Thailand-Burma Railway

Ban Pong-Thanbuyzayat
Route length:	415 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Legend Thonburi southern runway 64.19 Nong Pladuk Junction Route to Malai Maen 68.22 Ban Pong 1943–1945: Khok Mo Southern Railway to Malaysia 67.90 Thanon Songphon 69.00 Ban Pong May 1943-1945: Kun Ma 73.65 Sa Kosinarai 77.43 Luk Kae 1943–1945: Ruk Khe 85.00 Tha Maka 89.77 Tha Ruea Noi 96.68 Ban Nong Suea 101.40 Tha Muang ( container terminal ) 102.71 Thung Thong 107.00 Khao Din (Central Bw ) 112 Dang Na Talea 114.36 Pak Phraek 115.65 Thung Na Thale 117.04 Kanchanaburi 120.20 Khwae Yai ("Kwai"), steel bridge (323.5 m) Khwae Yai ("Kwai"), former traject 120.26 Saphan Kwae Yai 121.55 Khao Pun 124 Chungkai 129.69 Witthayalai Kaset 136 Wang Lan 136.46 Na Kan (since 1971) 140.15 Wang Yen 143 Tha pong 144.80 Wang Tkhian (since 1958) 148.17 Ban Pong Siao 151.95 Ban Khao 156.80 Tha Ta Suea (since 1971) 161.95 Tha Kilen 167.03 Wang Sing 172.35 Lum Sum (formerly Ai Hit) 173.87 Saphan Tham 174.17 Tham Krasae Viaduct, Khwae Noi 174.67 Red "Stop" sign ( photo stop for special trains ) 178.10 Wang Pho 183.66 Ko Maha Mongkhon 185.35 Chong Khaep 188.90 Wang Yai 191.25 Ban Phu Phong 194.24 Nam Tok (formerly Tha Sao) 195.69 Nam Tok Sai Yok Noi (since 2003) 139.05 Tonchan 147.52 Tampii Hellfire Pass "House of Cards" bridge 155.03 Hintok 161.40 Kannyu 167.70 Sai Yok 171.72 Kin Sa Yok 180.53 Rin Tin ("Lin Tin") 190.48 Kui Yae 197.75 Hin Dat 202.50 Linson 208.11 Prang Kasi 213.80 Yong Thi 218.15 Tha Khanun Vajiralongkorn Dam (since 1985) 229.14 Nam Chon Yai 236.80 Tha Mayo 244.19 Thamrong Patho 250.13 Kroeng Krai 257.70 Kurikonta 262.53 Konkuita 262.87 Merger on October 17, 1943 273.06 Thimongtha 276.00 Shimo Ni Thea Ni Thea Bridge 281.80 Ni Thea ("Nikki", "Neike") 294.02 Songkurai Thailand / Myanmar 303.53 Three Pagoda Pass 272.45 m 303.95 Chaunggahla-ya Myanmar / Thailand 305.60 Three Pagodas (Border Peace Temple) Thailand / Myanmar 306.09 Payathon to 310.63 Aungganaung 315.00 Regue 319.88 Kyondaw 325.30 Lawa 332.09 Apalon bridge 332.60 Apalon 337.25 Apalaine 342.83 Mezali 348.66 Kami Mezali 354.00 Lonsi 357.60 Taungzun 361.90 Thanbaya 366.06 Anankwin ("Anakuin") 374.40 Beke Taung 379.92 Tanyin 384.59 Retphaw ("Repo") 391.02 Konnoki 396.39 Rabao 401.34 Thetkaw 406.37 Wagale 409.79 Sin-thanbyuzayat Stretch of ye 414.92 Thanbyuzayat Route to Mawlamyaing

The Thailand-Burma Railway ( Thai ทาง รถไฟ สาย มรณะ , Thang Rotfai Sai Marana , english Thailand-Burma Railway , commonly known as Death Railway , English: Death Railway ) joined in the years 1943-1945 for 17 months, the railway networks of the Thai Royal Railway Department and of the Burma Railways Board .

