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. 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 Burma campaign of World War II. It completed the rail link between Bangkok, Thailand, and Rangoon, Burma. The name used by the Japanese Government was Tai–Men Rensetsu Tetsudō (泰緬連接鉄道), which means Thailand-Burma-Link-Railway.
Hellfire Pass is the name of a railway cutting on the former Burma Railway in Thailand which was built with forced labour during the Second World War, in part by Allied prisoners of war. The pass is noted for the harsh conditions and heavy loss of life suffered by its labourers during construction. It was called Hellfire Pass because the sight of emaciated prisoners labouring by burning torchlight resembled a scene from Hell.
Kanchanaburi is a town municipality in the west of Thailand and part of Kanchanaburi Province. In 2006 it had a population of 31,327. That number was reduced to 25,651 in 2017. The town covers tambons Ban Nuea and Ban Tai and parts of Pak Phraek and Tha Makham, all of Mueang Kanchanaburi District, and parts of tambon Tha Lo of Tha Muang District. Kanchanaburi lies 123 km west of Bangkok.
The Kanchanaburi War Cemetery is the main prisoner of war (POW) cemetery for victims of Japanese imprisonment while building the Burma Railway. It is on the main road, Saeng Chuto Road, through the town of Kanchanaburi, Thailand, adjacent to an older Chinese cemetery. The cemetery contains 6,982 graves of British, Australian and Dutch prisoners of war, of whom 6,858 have been identified.
The JEATH War Museum is a war museum in Kanchanaburi, Thailand about the Death Railway built from 1942 to 1943 by Allied POWs under the direction of the Japanese, a part of the Thai-Burma railways.
Ban Pong is a district (amphoe) of Ratchaburi province, Thailand. It is in the northeast of the province.
Brigadier Sir Philip John Denton Toosey was, as a lieutenant colonel, the senior Allied officer in the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp at Tha Maa Kham in Thailand during World War II. The men at this camp built Bridge 277 of the Burma Railway as later fictionalized in the book The Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle, and since adapted into the Oscar-winning film The Bridge on the River Kwai in which Alec Guinness played the senior British officer, Lt Col Nicholson. Both the book and film outraged former prisoners because Toosey did not collaborate with the enemy, unlike the fictional Lt Col Nicholson.
The Bridge over the River Kwai is a novel by the French novelist Pierre Boulle, published in French in 1952 and English translation by Xan Fielding in 1954. The story is fictional but uses the construction of the Burma Railway, in 1942–1943, as its historical setting, and is partly based on Pierre Boulle's own life experience working in Malaysia rubber plantations and later working for allied forces in Singapore and Indochina during World War II. The novel deals with the plight of World War II British prisoners of war forced by the Imperial Japanese Army to build a bridge for the "Death Railway", so named because of the large number of prisoners and conscripts who died during its construction. The novel won France's Prix Sainte-Beuve in 1952.
Nam Tok Sai Yok Noi is a small town in Sai Yok District, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand, along the route of the Death Railway linking Thailand with Burma. It is named after Sai Yok Noi Waterfall of Sai Yok National Park. During World War II, the small town was known as Tarsoa or Tarsau.
Thanbyuzayat is a town in the Mon State of south-eastern Myanmar. It is the administrative center for Thanbyuzayat Township. Thanbyuzayat is about 64 kilometres (40 mi) south of Mawlamyine (Moulmein) and 24 kilometres (15 mi) south-east of Kyaikkami (Amherst) and Setse beach.
Ban Song Karia, also spelled Songkalia (ซองกาเลีย) and alternatively known as Songkurai, is a village in the Sangkhla Buri District of the Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand near the border with Myanmar at the Three Pagodas Pass. It was the location of three World War II Japanese Prisoner of War Camps located about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) south of the Thai/Burma border.
The Thailand–Burma Railway Centre is a museum and research centre in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. It is privately funded and ran by Rod Beattie, an Australian who is an expert in the history of the Thailand–Burma Railway. The centre is located to the west of the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, and is housed in the former headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army which was constructed by prisoners of war and Asian forced labourers.
Major Arthur Moon was an Australian army doctor who saved the lives of dozens of Far East prisoners of war as the Thailand-Burma Railway was being constructed during World War II.
The Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery is a prisoner of war cemetery for victims of Japanese imprisonment who died building the Death Railway in Burma. It is at the Burmese end of the Second World War railway construction, in Thanbyuzayat, 65 kilometres south of Mawlamyine (Moulmein). Thanbyuzayat is considered the terminus of the Death Railway, and is where it connected with the Burmese main line.
Tha Kilen railway station is a railway station located in Sing Subdistrict, Sai Yok District, Kanchanaburi Province. It is a class 2 railway station located 161.95 km (100.6 mi) from Bangkok railway station. It is located near the Mueang Sing Historical Park.
Camp Nong Pladuk was a Japanese prisoner of war transit camp during World War II. It was located about five kilometres from the main railway station of Ban Pong near a junction station on the Southern Line to Bangkok. Nong Pladuk served as the starting point of the Burma Railroad. Numerous British, Dutch, and allied troops passed through Nong Pladuk to construct the railroad. Nowadays, it serves as a rail road maintenance and repair facility.
Tamarkan was a Japanese prisoner of war work camp during World War II. The camp was initially used for the construction of the bridge over the Khwae Yai or Mae Klong River and not the River Kwai. The camp was located about five kilometres from the city of Kanchanaburi. In November 1943, Tamarkan was turned into a convalescent camp and hospital. By 1945, the camp was gone.
Tha Khanun is a town and subdistrict (tambon) of Thong Pha Phum district of the Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. It is named after the Jackfruit tree, and is located on the Khwae Noi River. Lam Khlong Ngu National Park and Wat Tha Khanun, a large Buddhist temple, are located near the town.
Konkoita is a former prisoner of war camp in the Sangkhla Buri District of the Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. Located near the Karen village of Ban Kroeng Kruai, it was the location where the two sides of the Burma Railway met on 17 October 1943 at 262.87 kilometres from the starting point in Thailand. Konkoita and neighbouring villages were flooded in June 1984 by the construction of the Vajiralongkorn Dam. The population in the area was resettled several kilometres from the original villages.
