Visiting the Death Railway in Kanchanabuni, Thailand

*WS49 – visiting the Death Railway in Kanchanabuni, Thailand*

Kanchanaburi is a town 140 km west of Bangkok by road. It is located along the old Death Railway built by the Japanese. In 2019 a group of our CLHS classmates made a trip here. 

During WW II, Japan constructed a railway line from Ban Pong in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat in Myanmar. The construction was completed in 1942/43 using Allied prisoners-of-war and Asian slave labourers in terrible working and living conditions. Due to the deadly poor conditions about 12,000 prisoners-of-war and 90,000 slave labourers lost their lives. And about 1,000 Japanese soldiers too. 

The original railway line, 415 km long, is now known as the Death Railway. Now only a portion of the original railway line, about 130 km on the Thai side, is still in operation after massive re-construction.

Along this railway line there is this Bridge No 277 crossing the river at the town of Kanchanaburi. It is a concrete-and-steel bridge with 11 spans. Allied Forces bombed the bridge in 1945, destroying 3 spans. 

This is just an ordinary bridge among many bridges along the railway line. But it became a celebrity when Pierre Boulle wrote a French novel in 1952 loosely based on what happened here during WW II and in 1957 the story was made into an English movie called “The Bridge on the River Kwai”. 

And because of the movie, this bridge, still functioning, is now a tourist destination. 

Along the same railway line and 80 km north-west of Kanchanaburi is this Hellfire Pass. It is an extremely difficult section of the railway line to construct. It was the largest rock cutting on the line, 26 m deep. It was called Hellfire because of the eerie flicker of torches that lit up the night-shift labour. Several hundred workers died in the 6 weeks it took to complete the cutting. 

In 1990 a museum was built near the Pass through the joint effort of the Australian and Thai governments after initial work by several Australian prisoners-of-war who did survive, led by one Tom Morris. Visitors could walk on a section of 500 m along the unused railway line.  

Shown here are 3 photos of the Bridge, and 3 of the Pass and 2 taken at the Museum. The Malaysian flag is flying because hundreds of Malaysians died here too. See how undernourished the prisoner-of-war.