Some people who have walked through the infamous Hellfire Pass say they can sense the presence of those who once toiled there. The somber 3 hour hike is both strikingly beautiful and gut wrenchingly tangible. What happened along a stretch of 416 km between Burma (now Myanmar) and Thailand is in many ways not widely known. If it wasn’t for the Hollywood movie, The Bridge over the River Kwai, many people of our generation wouldn’t even know about the Death Railroad. Historical periods and events such as those that surround the building of the Death Railroad, provide us lessons on human nature, war, and most importantly the sheer strength of the human will.
Throughout the early 1930’s Japanese military imperialism led to the occupation of large parts of China (Manchuria). In 1937 the Japanese showed further signs of their plan to create an empire by enlarging their sphere of control to include even more territory in Asia. They went to war against China and in doing so built up a well-oiled military machine. Some countries like Great Britain and the United States placed trade embargos on Japan due to its aggressive behavior. This placed pressure on Japan to seek for resources like rubber and oil elsewhere. So they turned their gaze towards SE Asia. As Germany marched on Poland and Europe was thrown into WWII, Japan was quite busy “freeing” the people of Asia. Yet, in December of 1941 Japan launched a massive attack against the colonial holdings of Britain, the Netherlands, France, and the United States (including Pearl Harbor itself). This drastic move threw a curve ball and completely changed the war. Now the war was waging on two fronts. Japan had quickly swept through SE Asia and claimed the Malaysian peninsula along with Borneo and Singapore. Thailand signed an agreement with Japan, allowing it to freely move through its territory. As a vassal state to Japan, Thailand was at the mercy of its owner. It was the perfect avenue through which to advance against British Burma. The allies were making shipping goods from Japan through the Straits of Malacca difficult. Japan lost a lot of goods and ships to American submarines and thus needed a means of moving over land. It was at this point that the idea of building a railroad that connected Bangkok to Rangoon (Burma) was born. The problem was that the Japanese needed the railroad to be completed ASAP and it wasn’t an easy route. The British had already considered building such a railroad previously and decided against it due to the high difficulty of building over the rough mountainous terrain. So who better to employ for this task than POWs and unknowing Asian workers (Romusha). The Japanese promised Tamil, Thai, Malay, Chinese, and Indonesian workers high wages and good living conditions. They even convinced them to bring their families along. Unfortunately, the reality was that they were to be slaves. As time went on the Romusha were no longer promised attractive contracts, but forced against their will to leave behind their homes and families to join labor camps. Out of the deaths that came from the construction of the railroad, 90,000 were Romusha workers. They were not given proper burials and their deaths were not documented. I would like to point out that all the monuments and museums predominately focus on the POWs and not these Asian workers. It is important to pay them respect and to remember that these labor camps were a nightmare for all the POWs, but the Asian workers had it even worse.
The POWs were made up of British, Australian, Dutch, and American troops. They lived in camps plagued by cholera, beri beri, malaria, dengue fever, etc. In addition to this once the boots they arrived with wore away, they were forced to work bare foot which led to frequent tropical ulcers. They were given only two meals a day of rice and a few boiled vegetables. Not only were these two meals not enough calories for the men, but they were usually rotten and filled with maggots. Besides their basic needs not being met, they were forced to work up to 16 hours a day. Their work was arduous, back breaking, and monotonous. The Japanese and Korean guards took all their frustration out on the men in many cases for no reason at all. These conditions led to the death of 12,000 POWs.
Before venturing out of Kanchanaburi to the pass, we spent a day visiting the Death Railway Museum and the cemetery across the street. Both were incredibly moving. For some reason visiting the cemetery gave me a rush of emotion I hadn’t expected. When I visited the Killing Fields in Cambodia, it was difficult to conceptualize the brutality and mass death that went on there. In the cemetery, the deaths of the POWs felt more real. Perhaps it was the kind and personal messages left by the parents, wives, children, and siblings of the men on their tombstones that really touched me. One mother wrote, “Tommy was always his mother’s best friend.” I couldn’t bare the idea of my mother having to lose one of my brothers or myself. To think of all the women who had to receive that dreaded knock at their door. This feeling then led to a sense of sadness for all the people who have died and do not have a place of remembrance. Here we have several cemeteries dedicated to 12,000 POWs, which tourists go out of their way to visit. What about the 2,000 people slaughtered in Nigeria this month? Who will go out of their way to visit their graves? What about the 90,000 Romusha? Do we properly remember them?
