Home » Thailand » The bridge on the river Kwai, caving in Northern Thailand.

We spent the first few days in Bangkok gathering information about potential next destinations, including trying to find out how to get visas for all the neighboring countries and how best to get there.

The bridge on the river Kwai, caving in Northern Thailand.

Odv
2006-04-13 20:08:24

Displayed times (last time: )

more than 100,000 people died building the Burma railway line. Most of the victims fell amongst the forced laborers from South East Asian countries and about 15,000 were Allied POWs, mostly from the United Kingdom (6,500), Australia (2,700) and the Netherlands (2,800).

But more than a historical site with nice surroundings, this place has a deeper meaning for me, as my grandfather was one of those POWs! It was a period of his life that he never really liked to talk about.

The town's two museums and the Hellfire Pass Memorial made me realize how bad the situation was and understand that these are not memories my grandfather would have liked to rake up. Gruesome detail after detail is exposed.

Hellfire Pass Memorial, besides a museum maintains a disused stretch of the railway as a walking path. It is an impressive stretch to walk along. It is called Hellfire Pass, because the POWs had to work there through the night using the light of fires in order to complete the line within the timeframe set by the Japanese.

The Japanese military did not fulfill their obligation under international conventions to keep records on POWs. Instead the POWs kept their own records, some of which were buried with the deceased. Hence after the war, most POW graves, which were scattered around 140 burial sites, were found and identified, their remains exhumed and reburied in one of the three war cemeteries along the railway line.

The two graveyards in Kanchanaburi are immaculate, being maintained by the POWs' home countries. It contrasts somewhat with the more chaotic surroundings. Visiting the graveyards I could not help to think which of those men my grandfather might have known.

Asian laborers who died working on the railway, did not have the organization that the POWs, who were part of an organized army, had. They had been plucked randomly off the street by Japanese soldiers. While some of the POWs were doctors, ...