Looking back at the brutal war atrocities of the Japanese army in history, the inhumane abuse and persecution of prisoners of war is definitely a topic that cannot be escaped. During World War II, the Japanese army used cruel means to persecute soldiers and civilians captured in the war in various parts of Asia, and the cruelty of the means was rare in the world.
In Thailand, Southeast Asia, there is such a railway, and his construction is composed of the lives and blood and sweat of countless prisoners of war. Every part of this railway left behind the crimes of the Japanese army in dealing with prisoners of war, and it was the Thai-Burma railway that made countless people angry and sad.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, the birth of the "path of sin"</h1>
After the success of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Japanese headquarters decided to officially march to Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and after fierce battles with the Allies, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Burma and other countries in Southeast Asia became vassals of the Japanese army, and hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers became prisoners of war of the Japanese army and lived a miserable life of no day.
In June 1942, the Allies dealt a devastating blow to the Japanese at the Battle of Midway, and the situation in Southeast Asia was in a predicament for a time. Unwilling to accept defeat, the Japanese army decided to build a war railway connecting Thailand and Burma in order to strengthen military control over the original area and curb the strategic pressure of the Allies on themselves. According to the route plan, the railway needs to pass through the dense mountainous areas of the two countries, and the construction and technical requirements are very complex and ambitious. In order to speed up the construction process and the cost of money, the Japanese army decided to build using the previous exploration route and design scheme of the British.
According to the Japanese army's vision, the Thai-Burma Railway began in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand, passed 304 kilometers into Burma, and finally ended in Dambuyaya, Muang State, Myanmar, with a total length of 415 kilometers. In order to speed up the construction process, the Japanese army, despite the harshness and difficulty of the natural environment, demanded that the railway be completed within 18 months. The materials used to build the railway were assembled from railway parts that the Japanese had demolished from other areas. After solving the problem of construction materials, the search for construction personnel became the next goal of the Japanese army, but the Japanese army at this time had already "made up their minds", and those captured Allied soldiers and local civilians were not the best workers?
So the Japanese decided to use these innocent prisoners of war and civilians as workers and forced them to build this "evil road" for them. According to statistics, a total of 360,000 Allied prisoners of war and civilians were victimized. In order to prevent them from passively slacking off and escaping, the Japanese army decided to send a group of murderous Kwantung Military Overseers from the Far East Battlefield to take care of them. For prisoners of war, this bloody and brutal "road to death" officially kicked off its evils in June 1942.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > two, the "road to sin" built with white bones </h1>
During the construction of the Thai-Burmese railway, it was divided into three sections, starting from both the starting and finishing sides of the construction at the same time, and the Japanese army falsely claimed to have good food, lodging and money when recruiting local laborers. Some deceived local people even took their families to report to the construction site, and as a result, they became slaves of the Japanese army. The handling of prisoners of war is much simpler: prisoners of war in Singapore are transported to the site by train, the train transporting prisoners of war is an 8-meter-long stuffy tanker, every 30 people are stuffed in a group, even sleeping, sometimes for more than 40 hours without food supply; while in Java and Malaya and other places, prisoners of war, by water, to Thailand or Burma, the cabins of the boats they take are small and crowded, and the prisoners of war can only move in less than 1 meter high, many people can not even stand up straight. The harsh sea conditions and the accidental bombing of the Allies caused many prisoners of war to die at sea.
Upon arrival at the construction site, prisoners of war and laborers were sent to thatched "barracks", each of which would have 200 people living there. There were no sanitary and living facilities, the environment was very bad, each person had a range of only two feet wide for sleeping, and the rest was almost zero.
In order to prevent prisoners of war and laborers from escaping, the Japanese army forced these people not to wear anything but a fig leaf. In the deserted mountainous regions of Thailand and Burma, prisoners of war and laborers braved the scorching sun to build railways, working sixteen or seventeen hours a day without dignity. According to Harold Hatchley, a surviving British veteran, "We had to work 14 to 18 hours a day, get up in the dark every day, and come back in the dark. Every day when we come back and recount, we find that the number is decreasing, because almost every day people die there."
When prisoners of war were ill and could not continue their work, the Japanese army did not treat them at all, but casually threw them aside and let them die. In the hot and humid environment, prisoners of war and laborers who lacked the necessary supplies of life contracted malaria, and coupled with mosquito bites and wild animal attacks, the number of deaths began to gradually increase. Some people later recalled that due to the excessive number of deaths, prisoners of war even spontaneously set up cremation teams to dispose of the bodies themselves. The Japanese ignored this, because in their view it was not worth mentioning at all.
