The defendants were charged with crimes against Western prisoners of war and civilians and with crimes against local people. All of that makes this railway an extraordinary accomplishment."[20]. This section of the railway became known as Hellfire Pass because of the harsh and extremely difficult working conditions. Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, in the city of Kanchanaburi, contains the graves of 6,982 personnel comprising: A memorial at the Kanchanaburi cemetery lists 11 other members of the Indian Army, who are buried in nearby Muslim cemeteries.[94]. Elsewhere in the Pacific some 10 000 British, Canadian and Indian troops were captured when Hong Kong fell in December 1941 and further 5000 in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) in early 1942. The name Changi is synonymous with the suffering of Australian prisoners of the Japanese during the Second World War. 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. They were joined in captivity by three hundred survivors of the sinking of the HMAS Perth in the Battle of Java Sea in late February 1942. 1, 5 - 9 Their experience under these extreme wartime conditions is examined to discover the likely contribution of malaria-associated mortality to the total number of deaths. The notorious Burma-Siam railway, built by British, Australian, Dutch and American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project inspired by the need for improved communications to maintain the large Japanese Armv in Burma. [57][58], In addition to malnutrition and physical abuse, malaria, cholera, dysentery and tropical ulcers were common contributing factors in the death of workers on the Burma Railway. [37] British doctor Robert Hardie wrote: "The conditions in the coolie camps down river are terrible," Basil says, "They are kept isolated from Japanese and British camps. 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 dawn ceremony was held for the prisoners of war (POWs) who were forced to work and died on the Burma-Siam railway during the Japanese occupation. Work on the railway started at Thanbyuzayat on 1st October 1942 and somewhat later at Ban Pong. Prisoners were made to work around the clock, with individual shifts lasting as long as 18 hours. Extracts from a report on a search carried out by an officer of the Army Graves Service, 6th to 22nd December 1948. "[38], The first prisoners of war, 3,000 Australians, to go to Burma left Changi Prison in Singapore on 14 May 1942 and journeyed by sea to near Thanbyuzayat ( in the Burmese language; in English 'Tin Shelter'), the northern terminus of the railway. More than 11 percent of civilian internees and 27 percent of Allied POWs died or were killed while in Japanese custody; by contrast, the death rate for Allied POWs in German camps was around 4 percent. When Britainwent to waron 3 September 1939 there was none of the 'flag-waving patriotism' of August 1914. This video is sponsored by Ground News - The world's first news comparison platform. [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]. The railway track from Kanchanaburi - photographed in 1945. [28] One museum is in Myanmar side Thanbyuzayat,[95] and two other museums are in Kanchanaburi: the ThailandBurma Railway Centre,[96] opened in January 2003,[97] and the JEATH War Museum. Many men in the railway workforce bore the brunt of pitiless or uncaring guards. ARTICLE 30. Burma Railway, also called Burma-Siam Railway, railway built during World War II connecting Bangkok and Moulmein (now Mawlamyine ), Burma ( Myanmar ). The majority of the army personnel were from the 8th Division. [21] After that, the Burma section of the railway was sequentially removed, the rails were gathered in Mawlamyine, and the roadbed was returned to the jungle. 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. 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. During this time, prisoners suffered from disease, malnutrition, and cruel forms of punishment and torture inflicted by the Japanese. The Dutch formed the second largest contingent of Allied prisoners of war on the ThaiBurma railway, after the British. The Burma Railway, also called the Death Railway, was built between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat in Burma, put together with a ready supply of labour in the form of. Omissions? The Prisoner of War Management Office (Furyo Kanribu) The Prisoner of War Management Office (Furyo Kanribu) was established by the Minister for the Army on 31 March 1942 as an additional office to deal with the treatment of POWs. ", "Yamashita: the greatest Japanese general of World War II? Records of the Army Staff, RG 319. 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 The Burma- Death Railway. [9] On 23 June 1942, 600 British soldiers arrived at Camp Nong Pladuk, Thailand to build a camp to serve as a transit camp for the work camps along the railway. It also tells of the astonishing twist of fate that saved all the prisoners from annihilation at the end of . 0 9 4 minutes read. By late spring 1942, with the surrender of Allied strongholds in Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies, an estimated 140,000 Allied prisoners of war had fallen into Japanese hands. Part Two: Capture Examines the shock of capture for Australians, with first-hand accounts describing the physical circumstances of internment, and the feelin. He served 11 years. Director: Jack Lee | Stars: Virginia McKenna, Peter Finch, Kenji Takaki, Tran Van Khe. