Death Railway and the River Kwai

Hi to all again,
Before we get started on this fascinating and very sad subject, we must relate something else which we omitted from our recent blog. We became aware early last week that details of our ASB debit cards had somehow been stolen and thieves had withdrawn just over NZD2,000 from our account. We never use them for merchant purchases so it appears that they had been compromised at an ATM, most likely by a surreptitiously installed card reader. Most transactions are cash in Thailand (especially in Krabi) and so we were fairly often drawing amounts out. These cash transactions also included all payments relating to the refit of the "Tiare Taporo III". Fortunately we had just drawn some more cash before coming to Bangkok so, even though the cards are cancelled, we still have a reasonable amount of cash on hand. Hopefully the ASB can get replacements to us before we leave for India!! So, it's not just visas we're waiting for, it's debit cards as well.
However, it now looks as though the new cards will have to be sent to us in India, although we'll not be able to confirm our exact date of travel until later this week, dependent as it is on the date that the Indian visas are issued.
On the 18th. we arranged to join a tour to go to Kanchanaburi - the site of the infamous wartime bridge which was immortalised in the 1957 film "Bridge over the River Kwai" with Alec Guinness and Anthony Hawkins. The film in fact did not render an accurate depiction of the horrific conditions or an accurate story line. And it was filmed in Sri lanka - far from here. A potted history follows:
After the Japanese invaded Thailand in late 1941 they decided that they needed to build a 258 mile railway to Rangoon in Burma to avoid the dangerous supply route around Singapore and up the Malacca Straits where they were vulnerable to British submarine attack. So, they decided to construct a railway from Bangkok across the Thai/Burma border to Rangoon.
This construction involved many bridges, one of which was bridge 277 across the Mae Klong River at Kanchanaburi. This was the bridge depicted in the film. The line to Rangoon was in fact never completed as there wasn't a bridge constructed north of Moulmein until 2005. The whole line was closed in 1947 as much of it was considered unsafe but the section between Nong Pla Duk and Nam Tok was re-opened in 1957.
The loss of life which occurred during the construction of the line between June 1942 and June 1943 has been estimated at 90,000 Asian civilian workers (Tamil Indians, Burmese and Javanese) and 12,000 Allied POW's. This latter figure was made up from 6,318 British, 2,815 Australian, 2,490 Dutch, 356 Americans and 20 others including those from New Zealand, Canada and India. The bulk of NZ's war effort was of course in Greece, Crete, North Africa and Italy.
The tracks and sleepers used were stolen out of Malaya and the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia).
The first wooden trestle bridge across the Mae Klong was completed in February 1942 and a later steel and concrete bridge in June that year. Both were bombed heavily by the RAF in Feb., April and June 1945 which finally put them out of commission for the rest of the war against Japan.
Probably the worst example of atrocities committed by the Japanese against their POW's and other civilian workers occurred at Hellfire Pass on the Thai/Burma border. There it was necessary to complete a major cutting through solid rock. This was completed in 12 weeks using the most primitive methods such as pick and shovel. The Japanese guards bludgeoned 69 men to death during that time and countless others died from malnutrition and disease.
An interesting aside is that the famous British cartoonist and illustrator, Ronald Searle, was one of those British POW's, having been captured in Singapore, and made 300 sketches of conditions that they were forced to labour under. Many of these were later used in the subsequent trials of Japanese war criminals and many are now in the British Imperial War Museum in London. He was anxious that there should be some record of what went on even if he did not survive. Among other things that Searle recounts is waking up one morning next to 2 dead bodies of his friends who had died during the night. And with a snake under his head. It isn't recounted whether it was venomous or not. Searle died 3 years ago aged 91.
We were disappointed to find that the whole area around the bridge is heavily commercialised and, apart from a display of emaciated workers guarded by a Japanese guard, no mention of the Allied and other loss of life. No memorials - nothing. The replacement steel and concrete bridge is there and as part of our tour we walked across the bridge and later travelled part of the line by train. The rest of the tour is hardly worth mentioning. We left our hotel at 0630 and didn't get back until after 2000. The vans we travelled in (3 hours each way) were not comfortable and we were taken at different times for lunch on a floating restaurant (awful) and the "Tiger Temple". This latter was a dusty area where we saw recumbent tigers panting in the heat. For a fee you could be taken into the enclosure to pat the tigers but we passed on this. It was run by Bhuddist monks - all it seems for money. We were quite disgusted. All in all a less than memorable day but we were glad to have finally made the pilgrimage to the bridge. At least we can say we have been there.
Jean's hips are quite a bit worse after all the walking yesterday and the cramped seating in the van and she probably shouldn't have gone but she wanted to see the bridge and to keep Jim company. So, we have been having a quiet day today in the hope that the flight to India won't be too difficult.
The next blog will probably be from Chennai in India so wish us luck...........
Cheers and love from us,
Jim and Jean

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