The River Kwai and the Death Railway...

During World War 2, the Japanese used allied prisoners of war (POWs) to build a railway from Thailand to Burma, so they could supply their army without the dangers of sending supplies by sea. The railway line became known as the 'Death Railway' and was immortalised in David Lean's 1957 film 'The Bridge on the River Kwai'.

My father never talked of his war experiences, I knew that he was in Burma and that he suffered from malaria but I don't know if he was one of the 60,000 POWs who worked on the railway.  16,000 Allied POWs died as a building the line, including 6,318 British personnel, 2,815 Australians, 2,490 Dutch, about 356 Americans and a smaller number of Canadians and New Zealanders.  Some 180,000 Asian labourers were also forced to work on the project, half of who were to die.   Unlike the well-fed extras in the movie, the POWs did not whistle the Colonel Bogey tune. Nor did they have any semblance of uniform.  

Scenes from the movie starring Alec Guinness were nothing compared to the treatment of the real life POWs who were beaten frequently.  The construction of the Death Railway was one of the greatest war crimes of the 20th century. It was said that one man died for every sleeper laid. 

If a man driven mad by the incessant beatings turned on a guard, he would be tethered, spread-eagled, to the ground. Guards wrapped wet rattan - the same string-like bark used to lash the bamboo huts together - around his ankles and wrists, and then tied him to stakes.

As the rattan dried, the ties would slowly gash into the skin, drawing blood and tearing into sinew and cartilage as they pulled limbs from their sockets.

Today the River Kwai serves as a tourist attraction and as a reminder of those terrible conditions of only 70 years ago. 

Rather than taking a tour bus, I caught the train at its most northern stop of Nam Tok, paid my 100 Baht (£2) and spent the next 6 hours travelling the 200km back to Bangkok.  The train passes along the scenic Kwae Noi river, along the Wampo Viaduct and over the River Kwae Bridge to Kanchanabur before continuing southwards to Bangkok Thornburi.   

Here’s a few photos that I took along the way:

They are also On Flickr