During the Second World War , the Imperial Japanese Army had the route built by forced laborers and prisoners of war , the inhuman treatment of which is a war crime .

The route became widely known through the films The Bridge on the River Kwai and Trapped in Hell .

route

The Kwai Bridge near Kanchanaburi (2004)

The railway line ran over a length of 415 kilometers from Khok Mo in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat in what is now Myanmar . At both ends it established the connection to the local railway network. Of the total route, 110 kilometers are in Myanmar and 305 kilometers in Thailand. Today 131 kilometers of it are still operated by the Thai State Railways, the rest has been abandoned and most of the tracks have been dismantled.

The Japanese military mile the route from Nong Pladuk Junction on the southern runway . After the takeover by the Thai state railway, the eastern rest of the line operated by it was - as usual for all of its lines - kilometers from Bangkok, in this case from Thonburi station.

prehistory

Plans by the British colonial administration in India in the second half of the 19th century to run a railroad from Burma (today: Myanmar ) to China for topographical reasons across Thai territory were fought off by the Siamese government because this would give the British better access to the Northern Thailand would have made it possible than the government in Bangkok itself. Linking the route networks currently under construction in Thailand and Burma was obvious at the end of the 19th century.

In 1903, engineers investigated the construction of a connection between the Thai Northern Railway , which had been standard gauge since 1898 and was driven from Bangkok to Chiang Mai , and Burma. The valley of the Mae Nam Mae Klong (Mae Klong River) and overcoming the mountain range at the Three Pagoda Pass were identified as the technically most advantageous solution. However, the project was ended after this preparatory work, as the costs and benefits did not result in a reasonable relationship.

From 1910, British engineers took up the idea of ​​connecting Thailand and Burma again, this time with a meter-gauge line and with a connection to the southern railway, which was built in meter -gauge from the beginning and which was driven from Bangkok-Thonburi in the direction of Malaysia . Relatively detailed plans were drawn up within two years, but these were also dropped. They also found that the cost-benefit ratio did not justify the construction. Around 1930 there were two studies for a corresponding railway line. They were known to a larger circle, in Tokyo they were the subject of the curriculum at the railway engineering faculties of the universities.

Political starting point

After the Japanese Empire conquered Malaysia, Singapore , Thailand and Burma in World War II in 1941/1942 , Burma became "independent" under a government controlled by Japan; the Thai government came to terms with the occupiers and entered the war on the Japanese side.

The Japanese generals sought to connect the railways of Burma and Thailand in order to avoid the long and therefore risky sea transport around the Malay Peninsula , through the Straits of Malacca and around Singapore. She wanted to prepare strategically for the attack on British India .

The route has been measured since February 1942 and preparations for construction have been made since March. Construction was ordered in June 1942 and the zero milestone was set in Nong Pladuk on July 5, 1942 . The construction of the route should essentially be done by prisoners of war and forced labor .

construction

requirements

With their conquests of Indonesia , Indochina , Malaysia and Singapore, the Japanese fell into their hands with track material and sleepers as well as numerous railway vehicles from the conquered areas, which was the material prerequisite for the construction of the 415-kilometer line. In Malaysia alone, the Japanese dismantled 320 kilometers of the eastern route between Kuala Krai and Mantakab , as well as some branch lines , a total of 444 kilometers, and 92 kilometers of additional track systems. In addition, material was also brought in from Japan itself. In addition to the Burma – Thailand railway, the Chumphon – Khao Fachi railway was also built.

Furthermore, during the conquest of the Malay Peninsula and the battle for Singapore , the Japanese fell into the hands of about 85,000 prisoners of war who were to be used as labor on the route. The information on how many were actually used vary widely. 50,000 to 70,000 Allied prisoners of war are named. Around 200,000 more Asian forced laborers were used. The Japanese began to recruit locals and men from the territories they occupied to build the railway line. For the most part, they were brought to the construction sites with false promises. The previously negotiated payment was consistently refused. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were put into forced labor . A small number of Japanese soldiers who had "lost their honor" in war missions according to the Bushidō also built the route .

