burma railway prisoners of war list

Conditions were significantly worse than at Changi, with forced hard labour and severely inadequate supplies of food and medicines. utilisation of prisoner of war labour in japanese prisoner of war camps. At Chungkai War Cemetery and Kanchanaburi War Cemetery in Thailand now rest those recovered from the southern part of the line, from Ban Pong to Nieke - about half its length. The Japanese kept no records and it was impossible for anyone else to do so, nor were the graves marked, but between 80,000 and 100,000 perished. New options were needed to support the Japanese forces in the Burma Campaign, and an overland route offered the most direct alternative. More than 250 miles of railway, from Thanbyuzayat in Burma to Ban Pong in Thailand, remained to be constructed, much of it through mountainous country and dense jungle, in a region with one of the worst climates in the world.The Japanese aimed at completing the railway in 14 months, or at least by the end of l943. The Japanese demanded from each camp a certain percentage of its strength for working parties, irrespective of the number of sick, and to make up the required quota the Japanese camp commandants insisted on men totally unfit for work being driven out and sometimes carried out. All nationalities listed by camp and/or party. Two hundred men were housed in each barracks, giving each man a two-foot wide space in which to live and sleep. [66][67] No compensation or reparations have been provided to Southeast Asian victims. A bridge was not built until the Thanlwin Bridge (carrying both regular road and railroad traffic) was constructed between 2000 and 2005. This was the same time at which Australians in A Force left Changi for Burma. The total number of rmusha working on the railway may have reached 300,000 and according to some estimates, the death rate among them was as high as 50 percent. Photocopy. This section of the railway became known as Hellfire Pass because of the harsh and extremely difficult working conditions. Between 180,000 and 250,000 Southeast Asian civilians and over 60,000 Allied prisoners of war were subjected to forced labour during its construction. Dutch chemist Van Boxtell. Undoubtedly Australian POWs did display such qualities on the ThaiBurma railway and elsewhere. Rivers and canyons had to be bridged and sections of mountains had to be cut away to create a bed that was straight and level enough to accommodate the narrow-gauge track. Also sketches by POWs. There are good reasons for this. CHAPTER 2. More than a third of these men and women died in captivity. From late 1942 more than 13 000 Australians were sent from Singapore, Java and Timor to work on the ThaiBurma railway. On this end of the railway the workforce was largely Australian, Dutch and local rmusha. Dancing Along the Deadline : The Andersonville Memoir of a Prisoner of the Confederacy. Memorial sites along the route of the railway include the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, where nearly 7,000 Allied dead are interred, and . The first contingent of British to work on the ThaiBurma railway was sent to Burma (now Myanmar) from Sumatra in May 1942, as part of the 500-strong Medan Force. The railway was overworked carrying troops and military supplies, and local traders seldom visited the camps of the working parties, small compared with those of 1943 and therefore not so profitable; so that supplementary food supplies were scanty, and again sickness took its toll. Taff suffered from dysentery, malaria, beri beri and cholera but, unlike so many, he survived. Jun 9, 2015 - Explore Samm Blake's board "Burma Thai Railway Prisoners of War - Historical Footage / Photos", followed by 2,370 people on Pinterest. A newly wealthy English woman returns to Malaya to build a well for the villagers who helped her during war. Nearly 15 000 were captured on Singapore in February 1942 and over a thousand on each of Ambon, Dutch Timor, and New Britain. [63] The most important trial was against the general staff. The barracks were about 60m (66yd) long with sleeping platforms raised above the ground on each side of an earthen floor. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}140227N 993011E / 14.04083N 99.50306E / 14.04083; 99.50306, This article is about the railway constructed by Japan during World War II. More than 11 percent of civilian internees and 27 percent of Allied POWs died or were killed while in Japanese custody; by contrast, the death rate for Allied POWs in German camps was around 4 percent. Powered by WordPress. Work on the railway started at Thanbyuzayat on 1st October 1942 and somewhat later at Ban Pong. From the inmates of Colditz to the men who took part in the 'Great Escape . Little detailed research has been done on the background of Australian POWs and how this affected their chances of survival. Though medical consequences of war attract attention, the health consequences of the prisoner-of-war (POW) experience are poorly researched and apprec . Over 22 000 Australians were captured by the Japanese when they conquered South East Asia in early 1942. Those who have