In terms of diet, prisoners of war and laborers are also unbearable to look at: there are only wild vegetables and porridge every day, and if the hidden food is discovered by the Japanese army, then the consequence is only death. Therefore, in order to survive, the PRISONERs of war would even eat anything edible, including rats, spiders, beetles, lizards, and so on. As Harold Hasheli said, "In order to be able to live, as long as we are four-legged, we eat everything." Because surviving every day is a question, if you miss a meal, you basically have no chance of surviving. "
For prisoners of war and laborers who do not follow the "rules", the Japanese army treats them endlessly, beaten and mistreated, and even directly shoots or beheads these people. In the spring of 1943, seeing that the direction of the war was becoming more and more unfavorable to Japan, the Japanese army decided to advance the completion time to August of that year. The situation of laborers and prisoners of war began to become more and more dangerous, and many people were exhausted by more than 20 hours of labor a day, especially when the construction of the "Hellfire Passage", the most difficult railway, was first carved out with iron shovels and hammers, and then blasted with explosives. Every night, the prisoners of war continue to open mountains and split stones with torches and oil lamps, and the dim light intersects with people's figures, and the scene is like a purgatory on earth, which is the origin of "hellfire".
On October 23, 1943, this "war road" paved with the blood and bones of prisoners of war and migrant workers was finally completed and opened to traffic. The Japanese army is expected to transport nearly 3,000 tons of various strategic materials to the Burmese battlefield every day through this railway, which will play a key role in the future direction of Japan's war. Behind this figure, tens of thousands of prisoners of war and laborers were killed, according to post-war statistics, a total of 16,000 prisoners of war and 90,000 laborers lost their lives, and every kilometer of the railway had to be paid for 250 innocent lives. Therefore, later generations of people named this railway "Death Railway".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Third, the real "River Kwai Bridge"</h1>
The reason why the Thai-Burma Railway has attracted so much attention is largely because of a Hollywood screen masterpiece "The Bridge on the River Kwai". In 1954, Pierre Buller, a French prisoner of war who had been one of the builders, created a reportage called "Blood Splash on the Bridge of the River Kwai", which caused a huge sensation when it was published, selling millions of copies. Three years later, the British Oriental Pictures Company put this book on the screen, and the film starring William Horton and Alex Guinness became a hit, earning a good result of $27.2 million at the Hollywood box office that year, and won 7 awards including Best Picture and Best Actor at the 1957 Academy Awards, becoming a classic legend in the history of cinema.
In real history, the 322-meter-long bridge, which was destroyed by Allied bombing in April 1945, is now rebuilt by Japan after the war as a war reparation against Thailand. Today's River Kwai Bridge has long ceased to be the blood and war of the past, and has become a very famous local tourist attraction, and the local people also rely on this old bridge to provide themselves with considerable income. Only the two huge bomb models at the head of the bridge are still quietly telling people about the bloody rain and wind of the bridge.
After Japan announced its unconditional surrender, the Allies took back the right to use and manage the Thai-Burma Railway, and sold the 304-kilometer railway in Thailand to the Thai government for 50 million baht at that time. Railways in Myanmar have been completely abandoned due to disrepair, and under the restoration and protection of the Thai government, the existing 50 km of railways have been used for tourism.
Not far from the bridge, a war cemetery and a history museum have also been built. The tombstones of 6,982 dead Allied prisoners of war in the cemetery silently indict the atrocities committed by the Japanese army, while the museum displays historical pictures of the construction of the River Kwai Bridge and the Thai-Burma Railway, and the history of the past is so real and heavy in front of the eyes of the world. This tragic scene will forever remain in the hearts of every peace-loving people.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
As one of the most emblematic events of World War II, the "Death Railway" brought to the world in addition to the brutality of the Japanese army and the tragic encounter of prisoners of war. More of a reflection on human nature and conscience, once bloody historical facts, teach us how precious peace is at all times.
When a country and a people have the most basic conscience, the country and nation will always be a nation worthy of respect and admiration; on the contrary, when a country and people lose their original humanity and conscience, then what awaits them can only be the scorn and ridicule of the world.
Resources
1. The Thai-Burmese Railway in History
2. The Bridge over the River Kwai
3. The Value of Freedom: The Hellish Death Railway