When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, just two hours ago, an attack on the Malay Peninsula took place on the morning of 7th of December, 1941. By mid February, 1942, Singapore had fallen in the hands of the Japanese, the greatest disaster in British history, with almost 90,000 troops surrendering to the Japanese. The date was 15th of February, 1942. The Japanese commander Tomoyuki Yamashita promised to keep the prisoner in a safe manner. But the Japanese had something else in mind, which caught the surrendered troops unaware.
After their surrender, the Japs first marched the POW s, & kept them in Changi prison barracks, which had a capacity of only 800 men, where 90,000 prisoners where housed. Diseases spread. Starvation was common. Tortures of the most brutal type existed, in which case, the Japs ordered the torture of many commonwealth troops in this camp.
After a few months, the POW s were asked to move to what the Japanese called a holiday camp, where they were supposedly getting good stay, good food, medicines, etc. For that, many were first selected out of groups. Then, they were pushed into freight carriages, in which they had to travel for 5 days, without light, water, food, proper sanitation, they were almost treated like a worthless cargo, to a Japanese camp at Ban Pong. This is where the reversals started.
In Ban Pong, it is said that the camp was under two feet of water. Conditions were hard. Diseases spread like epidemics. Many never survived in the camp. After a few days, the POW s were moved into the jungles of Thailand, on what was called the death march. Here, many people were already tired, exhausted, starved, diseased, infected. Those who fell down on the march, were left to their deaths in these dense and unforgiving jungles of Thailand. Escape was out of the question, as they had to cross a hundred kilometers of jungle, before reaching the sea, then swimming 1,400 km till the Indian subcontinent, the last surviving safe haven for the allied forces in the southeast, or to nearby Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). This was an impossible task, considering the state of the POW s. After the Death march across these jungles, they would reach their working sites. To begin with, they were first tasked to build both their captor's lodgings, as well as theirs. After that, it was work all day long, till the evening.
Food was meager, conditions were appalling. Many died again in these camps. The others starved. During this time, they worked under impossible conditions, built one of the most impossible lines, sabotaged as much as possible, and faced inhuman tortures for doing so. Tortures were of many types, from putting people in a asbestos shed, also known as an oven, to cutting of body parts. During this time, the POW s devised many different ways on tackling many different situations, like the use of bamboo in making medical instruments, eating whatever vegetation they could find as edible, and many more.
After the surrender of Japan, the railway went to ruins, with only a small section of the railway still being used by the Thai population. Out of an estimated 330,000 people working on the line, 90,00 laborers & about 16,000 allied POW s died. Their battle was not about fighting the enemy, but surviving the worst conditions possible for them, and sabotaging wherever possible. The war for them was a suffering in one of the most inhuman projects ever constructed till date. Though, the railway was a mere 415km long, it was still made by people who sacrificed their lives, not only for building the railway, but also to protect their very own country to which they belonged to at every kilometer of that railway.
After their surrender, the Japs first marched the POW s, & kept them in Changi prison barracks, which had a capacity of only 800 men, where 90,000 prisoners where housed. Diseases spread. Starvation was common. Tortures of the most brutal type existed, in which case, the Japs ordered the torture of many commonwealth troops in this camp.
After a few months, the POW s were asked to move to what the Japanese called a holiday camp, where they were supposedly getting good stay, good food, medicines, etc. For that, many were first selected out of groups. Then, they were pushed into freight carriages, in which they had to travel for 5 days, without light, water, food, proper sanitation, they were almost treated like a worthless cargo, to a Japanese camp at Ban Pong. This is where the reversals started.
In Ban Pong, it is said that the camp was under two feet of water. Conditions were hard. Diseases spread like epidemics. Many never survived in the camp. After a few days, the POW s were moved into the jungles of Thailand, on what was called the death march. Here, many people were already tired, exhausted, starved, diseased, infected. Those who fell down on the march, were left to their deaths in these dense and unforgiving jungles of Thailand. Escape was out of the question, as they had to cross a hundred kilometers of jungle, before reaching the sea, then swimming 1,400 km till the Indian subcontinent, the last surviving safe haven for the allied forces in the southeast, or to nearby Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). This was an impossible task, considering the state of the POW s. After the Death march across these jungles, they would reach their working sites. To begin with, they were first tasked to build both their captor's lodgings, as well as theirs. After that, it was work all day long, till the evening.
Food was meager, conditions were appalling. Many died again in these camps. The others starved. During this time, they worked under impossible conditions, built one of the most impossible lines, sabotaged as much as possible, and faced inhuman tortures for doing so. Tortures were of many types, from putting people in a asbestos shed, also known as an oven, to cutting of body parts. During this time, the POW s devised many different ways on tackling many different situations, like the use of bamboo in making medical instruments, eating whatever vegetation they could find as edible, and many more.
The most difficult section was hell fire pass. Its name was so called because of the sight of emaciated prisoners laboring at night by torchlight, hence the name. It is said that a tunnel was to be made through this section, but could only be constructed at the two ends at any one time. Hence the pass. 69 people were beaten to death in the six weeks of the construction of the pass. Many more died due to disease. The estimated figure is set at 568. The most famous section of the railway is the bridge 277, which was built over a stretch of river, which was known as part of the Mae Klong river. The bridge has been immortalized in the movie 'The Bridge On The River Kwai'. The line was completed by October 17th , 1943, when the two sections met 18km south of the three pagodas. Most of the POW s were then sent to Japan. Some remained to maintain the railway, thereby continuing with suffering as they earlier did while constructing the railway. They were also subjected to allied bombings on the railway, where many died because of the bombings by their own comrades.
During the construction of the railway, many locals were hired to build it, coming from different nationalities, from India, Malaya, Siam, Ceylon, Korea, etc., across the southeast, working side by side with the POW s. They were put in by the promise of money and a good life, which they never got. Instead, most of the inhuman crimes committed on the POW s were also committed on them. Many of them died in the same circumstances as that of the POW s. When the railway was being built, the Japanese troops also suffered a lot, due to few supplies in the treacherous jungles.
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