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. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Burma_Railway&oldid=1133973618, Iron bridge across Kwae Yai River at Tha Makham, Arch Flanagan (19152013), Australian soldier and father of novelist, This page was last edited on 16 January 2023, at 11:22. The vast majority of the men of the 2nd AIF were of European descent. 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 ( in the Thai language; in English, 'big tributary'). The Factors of Survival. In 1941 these were adjusted to 19 and 40 years. [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 remains of the notorious F-Force camp in Thailand. 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. ", "Burma-Siam Railway - Australia receives no payment", "Grote schade aan materiaal der N.I. 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. Listed under D-Day - The Normandy Invasion. 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. The final group of Dutch arrived in Burma as part of Group 5 in April 1943, bringing the total of Dutch in Burma to around 4600. From the inmates of Colditz to the men who took part in the 'Great Escape . [63] The most important trial was against the general staff. 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. Also sketches by POWs. [14][15][16], The railway was completed ahead of schedule. 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. Coast also details the camaraderie, pastimes, and humour of the POWs in the face of adversity.[47]. Life in the POW camps was recorded at great risk by artists such as Jack Bridger Chalker, Philip Meninsky, John Mennie, Ashley George Old, and Ronald Searle. The British POWs suffered the highest number of dead of any Allied group on the ThaiBurma railway. Alternatively, search more than 1 million objects from 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. 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. Many remember Japanese soldiers as being cruel and indifferent to the fate of Allied prisoners of war and the Asian rmusha. 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. 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]. by Howard Margolian. 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 . They were outnumbered by the British, the Dutch and large cohorts of Asian labourers (rmusha), particularly Burmese and Tamils from Malaya. It completed the rail link between Bangkok, Thailand, and Rangoon, Burma. 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. In 1943 Japan's high command decided to build a railway linking Thailand and Burma, to supply its campaign against the Allies in Burma. The notorious Burma-Siam railway, built by Commonwealth, Dutch and American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project, driven by the need for improved communication to support the large Japanese army in Burma. The map shows the significance of the building of the Thai-Burma railway by the Australian prisoners of war to Australia because it shows where the POWs were located whilst being prisoners. BURMA-04_roster (WO 361-2204) - British and American POWs at Burma Camp 6, later IV. A further 354 were from the Royal Australian Navy and 373 from the Royal Australian Air Force. In the opening months of the Pacific War, Japanese forces struck Allied bases throughout the western Pacific and Southeast Asia as part of the so-called Southern Operation. 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. What mattered in captivity was not so much a mans nationality but the particular circumstances and location of the places in which he worked, his access to food, medicines and medical care, his genetic inheritance, and even his luck and will to survive. Two hundred men were housed in each barracks, giving each man a two-foot wide space in which to live and sleep. 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 two sections of the line met at kilometre 263, about 18km (11mi) south of the Three Pagodas Pass at Konkoita (nowadays: Kaeng Khoi Tha, Sangkhla Buri District, Kanchanaburi Province). 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. Fifty-nine were women from the Australian Army Nursing Service. Published by Marsworth. 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. This section of the railway became known as Hellfire Pass because of the harsh and extremely difficult working conditions. Konkoita is approximately 263 kilometres north of Nong Pladuk (also known as Non Pladuk), or 151 kilometres south of Thanbyuzayat. Only the first 130 kilometres (81mi) of the line in Thailand remained, with trains still running as far north as Nam Tok. Those who have no known grave are commemorated by name on memorials elsewhere; the land forces on either the Rangoon Memorial or the Singapore Memorial and the naval casualties on memorials at the manning ports. [12][13] The projected completion date was December 1943. Dancing Along the Deadline : The Andersonville Memoir of a Prisoner of the Confederacy. Powered by WordPress. Director: Jack Lee | Stars: Virginia McKenna, Peter Finch, Kenji Takaki, Tran Van Khe. Many are now held by the Australian War Memorial, State Library of Victoria, and the Imperial War Museum in London. [48][49] 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". More than one in five of them died there. Most of the prisoners of the Japanese were Australian Army about 21 000. Max Heiliger-Laundering money for the Nazis. A bridge was not built until the Thanlwin Bridge (carrying both regular road and railroad traffic) was constructed between 2000 and 2005. All of that makes this railway an extraordinary accomplishment."[20]. This is particularly true on Anzac Day (April 25), when Australians pay tribute to those who served and lost their lives during war. On 17 October 1943, construction gangs originating in Burma working south met up with construction gangs originating in Thailand working north. Some have even brought wives and children. On the Thai/Burma Railway and in the mines of Formosa, blast injuries were encountered. The construction of the railway is a heartbreaking story of forced labor, with more than 60,000 Allied prisoners of war . BBC News Bob Reynolds spent four years as a prisoner of war in Burma and Taiwan. 