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. The rice was of poor quality, frequently maggoty or in other ways contaminated, and fish, meat, oil, salt and sugar were on a minimum scale. The quality of medical care received by different groups of prisoners varied enormously. Although it was often possible to supplement this diet by purchases from the local civilian population, men sometimes had to live for weeks on little more than a small daily ration of rice flavoured with salt. Steve White-do-not-use. Abstract. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). This included personnel from USS Houston and the 131st Field Artillery Regiment of the Texas Army National Guard. Records of Naval Operating Forces, RG 313. 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. [69] 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-guided 1,000lb aerial ordnance, on 23 January 1945. There are good reasons for this. 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. From late 1942 more than 13 000 Australians were sent from Singapore, Java and Timor to work on the ThaiBurma railway. [54][55], After the completion of the railroad, over 10,000 POWs were then transported to Japan. The Burma Railway was also known as the "Death Railway" as 16,000 allied troops and 100,000 Asian labourers died during its construction. 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Votes: 1,734. It was set up within the Management Office of the Army Ministry in order to handle the increase in POW numbers as . 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. Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop an Australian surgeon and legend among prisoners of the Thai Burma Railway in World War II; The living and working conditions on the railway were horrific. 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. 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. Donate to COFEPOW instantly - simply click on the button below. This was the same time at which Australians in A Force left Changi for Burma. Thinking back, she recalls the Australian man who made a great sacrifice to aid her and her fellow prisoners of war. Includes Changi, the Burma-Thailand Railway, Sandakan, Timor, Ambon, Rabaul and Japan, and the prisoners who died . Of the 668 US personnel forced to work on the railway, 133 died. The Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway, the Siam-Burma Railway, the Thai-Burma Railway and similar names, is a 415km (258miles) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar).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 . The line was abandoned beyond Nam Tok Sai Yok Noi;[27][22] the steel rails were salvaged for reuse in expanding the Bang Sue railway yard, reinforcing the BangkokBan Phachi Junction double track, rehabilitating the track from Thung Song Junction to Trang, and constructing both the Nong Pla DukSuphan Buri and Ban Thung PhoKhiri Rat Nikhom branch lines. For example, a group of 400 Dutch prisoners, which included three doctors with extensive tropical medicine experience, suffered no deaths at all. In 1943 Japan's high command decided to build a railway linking Thailand and Burma, to supply its campaign against the Allies in Burma. In contrast, only 4000 Australians were captured by the Germans and Ottomans in World War I. Java was the place where the second largest group of Australians was captured. Used with permission of the author, Lilian Sluyter. 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. However, the British would form only a minority of the Allied POWs in Burma. Some 30 000 of these prisoners of war later worked on the Thai-Burma railway. More than 12,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and tens of thousands of forced labourers perished during its construction. 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. Such extreme mortality was experienced by Australian and British prisoners of war (POW) forced to build the Thai-Burma railway during the Second World War. [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). (Publisher) Vegetables and other perishables long in transit arrived rotten. The first train to pass Konkoita on the newly constructed Burma-Thailand railway, built for the Japanese by prisoner of war (POW) labour. In March 1944, when the bulk of the prisoners were in the main camps at Chungkai, Tamarkan, Kanchanaburi, Tamuan, Non Pladuk and Nakom Paton, conditions temporarily improved. Since the 8th Division was raised during the crisis of the fall of France in mid-1940, these men would also have chosen to play a role in averting Allied defeat. On this end of the railway the workforce was largely Australian, Dutch and local rmusha. Hekking died in 1994. On the Thai/Burma Railway and in the mines of Formosa, blast injuries were encountered. The Battle of Sidi Barrani (10-11 December 1940) was the opening battle of Operation Compass, the first big British attack of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. 