burma railway prisoners of war list

[12][13] The projected completion date was December 1943. They were some of 42 000 Dutch military and naval personnel and 100 000 Dutch civilians who were captured when the Japanese conquered the Netherlands East Indies in early 1942. In 1943 Dutch prisoners were sent to Thailand where they suffered the same hardships as other Allied POWs. Also sketches by POWs. The Death Railway. The Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway, the Siam-Burma Railway, the Thai-Burma Railway and similar names, was a railway between Ban Pong, Thailand, and Thanbyuzayat, Burma, built by the Empire of Japan in 1943 to support its forces in the Burma campaign of World War II. The remains of the notorious F-Force camp in Thailand. After the war ended some Australian POWs remembered their captivity as a time in which the typical qualities of the Australian soldier came to the fore. The notorious Burma-Siam railway, built by British, Australian, Dutch and American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project inspired by the need for improved communications to maintain the large Japanese army in Burma. Burma Railway, also called Burma-Siam Railway, railway built during World War II connecting Bangkok and Moulmein (now Mawlamyine ), Burma ( Myanmar ). On 24 June 1949, the portion from Kanchanaburi to Nong Pla Duk (Thai ) was finished; on the first of April 1952, the next section up to Wang Pho (Wangpo) was done. Powered by WordPress. The large population of local labourers, estimated to number around 100,000, had an even higher mortality rate. Since the upper part of the Khwae valley is now flooded by the Vajiralongkorn Dam,[19] and the surrounding terrain is mountainous, it would take extensive tunnelling to reconnect Thailand with Burma by rail. The Japanese Army transported 500,000 tonnes of freight[citation needed] over the railway before it fell into Allied hands. The final group of Dutch arrived in Burma as part of Group 5 in April 1943, bringing the total of Dutch in Burma to around 4600. [63] The most important trial was against the general staff. Extracts from a report on a search carried out by an officer of the Army Graves Service, 6th to 22nd December 1948. He was one of Dunlop's 1,000 the men under commanding . The first contingent of around 3000 reached Thailand some months before the Australians in June 1942. Chungkai War Cemetery, near Kanchanaburi, has a further 1,693 war graves. They were outnumbered by the British, the Dutch and large cohorts of Asian labourers (rmusha), particularly Burmese and Tamils from Malaya. Privacy Policy. Records of Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters, World War II, RG 331. In contrast, only 4000 Australians were captured by the Germans and Ottomans in World War I. Java was the place where the second largest group of Australians was captured. Conduct Unbecoming : The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy. The records of a million World War II Prisoners of War will be published online today. Little is known of why the men of the 2nd AIF volunteered to serve. The newer steel and concrete bridge was made up of eleven curved-truss bridge spans which the Japanese builders brought from Java in the Dutch East Indies in 1942. From Thai-Burma railway to Sandakan, WWII history buff unearths stories of Australian POWs. As well as these deaths, Japanese civilians were nearly 10,000 lost at sea in this attack and Australia lost about 2800 soldiers to American operations. The Prisoner List is a compelling account of the experiences of a prisoner of the Japanese in WWII - from the humiliating defeat at Singapore, to forced labour on the Saigon docks and the horrors of life on the infamous Burma Railway. Major Sotomatsu Chida was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. [7] The Japanese began this project in June 1942. The two parties met at Nieke in November 1943, and the line - 263 miles long - was completed by December. [23][24] The money was used to compensate neighbouring countries and colonies for material stolen by Japan during the construction of the railway. Work on the railway started at Thanbyuzayat on 1st October 1942 and somewhat later at Ban Pong. But this phase soon passed and from May 1944 until the capitulation of Japan in August 1945 parties of prisoners were sent from the various base camps to work on railway maintenance, cut fuel for the locomotives, and handle stores at dumps along the line. CHAPTER 2. The greater part of the Thai section of the river's route followed the valley of the Khwae Noi River (khwae, 'stream, river' or 'tributary'; noi, 'small'. When Britainwent to waron 3 September 1939 there was none of the 'flag-waving patriotism' of August 1914. Steve White-do-not-use. The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam-Burma Railway, Thai-Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a 415 km (258 mi) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). The estimated number of civilian labourers and POWs who died during construction varies considerably, but the Australian Government figures suggest that of the 330,000 people who worked on the line (including 250,000 Asian labourers and 61,000 Allied POWs) about 90,000 of the labourers and about 16,000 Allied prisoners died.