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: )

doctors, Asian laborers had no doctors amongst them. It is said that only 3 Asians had their remains identified positively, while the exact number of dead Asian laborers will remain forever unknown, it is estimated that up to 90,000 of them died.

In further contravention of international treaties, the Japanese Imperial Army made the POW camps look like army barracks, so that Allied bombers would target them by mistake. At least 200 POWs died that way. Similarly boats transporting POWs were not identified, and many were attacked and sunk by Allied airplanes.

As I wrote in our travel story on Nagasaki, my grandfather had been condemned to death by the Japanese, for having smuggled a small radio into the camp. His life was saved by the sudden end of the war before the sentence was carried out. Something for which he has always been very thankful.

But little did I know before visiting the Kanchanaburi museums that the Japanese Imperial Army had issued orders to execute all Allied POWs in the event of an Allied landing in the region. Such an order had already been carried out in the Philippines. Believing such an attack was imminent the Japanese Army had already forced some Allied POWs to dig the holes in which they were going to be buried. Thanks to the sudden and unexpected end of the war, with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all POWs in the region (in the 100,000s) escaped certain death!

Northern Thailand
Barely an hour after returning to Bangkok, we ran into my brother, Jan, and his girlfriend, Angie, on Khao San Road. That was good, no need to go looking for each other. They wanted to go to the hills of Northern Thailand, more specifically Pai and Soppong, which was fine with us.

Although there really is nothing spectacular in and around Pai, it is a relaxed place where many travelers crash for days, weeks or even months. You can rent bicycles to explore the surroundings and spend an afternoon ...