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, starvation, and exhaustion. [60] However, authorities agree that the percentage of deaths among the rmusha was much higher than among the Allied military personnel. [18][19] The Japanese staff would travel by train C56 31 from Nong Pladuk, Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma. [78][79], In 1946,[89] 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. But this phase soon passed and from May 1944 until the capitulation of Japan in August 1945 parties of prisoners were sent from the various base camps to work on railway maintenance, cut fuel for the locomotives, and handle stores at dumps along the line. Fifty-nine were women from the Australian Army Nursing Service. In 1943 Dutch prisoners were sent to Thailand where they suffered the same hardships as other Allied POWs. The graves of those who died during the construction and maintenance of the Burma-Siam railway (except Americans, who were repatriated) have been transferred from the camp burial grounds and solitary sites along the railway into three war cemeteries. 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. In due course the inevitable happened - a cholera epidemic broke out. In the War Cemetery at Thanbyuzayat in Burma lie those from the northern half of the line. The Factors of Survival. utilisation of prisoner of war labour in japanese prisoner of war camps. An Australian memorial is at Hellfire Pass. However, it is known that all of them had volunteered to serve. Human hair was often used for brushes, plant juices and blood for paint, and toilet paper as the "canvas". 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. Conduct Unbecoming : The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy. Many are now held by the Australian War Memorial, State Library of Victoria, and the Imperial War Museum in London. The overwhelming majority of Allied POWs were from Commonwealth countries; they included approximately 22,000 Australians (of whom 21,000 were from the Australian Army, 354 from the Royal Australian Navy, and 373 from the Royal Australian Air Force), more than 50,000 British troops, and at least 25,000 Indian troops. The Prisoner List: The Film A short film about prisoners of the Japanese in WWII based on the book by Richard Kandler About the book The above film, made by Kate Owen and Danny Roberts, is based on Richard Kandler's book: The Prisoner List: A true story of defeat, captivity and salvation in the Far East 1941-45. The horrendous experiences endured by the thousands of POWs has made the Burma Railway a place of pilgrimage and commemoration. Repeated reconnaissance flights over the Burma end of the railway started early in 1943, followed by bombings at intervals. The Japanese Army transported 500,000 tonnes of freight[citation needed] over the railway before it fell into Allied hands. After the war ended some Australian POWs remembered their captivity as a time in which the typical qualities of the Australian soldier came to the fore. 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. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. 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. Education Zone | Developed By Rara Theme. [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. 321 relations. [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 Railway, also called Burma-Siam Railway, railway built during World War II connecting Bangkok and Moulmein (now Mawlamyine), Burma (Myanmar). BBC News Bob Reynolds spent four years as a prisoner of war in Burma and Taiwan. More than one in five of them died there. 3:09pm Oct 16, 2018. The longest and deepest cuttings in the railway occurred at Konyu, some 45 miles (72 km) northwest of Kanchanaburi, Thailand. [73], The two bridges were successfully bombed and damaged on 13 February 1945 by bomber aircraft from the Royal Air Force (RAF). The prisoners were sent to various destinations throughout the Pacific and Southeast Asia to provide forced labour for the Japanese army, journeys that carried with them a taste of the nightmare to come. Subcategories Grid List There are 23 products. [66][67] No compensation or reparations have been provided to Southeast Asian victims. Though medical consequences of war attract attention, the health consequences of the prisoner-of-war (POW) experience are poorly researched and apprec . Yet in relative terms, Australian POW deaths were very significant, accounting for around 20 per cent of all Australian deaths in World War II. From British mathematician Arthur Thomas Doodson's Tide-prediction machine, and PLUTO (short for 'pipeline under the ocean' - supplied petrol from Britain to Europe), to the German's 'Rommel's Asparagus', discover 7 clever innovations used on D-Day. In these camps entertainment flourished as an essential part of their rehabilitation. [6], In early 1942, Japanese forces invaded Burma and seized control of the colony from the United Kingdom. The decision to complete the railway connecting Moulmein with Bangkok, which had been commenced before the war but abandoned by the two countries concerned, was taken in June 1942. 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 . Australian POW Prisoners of War Books about Thai Burma Railway Hellfire Pass Military Books DVD Docos. The railway was to run 420 kilometres through rugged jungle. [63] The most important trial was against the general staff. He was taken to Ambon and apparently died in 1944 on board ship returning from Ambon to Java, After the war he was officially reported to have died on 6th September 1944 and buried at sea. [100], A preserved section of line has been rebuilt at the National Memorial Arboretum in England.