The line was built and operated independently from the Thai railway by the Japanese military. There were agreements with the Thai government about the route to Kanchanaburi , to the west of it the Japanese built the route completely independently. However, the technical parameters of the Thai railroad were used and the line was also connected to the southern runway in order to enable the unproblematic transition from rail vehicles to the line. The single-track line was based on the meter gauge that has been used on all main lines in Thailand since 1929 and in neighboring countries from the start.

course

From the Southern Railway of the Thai state railway in Khok Mo branching off the route first runs about 55 km through the Thai Plain to Tha Makham : (Thai ท่า มะขาม , Tamarind-Kai , the district now part Mueang Kanchanaburi the Kanchanaburi province of the eastern shore, in the amount of) Mae Nam Mae Klong ("River Kwai"), to Mae Nam Kwae Noi . There she crosses the Mae Klong with the famous bridge over the Kwai and accompanies it on its east bank to the mountains of the Ta-Now-Sri Mountains . As suggested in 1903, this was overcome at the pass of the three pagodas . From there the route wound down the mountain slopes to Thanbyuzayat, where there was a connection to the southern route of the Burmese railway.

Technical effort

For the construction of the line 688 bridges were built, mostly as trestle bridges . 63 of them were longer than 50 meters. Seven bridges were built in a second phase as steel bridges on the Burmese side and the second of the two bridges over the Kwae Noi. The latter is still used today. The best known are the Apalon Bridge in Myanmar, the so-called “ House of Cards ” bridge (broken off) and the section along the Kwae Noi near Wang Pho , which is also made entirely of wood and is still used today and is a tourist attraction .

Construction process

preparation

As early as the beginning of 1942, local commanders of the Japanese army took the first preparatory measures. In June 1942 the decision was made to build the line. The official name of the project was Thailand – Burma Connecting Railway (泰緬 連接 鉄 道 / Taimen Renetsu Tetsudo ). Construction began in September 1942. The line was driven forward from both sides. The 9th Railway Regiment was responsible on the Thai side, and the  5th Railway Regiment on the Burmese side, with a total strength of around 10,000 men.

The original goal was to make the line operational at the end of 1943.

Treatment of the workforce

After the conquest of the Malay Peninsula and the Battle of Singapore , the Japanese had taken around 85,000 prisoners of war, who were now to be used for railway construction, including on the Thailand – Burma railway. This happened under inhuman conditions. The treatment of prisoners of war by the Imperial Japanese Army was the result of a military culture that viewed any form of capture as a disgrace. That is why it did not see itself bound by the Hague Land Warfare Regulations or the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. By the standards of these agreements, they were and still are war crimes .

Workers on the railway line

British	Dutch	Australian	Americans	other allies	Asians
30,000	18,000	13,000	700	1,000	200,000

The transports

The first prisoners of war to arrive in Thanbyuzayat were 3,000 Australians who had previously been involved in building airfields in Burma. This so-called "A-Force" was brought by ship to Mawlamyaing and then inland to the construction site on the Burmese side, which it reached in mid-May 1942. There the Australians built their huts and a small infirmary. The last prisoners to be transported by ship reached their destination in January 1943.

A total of 10,951 Allied and Asian prisoners left ports in Japanese-conquered areas with these so-called ships of hell to be brought to Mawlamyaing. A number of men who were too weak for such a transport died on the crossings. Conditions on the ships encouraged the spread of disease. Again and again, the ships were the target of Allied bomber and submarine attacks, in which some sank, crews and prisoners were killed.

The first prisoners arrived at the construction site on the Thai side in mid-June. 3,000 Brits drove in five trains of 600 men each, crammed in cattle cars, from Singapore across the Malay Peninsula to Nong Pladuk Junction. Their task was to set up the three base camps there for the prisoners who followed. The camps consisted mostly of bad tents that also quickly weathered in the monsoon rain. By May 1943, 55,720 prisoners had been brought to Thailand by rail. When the medical situation in the camps got out of hand for the Japanese in mid-1943, they gathered 375 medical workers in the Singapore camp and transported them to Thailand by train. From there they were distributed to the camps.

