Myanmar - end of the Death Railway

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Saturday August 1, 2009

The end of Death Railway

By LIZ PRICE

History buffs may be surprised to discover that the Death Railway actually extends to southern Myanmar.

A solitary steam locomotive marked the end of the line. There was no indication of its name or history, and it had a forlorn appearance as it seemed to gaze at the bushes which encroached the rail tracks.
There was nothing else to see, not even a notice board recording the incredible history of the area.

The final resting place of a steam engine on the Death Railway.

Many people who have visited Kanchanaburi in Thailand are familiar with the Death Railway. Mention Bridge over the River Kwai, and it immediately brings to mind some of the atrocities that took place in the construction of the railway. But I wonder how many people realise that the railway extended quite a way into southern Burma (or Myanmar as it is now called)?

Some 65km south of Mawlamyine (formerly Moulmein) is a town called Than Byuzayat. This is as far south as foreign tourists are allowed to go in southern Myanmar, in the Mon state. Few tourists come here, which perhaps explains why little is mentioned in the guide books about this place. The main attraction is the Commonwealth War Cemetery.

Driving from Mawlamyine, you will find there is little traffic on the road and the scenery is blocked by kilometre after kilometre of rubber plantations. You catch the occasional glimpse of pagodas and stupas in the distant hills.

I was quite excited about the prospect of seeing the end of the Death Railway, or the Bloody Railway as our guide Min kept calling it. So I was surprised when we stopped on the outskirts of Than Byuzayat and saw nothing except a lonesome locomotive amongst the trees.

We had a laugh when we saw in front of us an old gate which had no fence adjoining it.
The steam engine faces down the track and is the only relic here. The name plate had been stripped off, but walking around we could see that parts of the engine had been made in the UK, by engineers in London. We walked all round and clambered into the drivers’ compartment.

The locomotive wheels were partly embedded in concrete, possibly to stop people removing it. I was surprised it hadn’t been vandalised for its scrap metal. The tracks were heavily overgrown and soon disappeared in the bushes. However there were a couple of rotting statues, presumably once depicting some of the workers of the line.

The final resting place of a steam engine on the Death Railway.

Than Byuzayat (which means Tin Shelter) was the western terminus of the infamous Burma-Siam Death Railway. During WWII, more than 16,000 Allied prisoners of war (POW) and many more Asian coolies were forced by the Japanese military to construct this railway.

The Japanese had entered Burma by marching over the rugged mountains from Tak in Thailand via the Three Pagodas Pass. The purpose of the railway was to supply a route for the Japanese who hoped to conquer Burma, and then other Asian countries further west.

Construction of the railway began in September 1942 at Than Byuzayat and Non Pladuk in Thailand. Japanese engineers had estimated it would take five years to link the two countries but it was done in 16 months. This was achieved by forcing the thousands of prisoners to work very hard. The length of the 1m gauge line was 415km, two-thirds of which was in Thailand.

Much of the railway was built in very difficult terrain, through deep mountain cuttings and needing high bridges in places. The two ends of the line were linked 37km south of the Three Pagodas Pass and the Japanese were able to use the railway for 20 months before the Allies bombed it in 1945.

An estimated 16,000 POWs died during the construction of the railway. These deaths were due to brutal treatment, hard work and lack of food and medicine. It is unknown how many Asian labourers (from Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia) died during the Japanese occupation. Their numbers could be far higher than the POWs. Some estimates say 90,000–100,000 died.

Many of the Allied prisoners were buried in the War Cemetery at Than Byuzayat. This lies on the west side of town and contains 3,771 graves of Allied POWs who died building the railway.

The cemetery was built and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Maidenhead, England. It is similar to those in Kanchanaburi in Thailand and at Ambon in Maluku, Indonesia. Most of those buried were British.

In this cemetery there are no large trees; just a few frangipani. I found it very moving walking around the place and I had a lump in my throat as I thought about the sad history.

The cemetery in Myanmar where POWs are buried. — LIZ PRICE

The caretaker came over and asked me if I was looking for any particular grave. I said no, so he went on to explain how the cemetery was laid out. The Australian section is on the left, while the centre section is occupied by the British graves. Also in this section are the graves of men from Malaya, Singapore, India etc. To the right is the Dutch area. There’s one row behind the British for the Indian Muslims.

It was interesting to see the differences in memorial stones. Many of the British ones had crosses and the full regiment was listed and most had an epitaph from family or friends. The Dutch ones showed no regiment or rank.

One British epitaph read: “Years go by. Memories remain. This corner of a foreign field is forever England”.
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Getting there

Saturday August 1, 2009

Getting there

Than Byuzayat is 65km south of Mawlamyine in Myanmar and takes about 75 minutes by van. It’s best to go as part of a tour. However, you can go by public pick-up from Mawlamyine central market, these take two hours. You will need to go on a day trip as there is no legal lodging for foreigners, so make sure you catch the last pick-up back to Mawlamyine.

The locomotive and railway are about 1.5 km south of the town centre, and the cemetery is 1km west on the road to Kyaikkami. There is nothing else of interest in the town.

The Death Railway was made famous by Pierre Boulle’s book Bridge Over the River Kwai and then by a film based on the book.
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