[30]. They worked on airfields and other infrastructure initially before beginning construction of the railway in October 1942. Max Heiliger-Laundering money for the Nazis. Subcategories Grid List There are 23 products. [71], A first wooden railroad bridge over the Khwae Yai was finished in February 1943, which was soon accompanied by a more modern ferro-concrete bridge in June 1943, with both bridges running in a NNESSW direction across the river. Only the first 130 kilometres (81mi) of the line in Thailand remained, with trains still running as far north as Nam Tok. notebook kept by captain harold lord, regular officer in the royal army service corps (rasc), whilst a japanese prisoner of war working on the burma-thailand railway in 1943, listing neatly and chronologically the names of the british prisoners of war who worked on the railway, may - december 1943, together with the following information about by Howard Margolian. At main camps such as Chungkai, Tamarkan, Non Pladuk and Thanbyuzayat were "base Hospitals" which were also huts of bamboo and thatch, staffed by such medical officers and orderlies as were allowed by the Japanese to care for the sick prisoners. Now they find themselves dumped in these charnel houses, driven and brutally knocked about by the Jap and Korean guards, unable to buy extra food, bewildered, sick, frightened. Second, the occupation of Burma would also put Japanese armies on the doorstep of British India. A total of 50,000 troops were captured at one time there."He then got moved to Malai POW Camp 1 in Thailand, and transferred to Camp 2 to build the Burma Railway."He was liberated in 1945 . [13], Estimates of deaths among Southeast Asian civilians subject to forced labour, often known as rmusha, vary widely, because statistics are incomplete and fragmented. Japanese Medical Orderly. Repeated reconnaissance flights over the Burma end of the railway started early in 1943, followed by bombings at intervals. From the inmates of Colditz to the men who took part in the 'Great Escape . [29], The number of Southeast Asian workers recruited or impressed to work on the Burma railway has been estimated to have been more than 180,000 Southeast Asian civilian labourers (rmusha). The cook-house and huts for the working parties came next and accommodation for the sick last of all. All of that makes this railway an extraordinary accomplishment."[20]. Between June 1942 and October 1943 the POWs and forced labourers laid some 258 miles (415 km) of track from Ban Pong, Thailand (roughly 45 miles [72 km] west of Bangkok), to Thanbyuzayat, Burma (roughly 35 miles [56 km] south of Mawlamyine). More than one in five of them died there. [70], The bridge was made famous by Pierre Boulle's novel The Bridge over the River Kwai and its film adaptation, The Bridge on the River Kwai. [10][11] After preliminary work of airfields and infrastructure, construction of the railway began in Burma and Thailand on 16 September 1942. Death Railway . The railway connected Thailand and Burma and was shut down in 1947, after the war. [57][58], In addition to malnutrition and physical abuse, malaria, cholera, dysentery and tropical ulcers were common contributing factors in the death of workers on the Burma Railway. Lt Col Coates the greatest doctor on the Burma Thailand Railway. The Japanese would not allow the prisoners to construct a symbol (a white triangle on a blue base) indicating the presence of a prisoner of war camp, and these raids added their quota to the deaths on the line. Since the 8th Division was raised during the crisis of the fall of France in mid-1940, these men would also have chosen to play a role in averting Allied defeat. Since the Netherlands East Indies had been under Dutch control for centuries, the Dutch POWs included not only Europeans but Eurasians, who had acquired full civil rights, and indigenous soldiers, including Sundanese, Javanese, Menadonese, Ambonese and Timorese. ARTICLE 30. The notorious Burma-Siam railway, built by British, Australian, Dutch and American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project inspired by the need for improved communications to maintain the large Japanese Armv in Burma. (Publisher) A former