With a decent understanding of the historical context, we set out to walk the section of the Death Railway known as the Hellfire Pass. The area gained its name from the lanterns that hung from the pass’ walls, in order to allow the workers to dig and build throughout the night hours. By the time the railroad reached this hill of solid stone, the Japanese had sped up their timeline and had entered the “Speedo” period. Realizing their troops in Rangoon needed supplies, the government demanded the railroad be completed months earlier than originally planned. The amount of work completed each day by each individual increased to an extent that many of the sick and injured couldn’t keep up. In order to build the pass, the area had to be cleared of bamboo, the stone had to be chiseled away by a hammer and drill, then a stick of TNT would be detonated to loosen the stone, then a team of movers would come in to carry away the debris, and this process was repeated over and over again. The audio guide provided a personal account of a drill operator. He said, “I thought the Japanese were mad when I first saw the hill. I really thought there was no way they were going to be able to build the railroad through it. Especially with only man power and no machinery. Unfortunately, I was wrong.” He also explained how dangerous it was to be a hammer and drill operator. One partner would hold the drill while the other would strike it with a hammer. Obviously a weak and exhausted partner meant the potential loss of appendages or even death.
It was almost eerie being out on the railroad with no one else around. The wind rustled the bamboo and the sun shone through the canopy above. At one lookout point the view was so pristine that the place felt like a potential camping spot. I am thankful I was able to learn about these amazing men and their struggles to survive. For those who did make it through till the end, they are a true testament to the strength of the human will and our ability to endure when we ban together in unity.
Luck was upon us that day. Unable to get a bus in time to catch the last train back to town, we hitchhiked. A truck pulled over and hauled us all to the train station with one minute to spare. Catching the train was important for us because it actually runs on the original track the POWs laid. This ride gave us views of rice fields, the river Kwai, and most importantly THE Bridge. Back in town we enjoyed a vegetarian dinner at On’s Thai Issan Restaurant (highly recommended).
Throughout the early 1930’s Japanese military imperialism led to the occupation of large parts of China (Manchuria). In 1937 the Japanese showed further signs of their plan to create an empire by enlarging their sphere of control to include even more territory in Asia. They went to war against China and in doing so built up a well-oiled military machine. Some countries like Great Britain and the United States placed trade embargos on Japan due to its aggressive behavior. This placed pressure on Japan to seek for resources like rubber and oil elsewhere. So they turned their gaze towards SE Asia. As Germany marched on Poland and Europe was thrown into WWII, Japan was quite busy “freeing” the people of Asia. Yet, in December of 1941 Japan launched a massive attack against the colonial holdings of Britain, the Netherlands, France, and the United States (including Pearl Harbor itself). This drastic move threw a curve ball and completely changed the war. Now the war was waging on two fronts. Japan had quickly swept through SE Asia and claimed the Malaysian peninsula along with Borneo and Singapore. Thailand signed an agreement with Japan, allowing it to freely move through its territory. As a vassal state to Japan, Thailand was at the mercy of its owner. It was the perfect avenue through which to advance against British Burma. The allies were making shipping goods from Japan through the Straits of Malacca difficult. Japan lost a lot of goods and ships to American submarines and thus needed a means of moving over land. It was at this point that the idea of building a railroad that connected Bangkok to Rangoon (Burma) was born. The problem was that the Japanese needed the railroad to be completed ASAP and it wasn’t an easy route. The British had already considered building such a railroad previously and decided against it due to the high difficulty of building over the rough mountainous terrain. So who better to employ for this task than POWs and unknowing Asian workers (Romusha). The Japanese promised Tamil, Thai, Malay, Chinese, and Indonesian workers high wages and good living conditions. They even convinced them to bring their families along. Unfortunately, the reality was that they were to be slaves. As time went on the Romusha were no longer promised attractive contracts, but forced against their will to leave behind their homes and families to join labor camps. Out of the deaths that came from the construction of the railroad, 90,000 were Romusha workers. They were not given proper burials and their deaths were not documented. I would like to point out that all the monuments and museums predominately focus on the POWs and not these Asian workers. It is important to pay them respect and to remember that these labor camps were a nightmare for all the POWs, but the Asian workers had it even worse.