no known grave are commemorated by name on memorials elsewhere; the land forces on either the Rangoon Memorial or the Singapore Memorial and the naval casualties on memorials at the manning ports. [48][49] In the foreword to Charles's book, James D. Hornfischer summarizes: "Dr. Henri Hekking was a tower of psychological and emotional strength, almost shamanic in his power to find and improvise medicines from the wild prison of the jungle". The map shows the significance of the building of the Thai-Burma railway by the Australian prisoners of war to Australia because it shows where the POWs were located whilst being prisoners. Abstract. The Australian, British, Dutch and other Allied prisoners of war, along with Chinese, Malay, and Tamil labourers, were required by the Japanese to complete the cutting. In reality, however, the death rates of British and Australians across all sites on the railway were scarcely any different 22 and 21 per cent respectively. Some have even brought wives and children. Source 4 - Sleepers Map of the Thai-Burma Railway Sleepers from Hellfire Pass Source 1 - The Wreaths Only the first 130 kilometres (81mi) of the line in Thailand remained, with trains still running as far north as Nam Tok. A large number of the British and Australian captives were sent to Burma (Myanmar). Thailand - Burma Railway. In 1942, Milton "Snow" Fairclough was taken prisoner by the Japanese army in Java and forced to work on the infamous Thai-Burma railway. At both camp and base hospitals, for the greater part of the time, the doctors had only such drugs and equipment as they had been able to carry with them. The British people were now resigned to the fact that Hitler had to be stopped by force. Articles on the Australian medical personnel working on the railway. Accommodation for the Japanese guards had to be built first, and at all the staging camps built subsequently along the railway this rule applied. The book Through the Valley of the Kwai and the 2001 film To End All Wars are an autobiography of British Army captain Ernest Gordon. Probably their motives were mixed: a desire for adventure, a sense of duty, nationalism and a conviction that they were part of a proud Australian military tradition dating from Gallipoli. Khwae was frequently mispronounced by non-Thai speakers as kwai, or 'buffalo' in Thai). The name used by the Japanese Government was TaiMen Rensetsu Tetsud (), which means Thailand-Burma-Link-Railway. [37] British doctor Robert Hardie wrote: "The conditions in the coolie camps down river are terrible," Basil says, "They are kept isolated from Japanese and British camps. Thereafter work on the railway consisted of maintenance, and repairs to damage caused by Allied bombing. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. [71], A first wooden railroad bridge over the Khwae Yai was finished in February 1943, which was soon accompanied by a more modern ferro-concrete bridge in June 1943, with both bridges running in a NNESSW direction across the river. Max Heiliger-Laundering money for the Nazis. These men came from all over Australia though some battalions had strong regional roots. More than 12,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and tens of thousands of forced labourers perished during its construction. In 1943 Dutch prisoners were sent to Thailand where they suffered the same hardships as other Allied POWs. The wooden bridge was reused for pedestrians and cars. The British POWs suffered the highest number of dead of any Allied group on the ThaiBurma railway. Vegetables and other perishables long in transit arrived rotten. In one raid alone on the Non Pladuk area, where the camp was located amongst sidings holding petrol, ammunition and store trains protected by an anti-aircraft post, and prisoners were not allowed to leave the huts.95 were killed and 300 wounded. Little is known of why the men of the 2nd AIF volunteered to serve. 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As well as these deaths, Japanese civilians were nearly 10,000 lost at sea in this attack and Australia lost about 2800 soldiers to American operations. During its construction more than 16 ,000 prisoners of war died - mainly of sickness, malnutrition and exhaustion - and were buried along the railway. No prisoner of war may be employed at labors for which he is physically unfit. Human hair was often used for brushes, plant juices and blood for paint, and toilet paper as the "canvas". [61], Weight loss among Allied officers who worked on construction was, on average, 914kg (2030lb) less than that of enlisted personnel. The largest of these is at Hellfire Pass (north of the current terminus at Nam Tok), a cutting where the greatest number of people died. