Death Railway

The railway between Thailand and Burma was built during World War II by European, Australian and many other prisoners of war as well as many Asian laborers who were promised "good jobs." The 415 kilometer (258 mile) line was built between 1942 and 1943 and cost the lives of over 100,000 people.

We visited the bridge over the River Kwai as well as a well-known portion of the railway known as the Hellfire Pass. Seeing the extremely deep, solid rock cutting done by hand gave me an appreciation for the hard labor and perseverance of the many who worked on this line.

One of the many interesting sections of the JEATH Museum discussed how the POWs tried to discretely sabotage the construction of the railway. White ant nests were planted on the wooden posts of the bridges so that nature would do its work and the ants would eat away at the posts until they collapsed.