"Burma-Siam Death Railway"

Politicians and their historians have a penchant to downplay terrible deeds by giving it harmless moniker such as "incident" or "skirmish." Take for example, what the Japanese did in Nanking. This is called "Incident" in many historical works but nearly 250,000 people died over a period of a month. That is why the more loaded word "Rape of Nanking" is often preferable. In similar veins, my friend David Boggett says that he estimated that building the railway from Ban-Pong to Thanbyuzat amounted to about the same number of death! I do not want to compare it with the naming of other atrocities committed by the Japanese such as the "Baatan Death March" or similar incidents where it was POWs alone who died.

Burma changed its name to Myanmar in 1989; and Siam changed its to Thailand in 1939 but to the folks who were victims of the Death Railway remember it as Burma and Siam. They would say they went to Burma through Siam. In transliteration: "barmAvuKu pOnOm, siAm valiyA"! "Death Railway" is also the epithet the Tamils in Malaya coined for themselves: "marana rayilvE". In any case, that is the way my old folks referred to this mass murder of innocents and I see it is actually fitting that it should be remembered this way.

Hence we call this Japanese great war accomplishment BURMA-SIAM DEATH RAILWAY.
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