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The Japanese hoped to capture the Indian region of Assam, with the intention of using it as the base for an insurrection under the Japanese-backed Indian revolutionary leader Subhas Chandra Bose. The Burmese had welcomed the invasion by Japan and cooperated with Japan in recruiting workers. Flanagan's 2013 book The Narrow Road to the Deep North centres on a group of Australian POWs and their experiences building the railway as slave labour, and was awarded the 2014 Man Booker Prize. From Thai-Burma railway to Sandakan, WWII history buff unearths stories of Australian POWs. The only redeeming feature was the ease with which the sick could be evacuated to base hospitals in trains returning empty from Burma. The construction of the railway is a heartbreaking story of forced labor, with more than 60,000 Allied prisoners of war . However, the film and book contain many historical inaccuracies, and should be considered works of fiction. [17] A holiday was declared for 25 October which was chosen as the ceremonial opening of the line. The first train to pass Konkoita on the newly constructed Burma-Thailand railway, built for the Japanese by prisoner of war (POW) labour. The Factors of Survival. Conduct Unbecoming : The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy. Director: Jack Lee | Stars: Virginia McKenna, Peter Finch, Kenji Takaki, Tran Van Khe. In contrast, only 4000 Australians were captured by the Germans and Ottomans in World War I. Java was the place where the second largest group of Australians was captured. ARTICLE 30. The higher deaths in F Force were probably attributable to the fact that British workers contained a high proportion of men who were already ill when they left Singapore. After the railway was completed, the POWs still had almost two years to survive before liberation. [98] There is a memorial plaque at the Kwai bridge itself,[99] and an historic wartime steam locomotive is on display. The Burma Railway, also called the Death Railway, was built between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat in Burma, put together with a ready supply of labour in the form of. The horrendous experiences endured by the thousands of POWs has made the Burma Railway a place of pilgrimage and commemoration. Sixty-nine men were beaten to death by Japanese guards in the twelve weeks it took to build the cutting, and many more died from cholera, dysentery, starvation, and exhaustion. See more ideas about prisoners of war, war, historical. 368 of the 1,061 on board the USS Houston survived. The first prisoners of war to work in Thailand, 3,000 British soldiers, left Changi by train in June 1942 to Ban Pong, the southern terminus of the railway. Burma was a key strategic objective for the Japanese for two reasons. As before, their food and accommodation were minor considerations. The remains of the notorious F-Force camp in Thailand. Prisoners of War 330,000 people worked on building the railway, including 250,000 Asian laborers and 61,000 prisoners of war (POWs). More than 22 000 Australians were taken prisoner in the Asia-Pacific region in the early months of 1942. From June 1942 onwards large groups of prisoners were transferred periodically to Thailand and Burma from Java, Sumatra and Borneo. It is also the case that Australians distinctive national characteristics did not give them a greater chance of survival, as is sometimes assumed. The defendants were charged with crimes against Western prisoners of war and civilians and with crimes against local people. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The 'Market Garden' plan employed all three divisions of First Allied Airborne Army. The Prisoner List is a compelling account of the experiences of a prisoner of the Japanese in WWII - from the humiliating defeat at Singapore, to forced labour on the Saigon docks and the horrors of life on the infamous Burma Railway. The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam-Burma Railway, Thai-Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a 415 km (258 mi) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar).It was built from 1940 to 1943 by civilian laborers impressed or recruited by the Japanese and prisoners of war taken by the Japanese, to supply troops and weapons in the . [13], Estimates of deaths among Southeast Asian civilians subject to forced labour, often known as rmusha, vary widely, because statistics are incomplete and fragmented. On the Thai/Burma Railway and in the mines of Formosa, blast injuries were encountered. [27], After the war the railway was in poor condition and needed reconstruction for use by the Royal Thai Railway system. [73] Bad weather forced the cancellation of the mission and the AZON was never deployed against the bridge. To these base hospitals desperately sick men - the weak supported by the less weak, since no fit men were allowed to accompany them - were evacuated from the camp hospitals, travelling by the haphazard means of hitch-hiking on a passing lorry or river barge. [10][11] After preliminary work of airfields and infrastructure, construction of the railway began in Burma and Thailand on 16 September 1942. To pursue those ends and to support their continued offensives in the Burma theatre, the Japanese began construction of what came to be known as the Burma Railway. He was one of Dunlop's 1,000 the men under commanding . Camps were usually named after the kilometre where they were located. 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