Burma–Thailand railway

Burma–Thailand railway, (see Map 19) Japanese supply route which linked Nong Pladuk in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat in Burma, where it joined the existing Moulmein–Ye railway. The rapid expansion of Japanese occupied territory in South-East Asia had left Japan with inadequate shipping resources (see Japan, 7) and the railway was built to provide a safer supply line for the Japanese fighting in the Burma campaign than the exposed sea route to Rangoon. It was a formidable engineering feat, for the line had to be cut through 420 km. (260 mi.) of mountainous jungle which was climatically among the most unhealthy areas in the world. Construction began in July 1942, when 3,000 Allied prisoners-of-war from Changi started building base camps, and was completed in October 1943. But the railway failed to carry the tonnage that had been anticipated. In 1944 Allied bombing destroyed parts of it, including the bridge over the River Kwai (in fact, the bridge over the Kwae Yai west of Tamarkan), and it was abandoned in early 1945.

To build the railway the Japanese used 61,000 Australian, British, and Dutch prisoners-of-war, and impressed or lured upwards of 270,000 native labourers from Burma, Malaya, Thailand, and the Netherlands East Indies. They regarded this labour force as entirely expendable and a starvation diet, combined with the appalling conditions and various epidemics, led to a high death rate. Figures vary but one authority, Louis Allen, has estimated that 12,000 Allied prisoners and 90,000 native labourers perished.

Bibliography

Kinvig, C. , River Kwai Railway (London, 1992).