WWII Death Railway

( 20 -February-2014)

JEATH World War II Museum

When I was six years-old my father passed away .  From the time that I was about middle school age, I would pour over the pictures of he and his Navy buddies in their uniforms and white sailor caps during World War II in the Pacific Theater of War.  He spent a good part of the war guarding airstrips on tiny islands in the Pacific, that were supply depots.  I think my lifelong fascination with World War II was a way for me to feel connected with my Dad. 

 All this being said, today’s adventure was very special to me because it focussed on  Thailand & Burma (Mynamar) during this time period.  We spent the morning at the JEATH Death Railway Museum and Cemetery.  The cemetery hosts the bodies of the Allied soldiers that were POW’s of the Japanese and were forced to do slave labor to complete this railway through the jungle linking Thailand and Burma (currently called Myanmar).  There was a relatively small amount of United States POWs that worked on this railway and the bodies of those American soldiers who perished have been returned to the United States for internment (burial).

During World War II, Japan occupied the majority of South East Asia, needing raw materials and supply routes for their successful war machine.  They were on the side of the Axis powers (Germany & Italy).  After bombing Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Navy continued their success against the Allies by capturing over 200,000 British, Australian and Dutch soldiers, as well as a few hundred  American soldiers.  These men, alongside many native Burmese and Malaysians would be used as the slave labor forced to cut through the jungle and construct the railway and wooden trestle bridges.

We were able to go on a two-hour train ride on the Death Railway .  It was a very beautiful ride and it made me think that while this is a very visually pleasing scene for me, it must have been horrible for the POWs who did not have the luxury of appreciating the landscape because of their difficult work in very harsh living conditions.

The conditions were very harsh and there was an astounding number of deaths due to disease, starvation, exhaustion and accidents.  The Allies would bomb the bridges that the Japanese were building to thwart their goal of completing the train line from Thailand to Burma.

 Allied POW Deaths:

British 6648

Australians 2710

Netherlands 2737

Americans 132

Other Slave Labor  Deaths:

Malaysian 42,000

Burmese 40,000

On our way to Hell Fire Pass, we stopped at a little parking spot to view some monkeys.  The mother monkeys were naturally very protective of their babies so we had to not get to close.  Unfortunately my camera batteries died before we got to Hell Fire Pass so I  am unable to add pictures to the following information.  Hell Fire Pass was an area of steep forrest paths and rock in which the POW's and other workers and to dynamite through the rocks so that the train tracks could pass through.  It got it's eery name because the workers were forced to work around the clock and the area looked very creepy in the middle of the nights with only the lanterns to see and very skinny (malnourished) and exhausted workers in dark shadows playing off the rocks.  It was a lot of going up and down to arrive at the pass but it was work the effort to experience a piece of history in a more physical manner.  It made me think how hard if would have been to lug all the materials needed to build a rail line in this unforgiving topography.