British Army officer, who was tortured as a prisoner of war at a Japanese labor camp during World War II, discovers that the man responsible for much of his treatment is still alive and sets out to confront him. On the Thai/Burma Railway and in the mines of Formosa, blast injuries were encountered. The Burma Railway, also known as the SiamBurma Railway, ThaiBurma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a 415km (258mi) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). The Japanese demanded from each camp a certain percentage of its strength for working parties, irrespective of the number of sick, and to make up the required quota the Japanese camp commandants insisted on men totally unfit for work being driven out and sometimes carried out. Work began at both ends of the rail line in June 1942. The list contains over 1700 names and is particularly interesting as a record of the decimation, by disease or untreated wounds, of prisoners working on the Burma-Thailand railway. These coolies have been brought from Malaya under false pretenses 'easy work, good pay, good houses!' Many are now held by the Australian War Memorial, State Library of Victoria, and the Imperial War Museum in London. [74] Repairs were carried out by forced labour of POWs shortly after and by April the wooden railroad trestle bridge was back in operation. At both camp and base hospitals, for the greater part of the time, the doctors had only such drugs and equipment as they had been able to carry with them. Jun 9, 2015 - Explore Samm Blake's board "Burma Thai Railway Prisoners of War - Historical Footage / Photos", followed by 2,370 people on Pinterest. Frequently men were sent to work on the line long before their accommodation was completed. When that failed to attract sufficient workers, they resorted to more coercive methods, rounding up workers and impressing them, especially in Malaya. [59], Several museums are dedicated to those who perished building the railway. ", "Yamashita: the greatest Japanese general of World War II? George, from Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Scotland, was a POW in Java in 1942. ARTICLE 29. Elsewhere in the Pacific some 10 000 British, Canadian and Indian troops were captured when Hong Kong fell in December 1941 and further 5000 in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) in early 1942. Initially, 1,000 prisoners worked on the bridge and were commanded by Colonel Philip Toosey. Railway Construction Camp - Kanya, Thailand. At the same time the 'Sweat Army' of labourers from Burma, ostensibly volunteers but many conscripted by the puppet Burmese government, toiled on the construction work. The Dutch formed the second largest contingent of Allied prisoners of war on the ThaiBurma railway, after the British. In his book Last Man Out, H. Robert Charles, an American Marine survivor of the sinking of the USS Houston, writes in depth about a Dutch doctor, Henri Hekking, a fellow POW who probably saved the lives of many who worked on the railway. His account of the conditions and suffering endured by his fellow prisoners and himself makes for the most extraordinary and disturbing reading. Used with permission of the author, Lilian Sluyter. Such extreme mortality was experienced by Australian and British prisoners of war (POW) forced to build the Thai-Burma railway during the Second World War. [47] Coast's work is noted for its detail on the brutality of some Japanese and Korean guards as well as the humanity of others. When you got back to your sleeping platform you only had a tin of water to wash your feet. A great deal of equipment was improvised by the medical officers and orderlies, and food and medicines were clandestinely obtained. The British POWs suffered the highest number of dead of any Allied group on the ThaiBurma railway. Williams Force was based at Tanyin and Black Force at Beke Taung camp at Kilo 40. Javanese, Malayan Tamils of Indian origin, Burmese, Chinese, Thai, and other Southeast Asians, forcibly drafted by the Imperial Japanese Army to work on the railway, died in its construction. As before, their food and accommodation were minor considerations. Most of the railway was dismantled shortly after the war. An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 civilians also . The Burmese had welcomed the invasion by Japan and cooperated with Japan in recruiting workers. During World War II, the Japanese forced more than 60,000 allied prisoners of war and nearly 300,000 Southeast Asian laborers to build a 415km railway across the mountains and jungles between Thailand and Myanmar (then Burma). who played baby isabelle in alias, direct compensation to work pivotal to company goals, ,

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