Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE DEATH RAILWAY
When Japan seized control of Burma in 1942, the supplies and troops needed to maintain
their forces had to be shipped here by sea. The battles of the Coral Sea and Midway that
spring reduced Japanese naval strength, and the long voyage to Burma was judged to leave
the precious fleet vulnerable. An alternative was required, and the
Burma-Siam railway
- a route previously surveyed by the British government of Burma in the 1880s - was re-
vived. In July 1942 construction started simultaneously from in Thailand and Thanbyuza-
yat in Burma.
The Japanese aimed to complete the 420km-long railway in just fourteen months, despite
the difficulties posed by the mountainous, jungle-covered terrain. It is estimated that
60,000 Allied POWs and 180,000
rōmusha
(Asian civilian labourers, primarily from In-
donesia) worked on the project, hacking through the Tenasserim Hills with primitive tools.
By the time the railway was completed in October 1943, 12,399 POWs and around 90,000
rōmusha
had died from maltreatment, sickness and starvation.
In the end, the railway was in operation for just over twenty months before an Allied
bombingraidputitoutofaction.A130km-longstretchisstillinuseinThailand,butinside
Myanmar the tracks have been slowly reclaimed by the rainforest. The Myanmar govern-
ment periodically announces plans to rebuild the railway, but as yet, none has been able to
move beyond the drawing table.
Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery
Daily during daylight hours • Free
The neat
Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery
, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves
Commission, is a moving memorial to the Death Railway. A kilometre west of the clock-
tower, the cemetery contains the graves of four thousand Commonwealth and Dutch soldiers
who died during the construction of the railway and in air raids after its completion. Bronze
plaques, often with heart-breaking inscriptions from bereaved mothers and wives, mark each
grave.
Kyaikkami
Some 24km northwest of Thanbyuzayat, the tidy little coastal town of
KYAIKKAMI
juts
into the murky waters of the Gulf of Mottama. The British annexed the town after the First
Anglo-Burmese War, renaming it
Amherst
, and it became a popular seaside resort for Maw-
lamyine's expatriate and Anglo-Burmese community.
Yele Paya
Open daily • Free
