Death Railway, Kanchanaburi, Thailand
A long day...railway day-trip with Tim...Thonburi > Namtok > Thonburi...about 14 hours on a bum-numbing, wooden bench. Ate nothing all day, but the beery return trip ensured starvation did not occur. Kanchanaburi to Namtok section is on the infamous Death Railway, and includes crossing the "Bridge on The River Kwai" and a section of wooden trestle bridge [built by POW's of the Japanese during WW2] part way down a river-cliff. There was an unexpected encounter with a famous train, but the continually varying pastoral vista was the highlight of the trip.
Here is a short video of the trip:
Here is a short video of the trip:
Here is the trip in slideshow:
While the European and Russian theatres of horror were occurring in 1939-45, another huge war was taking place in Asia/Pacific regions as the Japanese [flushed with their 1937/8 success in China] sought to achieve total domination of this hemisphere Japanese thinking was that the Europeans were so busy in Europe, fighting to stop The Germans led by Hitler, that they would have no capacity to hold off Japanese take-overs of all of the SE Asia, South Asia and Australasian colonies of Britain, Holland, France and finally USA.
Initially the Japanese were unstoppable, and they quickly invaded nearly all of SE Asia, and were even threatening Australia. The Japanese moved so quickly that they overstretched their ability to supply their invading armies.
The Death Railway was conceived by the Japanese as a partial solution to this problem...it closed a gap in the railways that would have enabled rapid movement of equipment and supplies all the way from South China to Singapore.
The Japanese had access to a lot of conquered people [especially Burmese and Burmese/Thai hilltribes] and they also had large numbers of Prisoners of War [British, Australian, Dutch, plus quite a lot of Americans] and so they forced these unfortunate people to build the approximately 350km of railway that closed the only gap in this supply line...about half of the line was in Burma [former colony of Britain] and Thailand [who were not a colony and tried to be a Neutral State].
The Japanese brutality to this forced labour was intense, and so there was a very high mortality rate...thus "Death Railway".
I am presently taking you on a brief tour of the section of Death Railway that remains capable of carrying trains...it is all in Thailand, and includes some of the most [in]famous structures and sections of rail.
There is a quite good summary of this on wikipedia, and I would recommend it if you wish to read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma_Railway
Initially the Japanese were unstoppable, and they quickly invaded nearly all of SE Asia, and were even threatening Australia. The Japanese moved so quickly that they overstretched their ability to supply their invading armies.
The Death Railway was conceived by the Japanese as a partial solution to this problem...it closed a gap in the railways that would have enabled rapid movement of equipment and supplies all the way from South China to Singapore.
The Japanese had access to a lot of conquered people [especially Burmese and Burmese/Thai hilltribes] and they also had large numbers of Prisoners of War [British, Australian, Dutch, plus quite a lot of Americans] and so they forced these unfortunate people to build the approximately 350km of railway that closed the only gap in this supply line...about half of the line was in Burma [former colony of Britain] and Thailand [who were not a colony and tried to be a Neutral State].
The Japanese brutality to this forced labour was intense, and so there was a very high mortality rate...thus "Death Railway".
I am presently taking you on a brief tour of the section of Death Railway that remains capable of carrying trains...it is all in Thailand, and includes some of the most [in]famous structures and sections of rail.
There is a quite good summary of this on wikipedia, and I would recommend it if you wish to read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma_Railway