A total of around 15,000 Japanese were involved in the construction of the railway. About 1,000 of them were killed.

Daily routine and working conditions

View from above through Hellfire Pass (March 2005)

The daily routine for the prisoners was strictly tied to the general daylight: wake up at sunrise (around 6:30 a.m.), followed by a meager rice breakfast, followed by a march. After two hours of work at the earliest, the Japanese allowed a ten-minute tea break. At noon the supply units brought rice rations to the prisoners again. The working hours usually ended when it was dark around 6:30 p.m. and they started to march back. However, if construction sections were not completed quickly enough, the prisoners had to work into the night or through the night, especially during the Speedo phase of the project, at Hellfire Pass and at some other places.

The working conditions were inhuman. In addition to the harassment by the Japanese, there was the hot and humid jungle climate. During the monsoon season in particular , there was heavy fog in the valleys, and the work had to be done in the pouring rain. Most of the work was done with bare hands, as tools were often missing. The most dangerous and deadly construction sites were the bridges over the rivers. The majority were wooden structures. It was not until the end of the construction phase that some steel bridges came from Japan and replaced the wooden structures in some places. The rock blasts on the river banks were also repeatedly overshadowed by accidents, often with fatal results. Statements from former prisoners even go so far as to accuse the Japanese of deliberately caused accidents.

In April 1943 the breakthrough began at the so-called Hellfire Pass ( 14 ° 20 ′  N , 98 ° 58 ′  E ). Only a hammer and chisel were used to cut a 25 meter wide and 75 meter long mountain cut. It was followed by another one that was 8 meters wide and even 450 meters long. Since the work was also carried out at night in the light of carbide and diesel lamps, it was given the name Hellfire .

Because of the air superiority of the Allies, the sea route around the Malay Peninsula became more and more risky for the Japanese, so that a safe land connection became more and more important. Therefore, in March 1943, the date for the completion of the line was brought forward to August 1943 and the work pressure on the prisoners of war and forced laborers increased accordingly. In this phase of extreme pressure and ruthlessness ("speedo" period) the number of deaths among prisoners of war and forced labor rose dramatically.

The Allied bombing raids on the camps and construction sites represented a major problem. The Allies only suspected local and Japanese construction workers there and wanted to prevent the completion of the railway line with the attacks. When the prisoners tried to use large white triangles on a blue background to inform the aircraft of their presence, they were massively prevented from doing so by the Japanese.

Victim

6540 British, 2830 Dutch, 2710 Australian, 131 American and 413 prisoners of war of other nationalities died during the construction of the railway line. Korean, Japanese and other forced laborers who were deported from Asia were also among the dead. According to various estimates, a total of 40,000 to 90,000 people died during the construction of the route.

rating

The treatment of prisoners of war blatantly contradicted the Hague Land Warfare Regulations and the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. By the standards of these agreements, they were war crimes . The "Death Railway" was just one of the many war crimes that Japan committed from the beginning of the annexation of Manchuria in 1931 to the end of World War II in 1945. It represents one of the great crimes alongside the Nanking massacre .

Installation

At the beginning of 1943 the line was already in operation as far as Kanchanaburi.

On October 17, 1943, the two construction sites on the Burmese and Thai sides met at Konkuita in Thailand, construction work was completed on October 23, and operations began on October 25. Because of Allied bombing attacks, however, smaller sections, especially damaged bridges, had to be repaired constantly. The completion of the line in just 13 months, however, also meant that much was only provisionally prepared. A signaling system had not been set up along the route, and there were no high-rise buildings - with the exception of hastily erected warehouses at the end of the route - either.

business

A British bomber attacks the railway line.

The single-track line had numerous crossing stations and sidings on which railway vehicles could be parked camouflaged in order to be protected from air attacks.

