Bridge over the River Kwai by Leo Rawlings (1943), a POW who was involved in construction. It depicts four POWs, waist-deep in the water, carrying a large log during the first bridge's construction. (Wikipedia)
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Many are familiar with the movie Bridge on the River Kwai. The movie is a fictional account of the story of Bridge No. 277 on the Burma Railway, built by the Japanese during World War II as part of the Thailand-Burma supply line.
The Japanese used forced civilian labor and Allied POWs to build the railroad. Conditions led to the deaths of more than 90,000 civilians and more than 12,000 Allied prisoners, earning the Death Railway name. The forced labor during construction of the Burma Railway is considered a war crime committed by Japan in Asia.
In early 1942, Japanese forces invaded Burma and seized control from the British. To supply their forces in Burma, the Japanese depended upon the sea, bringing supplies and troops to Burma around the Malay peninsula and through the Strait of Malacca and the Andaman Sea. This route was vulnerable to attack by Allied submarines. To avoid a hazardous 2,000-mile sea journey around the Malay peninsula, a railway from Bangkok to Rangoon seemed a feasible alternative. The Japanese began this project in June 1942.
The project aimed to connect Ban Pong in Thailand with Thanbyuzayat in Burma, linking up with existing railways at both ends. Its route was through Three Pagodas Pass on the border of Thailand and Burma. 69 miles of the railway were in Burma and the remaining 189 miles were in Thailand. The movement of POWs northward from Changi Prison in Singapore and other prison camps in Southeast Asia began in May 1942. 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. After preliminary work of airfields and infrastructure, construction of the railway began in Burma and Thailand on 16 September 1942. The projected completion date was December 1943. Much of the construction materials, including tracks and sleepers (ties), were brought from dismantled branches of Malaya's Federated Malay States Railway network and the East Indies' various rail networks.
The railway was completed ahead of schedule. On 17 October 1943, construction gangs originating in Burma working south met up with construction gangs originating in Thailand working north. The two sections of the line met at kilometre 263, about 11 miles south of the Three Pagodas Pass at Konkoita (Kaeng Khoi Tha, Sangkhla Buri District, Kanchanaburi Province). A holiday was declared for 25 October which was chosen as the ceremonial opening of the line. The Japanese staff would travel by train from Nong Pladuk, Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma. A copper spike was driven at the meeting point by commanding General Eiguma Ishida, and a memorial plaque was revealed.
As an American engineer said after viewing the project, "What makes this an engineering feat is the totality of it, the accumulation of factors. 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. They had very little transportation to get stuff to and from the workers, they had almost no medication, they couldn’t get food let alone materials, they had no tools to work with except for basic things like spades and hammers, and they worked in extremely difficult conditions - in the jungle with its heat and humidity. All of that makes this railway an extraordinary accomplishment."
In 1946, 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. Three cemeteries maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission contain the vast majority of Allied military personnel who died on the Burma Railway. The remains of United States personnel were repatriated. Of the 668 U.S. personnel forced to work on the railway, 133 died. This included personnel from USS Houston and the 131st Field Artillery Regiment of the Texas Army National Guard. The Americans were called the Lost Battalion as their fate was unknown to the United States for more than two years after their capture.
Since the 1990s, various proposals have been made to rebuild the complete railway, but as of 2021 these plans had not been realized. Since the upper part of the Khwae valley is now flooded by the Vajiralongkorn Dam, and the surrounding terrain is mountainous, it would take extensive tunnelling to reconnect Thailand with Burma by rail.
This page was condensed from Wikipedia
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