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Death Railway Interest Group; The Tomb of 10,000 Souls Wat Thavorn Wararam; The Prisoner List. Short online film about prisoners of the Japanese during World War II based on the book by Richard Kandler; Burma railway trip report 2012; Captive Audiences/Captive Performers: Music and Theatre as Strategies for Survival on the Thailand-Burma ...
The Japanese Thrust — Australia in the War of 1939–1945, Lionel Wigmore, AWM, Canberra, 1957. Authenticated Records from Japanese POW camps along the Thai-Burmese railway 1942–45, second floor, Research library, Thai-Burma Railway Centre, Kanchanaburi, Thailand, 2008. Prisoners of the Japanese - POWs of World War II in the Pacific, Gavan Daws
About 60,000 prisoners of war of Allied Forces guided by 12,000 Japanese engineers, began the work of laying the railway line for about 415 km. After a few weeks, the Japanese army realized it needed millions of people to complete the project.
The Burma-Siam railway, built by Commonwealth, Dutch and American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project driven by the need for improved communications to support the large Japanese army in Burma. During its construction, 12,619 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. [4]
The Japanese considered it the best-run prisoner-of-war camp on the railway and gave him considerable autonomy. In December 1943 Toosey was transferred to help run Camp Nong Pladuk, and in December 1944 he was moved to the allied officers' camp at Kanchanaburi where he was the liaison officer with the Japanese.
There were originally six huts, a cook house with Chinese, British and Dutch canteens, a bamboo church, Japanese quarters and a guardroom. [6] The camp was originally built to house 2,000 prisoners, but was gradually enlarged for 8,000 prisoners. [7] On 16 September 1942, railway construction started at both ends of the planned line. [3]
The prisoners were tasked to create a 15 kilometre stretch of railroad including a wooden bridge over the Songkalia River (Huai Ro Khi). [5] [6] The prisoners were forced to work, under harsh conditions, on the construction of the Burma Railway. They suffered extreme hardship from poor rations, disease and brutal treatment.
He spent 3 years and 8 months as a Japanese Prisoner of War, [2] the majority of this on the infamous "railway of death" in Thailand. Saved from virtually certain death by the timely dropping of the Atom Bomb on Japan , which led to the almost immediate unconditional surrender of the Japanese .