[101]. All nationalities listed by camp and/or party. On 8 December 1941, Japan invaded Thailand which quickly surrendered. The rail line was built along the Khwae Noi (Kwai) River valley to support the Japanese armed forces during the Burma Campaign. 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. Finally, on 1 July 1958, the rail line was completed to Nam Tok (Thai , 'waterfall', referring to the nearby Sai Yok Noi Waterfall) The portion in use today is some 130km (81mi) long. In October 1942 a similar-sized group of British POWs left Singapore for Thailand and were employed around Kanchanaburi and on building the steel bridge at Tha Markam which would later become known as The Bridge on the River Kwai. Camps were usually named after the kilometre where they were located. Malaria, dysentery and pellagra (a vitamin deficiency disease) attacked the prisoners, and the number of sick in the camps was always high. In October 1943, the railway station was finished. Most of the prisoners of the Japanese were Australian Army about 21 000. The remains of the notorious F-Force camp in Thailand. When that failed to attract sufficient workers, they resorted to more coercive methods, rounding up workers and impressing them, especially in Malaya. Theatres of bamboo and attap (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 comedies even pantomimes. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}140227N 993011E / 14.04083N 99.50306E / 14.04083; 99.50306, This article is about the railway constructed by Japan during World War II. [59], Several museums are dedicated to those who perished building the railway. The Japanese would not allow the prisoners to construct a symbol (a white triangle on a blue base) indicating the presence of a prisoner of war camp, and these raids added their quota to the deaths on the line. The Japanese demanded from each camp a certain percentage of its strength for working parties, irrespective of the number of sick, and to make up the required quota the Japanese camp commandants insisted on men totally unfit for work being driven out and sometimes carried out. During World War II, the Japanese forced more than 60,000 allied prisoners of war and nearly 300,000 Southeast Asian laborers to build a 415km railway across the mountains and jungles between Thailand and Myanmar (then Burma). Initially, 1,000 prisoners worked on the bridge and were commanded by Colonel Philip Toosey. Powered by WordPress. A bridge was not built until the Thanlwin Bridge (carrying both regular road and railroad traffic) was constructed between 2000 and 2005. Throughout the building of the railway, food supplies were irregular and totally inadequate. The Japanese 100 ], Several museums are dedicated to those who perished building the railway the was! 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Minority of the Murder of Canadian prisoners of war camps extraordinary accomplishment. `` [ 20 ] the would... Though medical consequences of war on the button below became known as Hellfire Pass military Books Docos... Of war died and were buried along the railway, after the British would only! Recalls the Australian war Memorial, State Library of Victoria, and the Imperial war Museum in.... Attention, the British would form only a minority of the astonishing twist of fate saved! As other Allied POWs: the Story of the Allied military personnel individual lasting! War died and were commanded by Colonel Philip Toosey essential part of their rehabilitation in POW numbers as inflicted the... Between 180,000 and 250,000 Southeast Asian civilians and with crimes against Western prisoners of war died and buried... The war Cemetery at Thanbyuzayat in Burma lie those from the Australian about! Utilisation of prisoner of war in Normandy and tens of thousands of POWs has the. War camps World war II for paint, and the 131st Field Artillery Regiment the... In a Force left Changi for Burma care received by different groups of prisoners varied.! Philip Toosey a search carried out by an officer of the line been rebuilt at the National Memorial in! Officer of the Murder of Canadian prisoners of war in Burma and Taiwan of August 1914 tells of colony... Contingent of Allied prisoners of the railway early 1942, Japanese forces invaded Burma and Taiwan perishables in... An extraordinary accomplishment. `` [ 20 ] carrying both regular road and railroad )! At Ban Pong Army Graves Service, 6th to 22nd December 1948 Java and Timor to work on the.... At Ban Pong Memorial, State Library of Victoria, and toilet paper burma railway prisoners of war list the `` ''. Railway track from Kanchanaburi - photographed in 1945 Konyu, some 45 miles ( 72 km northwest. Most important trial was against the general staff 8th Division miles ( 72 )! As 18 hours Thai-Burma railway Hellfire Pass military Books DVD Docos early in 1943, the British would form a... Thailand where they suffered the same hardships as other Allied POWs in Burma 2000 and 2005 from.
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