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. The full year membership runs from August to the end of July the following year. The only redeeming feature was the ease with which the sick could be evacuated to base hospitals in trains returning empty from Burma. Vegetables and other perishables long in transit arrived rotten. In 1943 Dutch prisoners were sent to Thailand where they suffered the same hardships as other Allied POWs. Australian prisoners of war 1941-1945 (ANZAC Portal, 2007, March) This is a part of the series, Australians in the Pacific War. My Dad is not with us to tell his own story although he did keep a diary . 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). 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. To these base hospitals desperately sick men - the weak supported by the less weak, since no fit men were allowed to accompany them - were evacuated from the camp hospitals, travelling by the haphazard means of hitch-hiking on a passing lorry or river barge. Dutch chemist Van Boxtell. In the War Cemetery at Thanbyuzayat in Burma lie those from the northern half of the line. Whatever tensions there may have been during captivity, the Dutch, British and Australians who died on the ThaiBurma railway were buried together after the war. Altogether, some 35,000 parachute and glider troops were involved in the operation. For example, a group of 400 Dutch prisoners, which included three doctors with extensive tropical medicine experience, suffered no deaths at all. The book Through the Valley of the Kwai and the 2001 film To End All Wars are an autobiography of British Army captain Ernest Gordon. [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. Object details Category Books Related period Second World War (content), Second World War (content) Creator BURMA-SIAM RAILWAY (Author) n.pub. [53], The construction of the Burma Railway is counted as a war crime committed by Japan in Asia. His subordinates Colonel Shigeo Nakamura, Colonel Tamie Ishii and Lieutenant-Colonel Shoichi Yanagita were sentenced to death. Burma Railway, also called Burma-Siam Railway, railway built during World War II connecting Bangkok and Moulmein (now Mawlamyine ), Burma ( Myanmar ). Burma Thailand Railway Memorial Association, Remembering the sufferings of POW's on the Burma-Thai Railway. The name Changi is synonymous with the suffering of Australian prisoners of the Japanese during the Second World War. These coolies have been brought from Malaya under false pretenses 'easy work, good pay, good houses!' The greater part of the Thai section of the river's route followed the valley of the Khwae Noi River (khwae, 'stream, river' or 'tributary'; noi, 'small'. The railway track from Kanchanaburi - photographed in 1945. 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. The Burma- Death Railway. "About a dozen on the Burma side and more again on the Thailand side of the railway, in camps like F-Force and D-Force, and about eight men who were with 'Weary' Dunlop at Hintok," he said. [30] Other nationalities and ethnic groups working on the railway were Tamils, Chinese, Karen, Javanese, and Singaporean Chinese. 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 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 army in Burma. The total number of rmusha 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. Major Sotomatsu Chida was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. Some 30 000 of these prisoners of war later worked on the Thai-Burma railway. 0 9 4 minutes read. Alternatively, send a cheque to our treasurer, Cheques should be made payable to COFEPOW and sent to the following address:-, Mr. David BrownCOFEPOW14 RidgecroftAshton-Under-LyneLancashireOL7 9TGUnited Kingdom, Choose between a single or joint membership. Approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. 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. 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. If you are joining after August, please choose the month you are joining in below. [72] When the Japanese conquered much of South East Asia in late 1941 and early 1942 they captured more than 50 000 British military personnel. Most of the camps were right alongside the railway track and some were near bridges and other vulnerable points. [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. Lt Col Coates the greatest doctor on the Burma Thailand Railway. 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. 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. The Japanese had been surprised by the reaction of world opinion against their treatment of prisoners of war, and there is evidence that they began to feel apprehensive about the heavy casualties of 1943, and made efforts to counteract their reputation for uncivilised treatment of prisoners. This was to be over 400 Km long through inhospitable jungle and hills. They were some of 42 000 Dutch military and naval personnel and 100 000 Dutch civilians who were captured when the Japanese conquered the Netherlands East Indies in early 1942. [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. A large number of the British and Australian captives were sent to Burma (Myanmar). 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. [38] The labourers that suffered the highest casualties were Burmese and Indian Tamils from Malaysia and Myanmar, as well as many Javanese.[30]. June 27, 2022, 5:24 PM. Donate to COFEPOW instantly - simply click on the button below. Australian POW Prisoners of War Books about Thai Burma Railway Hellfire Pass Military Books DVD Docos. description Object description. Troops from the 7th Division embarked on the HMT Orcades arriving at Batavia from the Middle East in early 1942 in a last-minute effort to defend the Netherlands East Indies from Japanese attack. These men came from all over Australia though some battalions had strong regional roots. 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. [19], As an American engineer said after viewing the project, "What makes this an engineering feat is the totality of it, the accumulation of factors. [18][19] The Japanese staff would travel by train C56 31 from Nong Pladuk, Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma. These pages are dedicated to my father Ken Heyes (Lance Corporal, 1st Aust Corps Troop Supply Column AIF, POW), his good friend, Ernie Badham and all the other brave soldiers who spent so many years in the hell-holes that were the Japanese P.O.W camps during World War II. Surviving Australian veterans will attend a commemorative . The youth of many Australian prisoners of war was very evident and many enlisted at an age younger than 20. When you got back to your sleeping platform you only had a tin of water to wash your feet. More than a third of these men and women died in captivity. The British people were now resigned to the fact that Hitler had to be stopped by force. Photo taken on Aug. 19, 2020 shows the bridge over the River Kwai, the most notable part of the "Death Railway," in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Organization of the Labor. 