Time-Line of the Burma-Siam Death Railway

This is a tentative time-line drawn up from the forum of one source. It is naturally not exhaustive but I will continue to add or correct to this database what I dig out of my archives. 

There are gaps in my findings that readers may want to throw some light, for example, we do know that steel girders on the Gemas - Gua Musang railway line was stripped for the Death Railway project but it is uncertain when was this undertaken or to which specific line this iron was used. Or, how was the DR steam engine transported to be restored and displayed in the Yushukan War Museum in Tokyo.

< An image of the Yushukan War Museum, Tokyo.

This initial list was prepared by Train Enthusiasts writing on the forum of www.angkor.com/2bangkok. I am thankful for their effort. 

16 September 1942

·   Start of works on the Burma Line (AKA Death Railway) (Nong Pladuk-Kanchanaburi-Three Pagodas Pass-Thanbyuzayat) by POWs.

February 1943

·   Wooden bridge across the River Kwai completed.

April 1943

·   Steel/concrete bridge across the River Kwai completed.

June 1943

·   Start on works for another Japanese military line from Chumphon to Kraburi and La-Un (Ranong) (standard gauge).

November 1943

·   Chumphon-La-Un Line completed.

25 December 1943

·   Burma Line opened (for Japanese military use only).

09 February 1945

·   Rama VI Bridge destroyed in allied air raid.

13 February 1945

·   Central spans of River Kwai Bridge destroyed in allied air raid.

05 March 1945

·   Thonburi Station destroyed in allied air raid.

19 March 1945

·   Parts of Chumphon-La-Un Line damaged in allied air raid. Other railway infrastructure damaged or destroyed during WWII: Makkasan Railway Plant, Railway Department HQ, Chiang Mai Station, Uttaradit Station, Chulachomklao Bridge across Tapi River at Surat Thani, Paramen Bridge across Nan River at Ban Dara.

1945 (before end of WWII)

·   River Kwai Bridge restored and re-opened.

June 1945

·   Chumphon-La-Un Line partially dismantled (km 28-30) by the Japanese.

14 August 1945

·   Mahachai and Maeklong Railways nationalized.

after August 1945

·   Chumphon-La-Un Line completely dismantled by the British military.

1947-1958

·   Nam Tok-Three Pagodas Pass section of Burma Railway dismantled.

24 June 1949

·   Nong Pladuk-Kanchanaburi section [53 km] of Burma Railway re-opened after track rehabilitation.

01 April 1952

·   Kanchanaburi-Wang Pho section [61 km] of Burma Railway re-opened.

01 July 1958

·   Wang Pho-Nam Tok section of Burma Railway re-opened.

16 June 1963

·   Nong Pladuk-Suphanburi branch line [78 km] opened (from leftovers of the Death Railway; originally intended to reach Lopburi, but never completed).

2003 / e2004

·   Short extension of the Burma Line: section between Nam Tok and Nam Tok Sai Yok Noi [1.4 km] re-opened. (for tourism purposes)

"the Asian story"

What is the "Burma-Siam Death Railway"? It is a half forgotten Japanese Military project to build a railway connecting Siam and Burma so that troops could be mobilised to attack British India at its eastern frontier. The use of Asians as slaves was mandated by the high command of the Imperial Army which naturally had a high toll in human life. The post-War British propaganda machinery sought to downplay this atrocity for which there is evidence to point to Winston Churchill's War Cabinet. It is inexplicable to me how far reaching an effect this had had, that even today this wholesale slaughter of people has no official designation. Hence, I call it the Burma-Siam Death Railway.

Thailand has found the artefacts left behind not a grim reminder of an atrocity but a sanitised happy tourist destination. Even so, you may go to Kanchanaburi and travel up to the border Chiang Rai and look at the remnants. And if you do, say a prayer for the Asians, especially the Indians of Malaya who perished there.

This wall and relief was set up for tourists ...

Below is a "changkul" or hoe that was found and kept at the Kanchanaburi Museum

The BSDR is not an official name in any official classification. In fact, the BSDR is not classified as an event for academic research at all such as the "Bataan Death March" or the "Rape of Nanking". As a result, BSDR is always presented as an issue in Japanese atrocities against POWs, or an issue in labour mobilization, or as an achievement in Japanese war-time ingenuity. 

We cannot blame them because the Asians who were victims of the BSDR never really took ownership of this tragedy. 

For long I mulled over how to present my material and was overwhelmed at how nuanced it can become. So I am giving a basic outline of the event called "Burma-Siam Death Railway" today and then let my readers speak up on the evidences I am going to place here, somewhat randomly. I am sorry this is not a history book style organized work. 

Between 1942-1943, the Japanese Imperial Army decided and built an estimated 415 kilometres of railway from Ban Pong in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat in Burma. Built over extremely hostile terrain and disease ridden tropical jungle it was a feat of engineering and architecture. But an accomplishment at an amazing cost to human life – 13,000 prisoners of war, and 100,000 conscripted labour from various Asian communities then resident in British Malaya - Malays, Javanese, Chinese, and especially Indians who had migrated to Malaya and Burma. 

The Japanese call this railway “taimen”, meaning the Great Railway. and celebrated their achievement by commemorating a monument and even issued a coinage. The PoWs and Japanese soldiers and their Korean guards have been numbered and named by the various warring nations of World War 2, but the “romusha” as the Japanese called the Asian slaves, have been largely relegated to a few reluctant footnotes in the history books.

So severely marginalized were the Asian slaves, that none of their nations which achieved independence thereafter from their colonial masters even bothered to conduct an official inquiry. Thanks to post-War Japanese diplomacy and the British and their Allied nations’ reluctance to share compensation with Asian survivors; not to mention the clever propaganda campaigns to make Britain look good after the war, nations like Indonesia and Malaysia even adopted a policy not to inquire at all.

Commendably, much has been written of the PoWs who carry the motto “lest we forget” but the souls of the Asian slaves – Indonesian Javanese and Sumatrans; Malayan Tamils, Malays and Chinese; and Burmese tribals will not rest in peace until there is a closure. The lost will not return and their wounds will not heal until the world hears their story.

This site is dedicated to the Asian slaves who died on the Burma Siam Death Railway.