Only the Class J 56 of the Japanese State Railways in a meter-gauge variant were used as locomotives . In addition, a large number of trucks were fitted with railway wheelsets. Such a converted truck could pull up to four freight cars . Some of these vehicles were covered with a pitched roof for camouflage, which gave them the look of a local hut. This led to the name “flying kampong”, flying village (“kampong” means “village” in Malay ). Driving was usually carried out at night to avoid Allied air raids. During the day, the trains were parked and camouflaged.

Although there were numerous speed limits at 5 km / h due to the overhead construction defects , there were always derailments .

The intended goals of the construction were only partially achieved: The targeted daily transport capacity of 3000 tons was not achieved. 1000 tons per day turned out to be realistic. In total, the line was only in operation for 17 months over its entire length.

Starting in 1944, the Allies repeatedly damaged or destroyed bridges along the route through more intensive operations. Bridges were more difficult to repair than tracks or embankments and were therefore the preferred target for attacks. In such attacks, the wooden Kwai Bridge and the steel bridge 200 meters upstream ( 14 ° 2 ′ 27 ″  N , 99 ° 30 ′ 11 ″  E ) were repeatedly damaged and then repaired. When the funds to repair the steel bridge ran out, only the wooden bridge was repaired. The steel bridge, of which three spans were destroyed, was rebuilt by a Japanese company after the war in 1946. When the damage from the air raids became too extensive, operations on the line had to be finally stopped in June 1945. Japan surrendered on August 15 and September 2, 1945 .

post war period

route

Today's terminus is Nam Tok Sai Yok Noi

With the Japanese surrender, Great Britain viewed the railway as spoils of war and its property. However, it was initially administered by the Dutch Lieutenant Colonel Karel Adrianus Warmenhoven, who had recently been liberated from the Changi POW camp . He left a report on how he found the railway in 1945.

In May 1946, the British removed a 3.9-kilometer stretch of route at the pass of the Three Pagodas , supposedly to prevent smuggling . After the end of the war, based on an agreement between Burma and Thailand, each 100 kilometers from their border was removed and the route was not put back into operation from the start. As a result, the route in Burma lost all significance, and the repair of war damage in the network there had priority.

On the Thai side, the route to Prangkasi was used irregularly . Many Thais took advantage of this to settle along the railway in previously sparsely populated areas. The route thus gained importance as an infrastructure for inland colonization . In order to maintain control of the route, the Thai government bought the inland section from the British government in October 1946 for £ 1,250,000 (then: 50 million baht ). The purchase price was paid in six semi-annual installments between January 1947 and January 1949. Most of the money was used for compensation payments to the former owners of the stolen rolling stock, rails and other building materials in Burma, Malaysia, Java and other surrounding countries. On October 17, 1946, the line was handed over to Thailand. During an inspection drive to check the condition of the purchased route on January 31, 1947, the then Thai Transport Minister Momluang Kri Detchatiwong, among others, lost his life when the vehicle he was using crashed near Konkoita : a bridge had previously collapsed.

→ Main article : Konkoita railway accident

This poor condition of the line then prompted the Thai side to finally dismantle the track from Nam-Tok to the pass of the three pagodas . On the Burmese side, this happened from the pass to Thanbyuzayat. The material was needed in both countries to repair war damage to other railway infrastructure. The second wooden bridge over the Mae Klong was dismantled as early as 1946.

The line from Khok Mo to Nam Tok was reopened in stages after renovation: on June 24, 1949 the section Khok Mo – Kanchanaburi, on April 1, 1952 Kanchanaburi – Wang Pho and July 1, 1958 the section from Wang Pho bis Nam Tok, a total of 130 kilometers. It is also a tourist destination today. In 2003 the route was extended by 1.4 kilometers from Nam Tok to today's terminus Nam Tok Sai Yok Noi (only called Nam Tok in the official timetables ) because there is better access to the famous waterfalls from here.