The POWs were made up of British, Australian, Dutch, and American troops. They lived in camps plagued by cholera, beri beri, malaria, dengue fever, etc. In addition to this once the boots they arrived with wore away, they were forced to work bare foot which led to frequent tropical ulcers. They were given only two meals a day of rice and a few boiled vegetables. Not only were these two meals not enough calories for the men, but they were usually rotten and filled with maggots. Besides their basic needs not being met, they were forced to work up to 16 hours a day. Their work was arduous, back breaking, and monotonous. The Japanese and Korean guards took all their frustration out on the men in many cases for no reason at all. These conditions led to the death of 12,000 POWs.
Before venturing out of Kanchanaburi to the pass, we spent a day visiting the Death Railway Museum and the cemetery across the street. Both were incredibly moving. For some reason visiting the cemetery gave me a rush of emotion I hadn’t expected. When I visited the Killing Fields in Cambodia, it was difficult to conceptualize the brutality and mass death that went on there. In the cemetery, the deaths of the POWs felt more real. Perhaps it was the kind and personal messages left by the parents, wives, children, and siblings of the men on their tombstones that really touched me. One mother wrote, “Tommy was always his mother’s best friend.” I couldn’t bare the idea of my mother having to lose one of my brothers or myself. To think of all the women who had to receive that dreaded knock at their door. This feeling then led to a sense of sadness for all the people who have died and do not have a place of remembrance. Here we have several cemeteries dedicated to 12,000 POWs, which tourists go out of their way to visit. What about the 2,000 people slaughtered in Nigeria this month? Who will go out of their way to visit their graves? What about the 90,000 Romusha? Do we properly remember them?
With a decent understanding of the historical context, we set out to walk the section of the Death Railway known as the Hellfire Pass. The area gained its name from the lanterns that hung from the pass’ walls, in order to allow the workers to dig and build throughout the night hours. By the time the railroad reached this hill of solid stone, the Japanese had sped up their timeline and had entered the “Speedo” period. Realizing their troops in Rangoon needed supplies, the government demanded the railroad be completed months earlier than originally planned. The amount of work completed each day by each individual increased to an extent that many of the sick and injured couldn’t keep up. In order to build the pass, the area had to be cleared of bamboo, the stone had to be chiseled away by a hammer and drill, then a stick of TNT would be detonated to loosen the stone, then a team of movers would come in to carry away the debris, and this process was repeated over and over again. The audio guide provided a personal account of a drill operator. He said, “I thought the Japanese were mad when I first saw the hill. I really thought there was no way they were going to be able to build the railroad through it. Especially with only man power and no machinery. Unfortunately, I was wrong.” He also explained how dangerous it was to be a hammer and drill operator. One partner would hold the drill while the other would strike it with a hammer. Obviously a weak and exhausted partner meant the potential loss of appendages or even death.
It was almost eerie being out on the railroad with no one else around. The wind rustled the bamboo and the sun shone through the canopy above. At one lookout point the view was so pristine that the place felt like a potential camping spot. I am thankful I was able to learn about these amazing men and their struggles to survive. For those who did make it through till the end, they are a true testament to the strength of the human will and our ability to endure when we ban together in unity.
Luck was upon us that day. Unable to get a bus in time to catch the last train back to town, we hitchhiked. A truck pulled over and hauled us all to the train station with one minute to spare. Catching the train was important for us because it actually runs on the original track the POWs laid. This ride gave us views of rice fields, the river Kwai, and most importantly THE Bridge. Back in town we enjoyed a vegetarian dinner at On’s Thai Issan Restaurant (highly recommended).
