Asian conscripts and over 60,000 Allied POWs to construct the Burma Railway. Although working conditions were far better for the Japanese than the POWs and rmusha workers, about 1,000 (eight percent) of them died during construction. [2], Thailand was a neutral country at the onset of World War II. Labor furnished by prisoners of war shall have no direct relation with war operations. Donate to COFEPOW instantly - simply click on the button below. 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. Corrections? At the same time the 'Sweat Army' of labourers from Burma, ostensibly volunteers but many conscripted by the puppet Burmese government, toiled on the construction work. The railway was to run 420 kilometres through rugged jungle. Lieutenant General Eiguma Ishida, overall commander of the Burma Railway, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. On this end of the railway the workforce was largely Australian, Dutch and local rmusha. Articles on the Australian medical personnel working on the railway. [56] Those left to maintain the line still suffered from appalling living conditions as well as increasing Allied air raids. Around 90,000 civilians died, as did more than 12,000 Allied prisoners. Vegetables and other perishables long in transit arrived rotten. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. RM 2CYBAYN - Military personnel and people attend a dawn memorial service for soldiers who died during World War Two on ANZAC Day at Hellfire Pass in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand, April 25, 2015. Gradually more forces were sent to Burma and Thailand; in total more than 60,000 prisoners of war were transported to the railway project during 1942-3. New options were needed to support the Japanese forces in the Burma Campaign, and an overland route offered the most direct alternative. When the Japanese were not satisfied with the pace of work, prisoners were forced to endure atrocious physical punishment, and some 700 Allied prisoners died or were killed at Hellfire Pass. The largest of these is at Hellfire Pass (north of the current terminus at Nam Tok), a cutting where the greatest number of people died. [33] Other documents suggest that more than 100,000 Malayan Tamils were brought into the project and around 60,000 perished.[35][36]. In reality, however, the death rates of British and Australians across all sites on the railway were scarcely any different 22 and 21 per cent respectively. Accommodation for the Japanese guards had to be built first, and at all the staging camps built subsequently along the railway this rule applied. [66][67] No compensation or reparations have been provided to Southeast Asian victims. The remaining sailors and marines, including Marvin Sizemore, were captured by the Japanese and found themselves building the Burma - Thailand railway as prisoners of war. 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. 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. [59], Several museums are dedicated to those who perished building the railway. [44], The construction camps consisted of open-sided barracks built of bamboo poles with thatched roofs. The 'Market Garden' plan employed all three divisions of First Allied Airborne Army. Major Sotomatsu Chida was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. One factor was that many European and US doctors had little experience with tropical diseases. [7] The Japanese began this project in June 1942. [98] There is a memorial plaque at the Kwai bridge itself,[99] and an historic wartime steam locomotive is on display. Notebook kept by Captain Harold Lord, regular officer in the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC), whilst a Japanese prisoner of war working on the Burma-Thailand railway in 1943, listing neatly and chronologically the names of the British prisoners of war who worked on the railway, May - December 1943, together with the following information about each: rank, serial number, regiment, date of birth, home address, next-of-kin, religion, date on which arrived at the camp, and date of leaving because of illness (the type of illness is stated in each case) or, as in many cases, death. This is the bridge that still remains today. Between June 1942 and October 1943 the POWs and forced labourers laid some 258 miles (415 km) of track from Ban Pong, Thailand (roughly 45 miles [72 km] west of Bangkok), to Thanbyuzayat, Burma (roughly 35 miles [56 km] south of Mawlamyine). Throughout the building of the railway, food supplies were irregular and totally inadequate. The Factors of Survival. To pursue those ends and to support their continued offensives in the Burma theatre, the Japanese began construction of what came to be known as the Burma Railway. The Dutch formed the second largest contingent of Allied prisoners of war on the ThaiBurma railway, after the British. 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 . [72] Tens of thousands of POWs were packed onto vessels that came to be known as Hell ships; one in five prisoners did not survive the cramped, disease-ridden journey. Rivers and canyons had to be bridged and sections of mountains had to be cut away to create a bed that was straight and level enough to accommodate the narrow-gauge track. List of Australian Army Medical Corp Officers on the Burma-Thailand Railway A FORCE To Burma May 1942 D FORCE To Southern end of line March 1943 DUNLOP FORCE To Southern end of line January 1943 F FORCE To Northern Thailand April 1943 H FORCE To Southern end of line 1943 L FORCE Deployed in medical support of natives August 1943 It was set up within the Management Office of the Army Ministry in order to handle the increase in POW numbers as . Another thirteen letter parties, L to X, soon followed, taking the number of British working on the railway at the end of 1942 to around 20 000. The construction of the railway is a heartbreaking story of forced labor, with more than 60,000 Allied prisoners of war . It is also known from a study of the Australians who joined the army in World War II that they were generally young and unmarried. 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. Cruelty could take different forms, from extreme violence and torture to minor acts of physical punishment, humiliation, and neglect. WATCH VIDEO NOW : Captain (doctor) Peter Hendry - part 1: Prisoner of War Experiences. To avoid a hazardous 2,000-mile (3,200km) sea journey around the Malay peninsula, a railway from Bangkok to Rangoon seemed a feasible alternative. Probably their motives were mixed: a desire for adventure, a sense of duty, nationalism and a conviction that they were part of a proud Australian military tradition dating from Gallipoli. It is also the case that Australians distinctive national characteristics did not give them a greater chance of survival, as is sometimes assumed. [54][55], After the completion of the railroad, over 10,000 POWs were then transported to Japan. [17] A holiday was declared for 25 October which was chosen as the ceremonial opening of the line. Photocopy. The Burma- Death Railway. The first contingent of around 3000 reached Thailand some months before the Australians in June 1942. The Japanese assumed that if Chiang Kai-sheks Nationalist forces were deprived of this key logistical resource, their conquest of China could be easily completed. Towards the end of the war there were also casualties from Allied bombing raids. April 1942 to October 1943. The remains of United States personnel were repatriated. Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop an Australian surgeon and legend among prisoners of the Thai Burma Railway in World War II; The Burma Railway was also known as the "Death Railway" as 16,000 allied troops and 100,000 Asian labourers died during its construction. [60] However, authorities agree that the percentage of deaths among the rmusha was much higher than among the Allied military personnel. The Death Railway. [9] Much of the construction materials, including tracks and sleepers, were brought from dismantled branches of Malaya's Federated Malay States Railway network and the East Indies' various rail networks. 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 . Records of Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters, World War II, RG 331. At main camps such as Chungkai, Tamarkan, Non Pladuk and Thanbyuzayat were "base Hospitals" which were also huts of bamboo and thatch, staffed by such medical officers and orderlies as were allowed by the Japanese to care for the sick prisoners. [62], 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. However, the film and book contain many historical inaccuracies, and should be considered works of fiction. The wooden bridge was reused for pedestrians and cars. WAR Graves - Burma - Siam Railway On 6th December 1948 an expedition consisting of an officer, one Siamese interpreter, two police guards, one cook and one general duties coolie, left Kanburi for Takanun by motor boat. The movement of POWs northward from Changi Prison in Singapore and other prison camps in Southeast Asia began in May 1942. Director: Jack Lee | Stars: Virginia McKenna, Peter Finch, Kenji Takaki, Tran Van Khe. A large number of the British and Australian captives were sent to Burma (Myanmar). Since 1945 prisoners of war and the Burma-Thailand railway have come to occupy a central place in Australia's national memory of World War II. 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