An approximately 40-kilometer section of the Thai part of the abandoned route was flooded by the Vajiralongkorn reservoir from 1985 . Some abandoned sections are developed as hiking trails. All other sections of the route are now overgrown, but large parts are still recognizable on site.

traffic

Two pairs of trains run the entire length of the route every day. A third runs between Nong Pladuk Junction and Nam Tok . All lead the 3rd grade only  . In Bangkok they use the Thonburi train station . The pair of trains 257/258 runs a 3rd class car, which is reserved exclusively for tourists, whose use instead of 100 baht then costs 300 baht for a single journey, in which additional service is offered.

On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays there is an additional diesel multiple unit that starts at Bangkok-Hua Lamphong station . He leads the 3rd class, maybe also the 2nd class. In addition, the Eastern and Oriental Express luxury train runs three times a month to Saphan Kwae Yai station .

plans

There are efforts to rebuild the entire route in the course of the Trans-Asian Railway in order to better network the countries of Southeast Asia and to connect them to the international rail network. However, these considerations have not yet been implemented in concrete plans.

Memorials, cemeteries and museums

The Allied Cemetery in Kanchanaburi

Several memorials commemorating the construction of the Death Railway and those who perished during its construction have been erected in both Thailand and Myanmar. Three cemeteries were created by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), two (in Kanchanaburi and Chungkai) in Thailand, one in Thanbyuzayat in Myanmar. There are no names on many of the graves, as the Japanese often threw the bodies into the rivers or left them at the edge of the route, where they were later found. As far as graves or burial sites were found along the route, the dead were exhumed as far as possible and reburied in one of these cemeteries.

Kanchanaburi War Cemetery

This cemetery was built on the site of the "Kanburi Base Camp" ("Kanburi" was the name the prisoners of war called Kanchanaburi). It is the largest Allied war cemetery. 6,991 Allied prisoners of war are buried here (or are commemorated), of whom 4,946 have been identified so far: 3,577 British, 1,362 Australian, 1,896 Dutch, 104 Malays, two New Zealanders, a Canadian and a Burmese, and 35 of unknown origin. 11 soldiers of the Indian army are also commemorated. Colin St Clair Oakes designed the cemetery. The central memorial event takes place here on ANZAC Day (April 25th) every year.

Chungkai War Cemetery

A few kilometers from Kanchanaburi, this cemetery, which was laid out in 1943 during the construction of the Death Railway, was redesigned. There are graves and memorials for 1,384 British, 314 Dutch, 37 Malay and 6 Indians, of which 1,377 have been identified. The designer of this cemetery was Colin St Clair Oakes.

Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery

Buried in this cemetery are 1,588 British, 1,348 Australian, 622 Dutch, 79 Malays, 15 Indians, 3 New Zealanders, 1 Canadian, 1 Burmese and 114 people of unknown origin, of whom 2995 have been identified.

JEATH museum

The JEATH War Museum is located near the Kwai Bridge on its east side . JEATH consists of the initials of the names of countries involved in the war: J apan, E ngland, A merica, A ustralia, T hailand and H olland. In the museum, built from bamboo cane like the prisoners' camps at the time , pictures from the days of the war and finds from the construction of the route are on display. Parts of the bombs used to destroy the bridges were also brought here.

Thailand Burma Railway Center

Tools used in construction found in Sai Yok National Park , Kanchanaburi

The documentation center is located near the "Kanchanaburi War Cemetery". The center and its affiliated foundation comprehensively document the construction of the railway through numerous personal documents, including sound recordings of survivors, which are preserved for posterity.

Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum

This museum was built by Australians and opened in late April 1998 by then Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke . It offers a tour through the cut in the terrain at Hellfire Pass and exhibits finds from railway construction, such as B. Tools.

