The
Death Railway stretched to 415 km from Thanbyuzayat in Burma to Nong Pladuk in Bang Pong district of Ratchaburi province in Thailand. 304 km from the railway station in Thailand, and the remaining 111 km in Burma.
More than 16,000 prisoners died during the construction of the railway undertaking or thirty-eight of prisoners for every km of railway built. The prisoners died from disease, malnutrition and exhaustion. There was little or no medical care available, and many prisoners suffer terribly before they died.
Prisoner diet consists of rice and salted vegetables served twice a day. Sometimes they were forced to work up to sixteen hours a day in appalling conditions. Many detainees were tortured for the smallest offenses. The Japanese commander had the motto "if you work hard you will be treated, but if you do not work hard punished."
Penalties included brutal mistreatment, references to kneel on sharp sticks while holding a rock of one to three hours at a time and tied to a tree with barbed wire and left for two to three days without food or water.
Boule's book probably best describes the attitude of the Japanese officers. "From the very beginning, they acted like wild chain-gang guards, and parking was responsible for a time when the notice of sadistic torturers."
Japan signed the 1929 Geneva Convention on treatment of POW's, but not ratified. Many people do not understand how the Japanese could have been treated their prisoners so badly, and many survivors of the Death Railway applications still can not forgive their Japanese Captor this day.
It is ironic that after the war many of the Japanese soldiers who were interviewed said that although she could not understand how easily the Allies returned to the first, they were surprised by the tenacity and determination they showed in the construction of bridge and the Death Railway. "I was overwhelmed by their tenacious spirit," says Takashi Nagase, an English interpreter for the Japanese military police.
Part of the reason for the Japanese behavior may, in their attitude to surrender. Most of them prefer to die or commit suicide than surrender. Their perception of the Allied soldiers was very low because they could not understand how the Allies could so easily and not consumed by guilt because he is.
The Japanese were determined to build a railway to a new route from Rangoon and the Bay of Bengal via Bangkok to Singapore. They believed that by relying on sea routes only, they will be vulnerable to allied attack, so they need other means of transport. They also had their sights on the British Empire in India.
The Japanese had an agreement with Thai PM Field Marshal P Pibulsongkram 21 December 1941 to fill in Thailand until they meddle in internal affairs.
On 8 August 1942, Prime Minister signed an agreement with the Japanese representative Sheji General Poriya construction of the railway. The Japanese hope that the few meters railway material could carry 3,000 tons of supplies and strategic materials per day.
The Death Railway branched off from the southern railway and headed to Kanchanaburi. The first fifty-five kilometers from Nong Pladuk to Kanchanaburi was easy to build because of the flat terrain. The rest of the way was hell and that is how he earned his nickname.
The first study on the railway was completed, it was estimated that it would be five years to build. The main architect was S.O. No construction began in October 1942 and was completed in August 1943. Rail operators was inaugurated on 25 October 1943. The two tracks, one from Thanbyuzayat in Burma and the other from Nong Pladuk met Niek just south of the three pagodas Pass.
After the railway was completed, 30,000 prisoners were held in six camps along the railway line to maintain. These camps were near the bridge and other strategic positions so vulnerable to allied attacks, and many prisoners were killed in bombings.
