The Thailand-Burma Railway

The Thailand-Burma Railway

Australian prisoner of wars

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Where the camp is located (map)

How many Australian soldiers were imprisoned there

How soldiers came to be captured and sent to the camp

What were the conditions like (include visual images)

How the POWs were treated by the Japanese

What did the soldiers have to do while they were imprisoned there

The Thailand-Burma Railway is a 415-kilometre railway between Thailand and southern Burma.

Japanese had taken Singapore by February 15. It captured 130,000 Allied personnel, including 15,000 Australian soldiers. Meanwhile, the Japanese had defeated the Australian units in Java, New Britain, Timor and Ambon. This brought the total number of Australian prisoners to 22,000.

Java was where the second largest group of Australians were captured. Troops from the 7th Division embarked on the HMT Orcades arriving at Batavia from the Middle East in early 1942 in a last-minute effort in defending the Netherlands East Indies from Japanese Attack. This is where many ended up getting captured. Most of the Australian prisoners were from the Australian Army - about 21,000, 354 from the Royal Australian Navy and 373 from the Royal Australian Air Force.

The construction of the Thailand-Burma Railways began in October 1942 and used a force of some 60,000 Allied prisoners of war and 200,000 Asian civilian labourers to build it up. Men were usually given a daily quota of work. The prisoners left the camp at dawn and returned at night, never seeing the camp in daylight. Konyu Cutting was a part of the railway track which lit on fire while the prisoners were at work. This accident gave the place its name - Hellfire Pass. Th death toll was very high with more than 2,800 prisoners losing their lives. Conditions faced by the prisoners were very harsh. They had meagre food rations, disease and vicious treatment by Japanese and Korean guards. They often received beatings, with severe punishments for any defiant behaviour.

The construction was extremely difficult towards the prisoners. The route of the railway crossed through thick, mosquito-infested jungle and uneven terrain while monsoon conditions were at its fullest. The rivers and canyons they had to pass through had to be bridged and sections of mountains had to be cut away to create a bed that was straight and levelled to accommodate the track.

the Japanese wanted the railway completed as quickly as possible, and every working unit consisted of massive numbers of prisoners. All Allied POWs experienced inhumane treatment and endured torture by Japanese forces. There work was filled with long days of harsh labour and consecutively injured by physical abuse. Additionally, they were provided with grossly inadequate food. These cruelty was also topped by unsanitary conditions with the tropical environment which meant that diseases such as cholera and malaria were very common.