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. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Conduct Unbecoming : The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy. The Prisoner List is a compelling account of the experiences of a prisoner of the Japanese in WWII - from the humiliating defeat at Singapore, to forced labour on the Saigon docks and the horrors of life on the infamous Burma Railway. During its construction more than 16 ,000 prisoners of war died - mainly of sickness, malnutrition and exhaustion - and were buried along the railway. 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. 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 Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The final route was between Bangkok in Thailand and Rangoon, Myanmar (Burma). The horrendous experiences endured by the thousands of POWs has made the Burma Railway a place of pilgrimage and commemoration. [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. [56] Those left to maintain the line still suffered from appalling living conditions as well as increasing Allied air raids. The Japanese Army transported 500,000 tonnes of freight[citation needed] over the railway before it fell into Allied hands. In due course the inevitable happened - a cholera epidemic broke out. This video is sponsored by Ground News - The world's first news comparison platform. 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. Nearly 15 000 were captured on Singapore in February 1942 and over a thousand on each of Ambon, Dutch Timor, and New Britain. 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. Japanese Medical Orderly. [68] In February 1943, 1,000 Dutch prisoners of war were added to Tamarkan. Prisoners were made to work around the clock, with individual shifts lasting as long as 18 hours. Thinking back, she recalls the Australian man who made a great sacrifice to aid her and her fellow prisoners of war. In October 1943, the railway station was finished. The rail line was built along the Khwae Noi (Kwai) River valley to support the Japanese armed forces during the Burma Campaign. [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. Navy and the auxiliary forces of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. The records of a million World War II Prisoners of War will be published online today. Votes: 1,734. 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.[30]. Its route was through Three Pagodas Pass on the border of Thailand and Burma. However, the British would form only a minority of the Allied POWs in Burma. There is a popular perception that they also died at a higher rate than Australians. [34] Approximately 90,000 Burmese and 75,000 Malayans worked on the railroad. 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 . Conditions were significantly worse than at Changi, with forced hard labour and severely inadequate supplies of food and medicines. 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. 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. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. The railway has been purchased by the Thai Government from its starting point at Ban Pong to the Burmese border, and it is now part of the Royal State railways. Map of Prisoner of War Camps. These POWs, day after day, have their bodies pushed to extremes in an effort to complete the construction of the railway. More than one in five of them died there. In one raid alone on the Non Pladuk area, where the camp was located amongst sidings holding petrol, ammunition and store trains protected by an anti-aircraft post, and prisoners were not allowed to leave the huts.95 were killed and 300 wounded. 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. Records of Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters, World War II, RG 331. 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. Japanese soldiers, 12,000 of them, including 800 Koreans, were employed on the railway as engineers, guards, and supervisors of the POW and rmusha labourers. Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, at Thanbyuzayat, 65 kilometres south of Moulmein, Myanmar (Burma) has the graves of 3,617 POWs who died on the Burmese portion of the line. [17] A holiday was declared for 25 October which was chosen as the ceremonial opening of the line. Red Cross parcels helped, but these were invariably held up by the Japanese. On 24 June 1949, the portion from Kanchanaburi to Nong Pla Duk (Thai ) was finished; on the first of April 1952, the next section up to Wang Pho (Wangpo) was done. 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. [33] Other documents suggest that more than 100,000 Malayan Tamils were brought into the project and around 60,000 perished.[35][36]. [42][43] Workers were moved up and down the railway line as needed. Hekking died in 1994. Alternatively, search more than 1 million objects from This is a list of notable prisoners of war (POW) whose imprisonment attracted notable attention or influence, or who became famous afterwards. Construction gangs originating in Thailand jungle and hills was finished camps were right alongside the railway completed... Pagodas Pass on the railroad II prisoners of war was very evident and many enlisted at an age younger 20... Rail link between Bangkok, Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma remember Japanese as... Romusha, or 151 kilometres south of Thanbyuzayat sources if you have any questions regional roots Australian man who a... And Burma Great Escape individual shifts lasting as long as 18 hours Kenji..., Remembering the sufferings of POW 's on the Thai/Burma railway and the. Some 35,000 parachute and glider troops were involved in the face of adversity [. Pows at Burma camp 6, later IV Australian Air force synonymous with the suffering of Australian of... The operation ceremonial opening of the 2nd AIF were of European descent up by the Japanese Army transported tonnes! Major Sotomatsu Chida was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, Remembering the sufferings of POW on! War in Normandy tin of water to wash your feet for 25 October which was as! 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