ENGLISHENGLISHpresent

Jantana Kamanukun

bySawinee Mahasamut (16)

Doungkramon Prasitthisomporn (18)Prangwalai Thawornwichien (19)

Sirikan Buakom (24)

Kanchananukroh School

Burma Railway Burma Railway

The  Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway , t he  - Thailand Burma Rail way     and similar names, is a415 km (258 m

ile) railway bet ween Bangkok,Thai l and and Rangoon, Burma (now

Myanmar), built by the Empire of Japanduring World War II , t o suppor t i t s f or ce

s i n t he  Burmacampai gn. Forced labour was used in its construction . About 180,000

Asian labourers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs ) worked on the railway . Of

these, around 90,000 Asian labourers and 16,000 Allied POWs died as a direct Result

of the project . The dead POWs included 6,318 British personnel, 2,815 Australians, 2,490 Dutch ,about3 5 6  Americans  and a smal

ler number of Canadians.

History A railway route between Thailand and Bur

ma had been surveyed at the beginning of the 20th century, by the Br i t i sh governm ent of Burma, but the proposed course of t

he line — through hilly jungle terrain divide d by many rivers — was considered too diff

icult to complete. In 1942, Japanese forces invadedBurmafromThai l and and sei zed i t f r omBr i t i sh c ontrol. Tomaintaint hei r f or ces i n Bur ma, t he J apanese h

adt o br i ng suppl i es and t r oops t o Bur ma b ysea, t hr ough t he   Strait of Malacca  and t

he  Andaman Sea This route was vulnerable to attack by Allied submarines ,

and a different means of transport was ne eded. The obvious alternative was a railwa

y. The Japanese started the project in June1942.

They i nt ended t o connect   BanPong wi t h Thanbyuzayat, through

the Three Pagodas Pass . Construction star t ed at t he Thai end on  22June 1942  and i

nBurma at roughly the same time. Most of the construction materials for the line, incl

uding tracks and sleepers, were brought f r omdi smant l ed br anches of t he Federat

ed Malay States Railway  network and fro mt he  Netherlands East Indies.

On 17 October 1943 , the two sections of t   he line met about 18 km (11 miles) south

of the Three Pagodas Passat  Konkuita (Kaeng Khoi Tha),  Sangkhla B

ur i di st r i ct , Kanchanaburi Province).Most of the POWs were then transferred to Japan . Those left to maintain the line

still suffered from the appalling living conditions as well as Allied air raids.

The most famous portion of the railway is probably Bridge 277 over the Khwae Yai River. (The river was originally known as the Mae Klong and was renamed Khwae

Yai in 1960 .) It was immortalized by Pierre Boulle in his book and the film

based on it  : The Bridge on the River Kwai . However, there are many who say that the

movie is utterly unrealistic and does not s how what the conditions and treatment of

 prisoners was really like. The first wooden bridge over the Khwae Noi was finished in

February 1943, followed by a concrete and steel bridge in June 1943 . The Allies made several attempts to destroy the

bridges, but succeeded only in damaging them in their first attempts . On 2

April 1945, AZON  bomber crews from theU.S.  458th Heavy Bombardment Group de

st r oyed Br i dge 277 . After the war, two sq uarishcentralsect i ons wer e made i n J apan t o r epai r

thebridge, and wer e donat ed t o Thai l and.

Post-warAfter the war the railway was in too poor

a state to be used for the civil Thai railway system, and needed heavy

reconstruction . On 24 June 1949 , t he fi r st par t f r omKanchanaburi to Nong

Pladuk was finished; on 1 April 1952 , the next section up to  Wang Pho  and fi nal l y

on  1July 1958, up to Nam Tok The portion of the railway still in use

measures about 130 km . (80 miles )Beyond Nam Tok , the line has been aban

doned. Steel rails have been removed for reuse in expanding the Bangsue  railway y

- ard, reinforcing the BKK Banphachi doubl e track, rehabilitating the track from Thun g Song t o Tr ang, and constructing both the Nong Pladuk-Suphanburi and Ban

Thung Pho-Khirirat Nikhom branch lines .Parts of it have been converted into

a walking trail . Since the 1990s there hav ebeenpl ans t o r ebui l d t he compl et e r ai l wa y, butt hese pl ans have not yet come t o f r ui

tion.

Workers On The BridgeConditions during construction

The living and working conditions on the railway were horrific . The estimated total number of civilian labourers and POWs who died during construction is about

160,000 . About 25% of the POW workers died because of overwork, malnutrition,

and diseases like cholera, mal ar i a, and dysentery . The death rate of the Asian

civilian workers was even higher; the numb er who died is over 150,000 people. The livi ng conditions of POWs were recorded at gre at risk to their own lives by a number of arti

sts. Miraculously many of these drawings h ave survived. Works by  Jack Bridger Chalke

r , Philip Meninsky and Ronald Searle are held by the Imperial War Museum in

London, England and works by Ashley Georg Old are held by the State Library of Victoria in Australia . Many of the images

can be viewed on-line.

POWs and Asian workers were also used to build the Kra Isthmus Railway

from Chumphon to Kra Buri, and the Sumatra or Palembang

Railway from Pakanbaroe to Moeara .The construction of the Burma Railway is only one of many major war crimes committed by Japan in Asia  . Hiroshi

Abe , the first lieutenant who supervise d construction of the railway

at  Sonkrai  where over 3 ,0 0 0 POW s died, was later sentenced to death as a B/C class war criminal. His sentence

was later commuted to 1 5 years in prison.

Cemeteries and memorialsThe graves of the people who died a

brutal death were transferred from camp burial grounds and solitary sites along the railway to three war cemeteries after the

war, except for Americans, who were repatriated.

The  main POW cemetery  is in the city of Ka nchanaburi, where 6 ,9 8 2 POWs are b

uried, mostly British, Australian, Dutch and Canadians. A smaller cemetery a bit farthe

r outside city is Chung Kai with 1,750 grav es. At Thanbyuzayat in Myanmar there are

3 ,6 1 7 burials of POWs {3 ,1 4 9 Co mmonwealth and 6 2 1 Dutch} who died

on the northern part of the line, to Nieke. T he t hr ee cemet er i es ar e mai nt ai ned by

t he  Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

902 US POWs from the 131st Field Artillery Regiment and survivors of

the USS Houston (CA-30 - ) 6 6 8 were s ent to work on the Railway, of whom 1

33died.TTTTT TTT TTTTTTT T TTTTT T TTTTTTTTT TT

those who lost their lives constructing th e railway, the largest of which is at T TTTTTT

T TTTT TTTTTT TT TTT TTTTTTT TTTT TTTT TT T TT TTTT, a cutting where the greatest number of lives were lost . There is also an Australian memorial at Hellfire Pass .

Two other museums are in KanchanaburiT TTT  - Thailand Burma Rai

lway Museum (opened in March 2003), and the  JEATH

War Museum. At the Khwae bridge there is a memorial plaque and a historic

locomotive is on display.A preserved section of line is at

the National Memorial Arboretum in England.

bibliography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma_Railway

Thanks you !