In 1941, the Japanese advanced into Thailand, where they occupied the country for the remainder of the war. In efforts to move into India and the other British territories in the Middle East, the Japanese army decided to build a railroad from Thailand into Burma. In order to make this railroad a reality, a path through treacherous mountains would need to be cleared.
The Japanese forced over 60,000 Prisoners of War (POWs) captured from Singapore, Malaya and Indonesia, who were mostly British, Australians, and Dutch, along with about 200,000 paid Malays, Indians, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesians, Burmese, and Thais, to construct the railway. These workers worked under the supervision of about 15,000 Japanese engineers and military officers. Most of the work was completed with rudimentary materials, including hand picks and axes. The bamboo was used by the men for as many purposes as a person could imagine, including the creation of urns to hold human remains.
Conditions were incredibly poor, and the workers were given minimal amounts of low quality food, given small amounts of water, and forced to work long hours. Thousands of POWs died from exhaustion, diarrhea, and cholera. Doctors were forced to determine which of the sick men were healthy enough to work, a decision the Japanese officers often made by determining if an individual’s stool was less than 50% blood. The most difficult and dangerous portion of the railway was named Hellfire Pass by the workers, which included a cliff on one side and the river on the other.
The 1960’s movie “The Bridge Over the River Kwai” demonstrated the abuses of power made by the Japanese during World War II. Seeing the bridge today was surprising, as the area surrounding the bridge is a huge tourist market.
No comments:
Post a Comment