Literature (selection)

• Kyle Thompson: Lost Battalion: Railway of Death. I Books, 2004, ISBN 0-7434-9327-3 .
• Cornelis B. Evers: Death Railway: The stirring account of the building of the infamous Burma-Siam Railway and the lives of the men who died constructing it. Craftsman Press, 1993.
• GF Kershaw: Tracks of Death: The Burma-Siam Railway. The Book Guild, 1992, ISBN 0-86332-736-2 .
• Paul H. Kratoska: The Thailand-Burma Railway 1942–1946: documents and selected writings. London 2006, ISBN 0-415-30950-6 .
• JP [sic]: The True Story of The Death Railway and The Bridge on the River Kwai. [sic]. o. O. (edited by the Thailand-Burma Railway Center, Kanchanaburi), o. J. (approx. 2010), without ISBN.
• Stuart Young: Life on the Death Railway , Pen & Sword Books, Barnsley, 2013
• Thailand-Burma Railway Center (Ed.): Map of the Thai-Burma Rail Link. Self-published, undated (Version 2.1, approx. 2011). An extremely detailed, approximately 1.5 m long map of the route with numerous images and statistics.
• BR Whyte: The Railway Atlas of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. White Lotus Co, Bangkok 2010, ISBN 978-974-480-157-9 .

E-books

• Axel Ertelt : Kanchanaburi and the Bridge on the Kwai , E-Book, Ancient Mail Verlag, Groß-Gerau, 2013

CD-ROM

• Mark P. Willner: In Hell There Is A Place Called Death's Railway. Angel Station Incorporation, 2000, ISBN 0-9676971-0-7 .

Fiction

• Richard Flanagan : The narrow path through the hinterland. Munich 2015.

Movies

• Die Brücke am Kwai (The Bridge on the River Kwai) , USA / GBR 1957, directed by David Lean
• Furyo - Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence , GBR / JPN 1983, directed by Nagisa Ōshima
• To End All Wars (To End All Wars) , USA / GBR / THL 2001, directed by David L. Cunningham
• The love of his life - The Railway Man , AUS / UK 2013, directed by Jonathan Teplitzki

Web links

Commons : Thailand-Burma Railroad  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Death Railway - Description of the "Far East Prisoner of war community" ( Memento from March 24, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
• The Hellfire Pass (English)
• Death Railway Photo Gallery (English)
• The Thailand-Burma Railway Center (English)

Remarks

1. ↑ Formerly: Mae Nam Mae Klong
2. ↑ The name "Death Railway" comes from Allied prisoners of war who were involved in the construction of the line.
3. ↑ The literal name “Pack of Cards Bridge” is used colloquially here, as it better describes the fact that this Trestle Bridge collapsed three times during construction. 31 prisoners of war lost their lives, another 29 were beaten to death by the Japanese.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Whyte: The Railway Atlas. P. 68.
2. ^ Whyte: The Railway Atlas. P. 1f.
3. ↑ JP, p. 9.
4. ↑ ^{a b} J.P., p. 1.
5. ^ Whyte: The Railway Atlas. P. 67.
6. ^ ^{A b c d} Whyte: The Railway Atlas. P. 72.
7. ↑ JP, p. 33.
8. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Whyte: The Railway Atlas. P. 69.
9. ↑ JP, pp. 10, 16, 37, 45.
10. ↑ ^{a b} J.P., p. 46.
11. ↑ Kratoska, Volume 1, pp. 222-332.
12. ↑ JP, p. 20.
13. ↑ JP, p. 18.
14. ↑ ^{a b} Information from: The Man in Seat 61: Train Travel in Thailand .
15. ↑ The source: railcar The Man in Seat 61: Special Tourist Railcar on Saturdays, Sundays & Holidays is contradictory here.
16. ^ Trans-Asian Railway on unescap.org . Retrieved January 5, 2018.
17. ^ Whyte: The Railway Atlas. P. 71.
18. ^ Website of the CWGC on Kanchanaburi War Cemetry , last accessed on Sept. 10, 2013. The information on the figures was compared with JP, pp. 49 and 50.
19. ^ Whyte: The Railway Atlas. P. 71.
20. ↑ Website of the CWGC to Chungkai War Cemetery , last accessed on 10 September 2013. The information on the numbers were compared with JP, p 49 and 50th
21. ↑ CWGC website on Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery , last accessed on Sept. 10, 2013. The information on the figures was compared with JP, pp. 49 and 50.