Death Railway, Kanchanaburi, Thailand

The notorious Burma-Siam railway, built by Commonwealth, Dutch and American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project driven by the need for improved communications to support the large Japanese army in Burma.

Japanese forces, supplies and equipment transported to Burma by sea, through the Strait of Malacca, were vulnerable to attack by Allied submarines, and an alternative means of transport was needed. A railway connection between Thailand and Burma had been surveyed at the beginning of the 20th century by the British government of Burma, but the route — through hilly jungle terrain divided by many rivers, was considered too difficult to complete.

Built as an aid to moving supplies, after the capture of Thailand by the Imperial Japanese Army, thousands of allied POW's were transported from Singapore to begin working on the line, as well as the famous "Bridge On The River Kwai".

Beginning in 1942, the workforce was subject to constant battles against not only the brutality of their captors but also appalling living conditions and the constant threat of death and disease.

Sections of the old route are still in use today. Most notably the section from The Bridge up to Nam Tok station at Sai Yok National Park.

The most famous section further north towards Burma is "Hellfire Pass", pounded out through solid rock. Sadly, the pass has now mostly been reclaimed by the jungle.

All along the route from Kanchanaburi are sections and memorials dedicated to the construction of the railway and the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of lives it cost!