Siam Death Railway
Siam Death Railway: (1942-1943) The Thailand - Burma Railway, is commonly known as the Siam Death Railway. This is a 415 km (258 miles) railway line built during World War II (September 16, 1942 - October 17, 1943). The project was undertaken by the Japanese with the aim of connecting Thailand and Burma. Approximately 180,000 to 250,000 Asian workers and more than 60,000 prisoners of war were forcibly involved in the construction of the railway line. About 90,000 Asian workers and more than 12,000 prisoners of war have died as a result of harsh working conditions, inadequate food supply, disease, wildlife attacks and the harsh punishment meted out by the Japanese. The Japanese government called this line the Tai - Men Rensetsu Tetsudō (Thailand-Burma Link Railway). The Thailand section of the railway continues to operate. Three trains run daily on this railway from Bangkok to Nam Tok. The bridge built during that time continues to operate too. The Burmese section of the railway which goes from the Thai border to Moulmein in Burma was abandoned many years ago.
History
The construction of a railway line between Burma and Thailand was surveyed by the British government in 1885. The project was deemed to be extremely difficult as the 282-metre-high Three Pagodas Pass on the Thai-Myanmar border and the Kwai River in western Thailand came on its way and thus the project was halted.
At the beginning of World War II, Thailand declared itself a neutral country. On December 8, 1941, Japan invaded Thailand. In 1942, the Japanese troops entered Burma via Thailand and occupied the British-occupied Burma. The Japanese had to come through the Straits of Malacca and the Andaman Sea to maintain their army forces. Also, the chances of an attack by submarines were high. A railway line from Bangkok to Rangoon was set up to avoid the perilous 3200 km sea voyage around the Malay Peninsula. This railway line is referred to by three names. They are The Burma Railway, The Death Railway, and The Burma-Siam Railway.
The railway line was planned to run from Ban Pong in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat in Burma. 111 km of railway line was laid in Burma and 304 km in Thailand. Prisoners of war from Singapore Changi Prison and other prison camps in Southeast Asia were taken north in 1942. They arrived in Non Pladuk on June 23, 1942 and built a camp for transit. Construction of the railway began on September 16, 1942, after the initial infrastructural work.
A construction team from Burma and another team from Thailand were constantly involved in the work. The logistics for the railway were imported from Malaya and Indonesia. The existing railway lines in Malacca, Singapore, Gotabhaya and Kola Lipis were renamed and used for the Siam-Burma route. The Japanese government planned to complete the project in December 1943. But the project was completed on October 17, 1943, ahead of the timeline.
The workers from Thailand section and workers from Burmese section, who were working on the railway line, met at Konkoita, a place which is 18kms from the Three Pagodas Pass. At present, this place is known as Kaeng Khoi Tha (Sangkhla Buri District, Kanchanaburi Province). There, the Japanese held a large prisoner of war camp during the war. Holiday was declared on October 25, 1943 to mark the completion of the railway line.
Commenting on the Siam Death Railway, American engineer Bashar Altabba said: "In history, engineers have done bigger, longer, and even harder engineering tasks in one go. But the Siam railway surpasses them because of its overall integration of different elements. These include the total length in miles, the number of bridges (six hundred bridges in total, including eight major bridges), the number of workers involved (approximately two and a half million), the shortest time it took to complete the building, and the worst working environment. They had very little transportation facilities. No medical facility. Not only construction materials but even food was in short supply. Other than basic tools like hammers and spades there were no other tools to work with. They worked under the worst climatic conditions of the forest which was hot and humid. All these together make this railway work an extraordinary achievement.”
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