Bridge on the River Kwai
ByDense jungle closed in our the railway carriage. On either side, fast growing creepers had enveloped the tall trees and even colonised the hanging lianas forming an impenetrable wall of green with the low growing broad leaved ferns and wild banana plants. Suddenly, as the train rattled along the jungle gave way to a sheer, bare rock face, inches from the carriage window. From the other window the view plummeted down to the swirling brown waters of the river Kwai sweeping through jungle clad mountains, which looked in the distance like moss covered boulders. We were travelling on the infamous Death Railway. This section was a massive wooden trestle buttressed against a mountain cliff on a bend in the river.
The railway was built by the Japanese Army in 1942 and 1943 to take war materials from the harbours of Thailand up through the jungles of Burma to fight the British forces defending Burma and India. During its construction over 100,000 men died of tropical diseases, malnutrition, exhaustion and mistreatment, hence the title ‘Death Railway’. Most were local men conscripted by the Japanese from the territories they occupied, whilst 16,000 were prisoners of war from Britain, Australia, Holland and America.
As we left the mountains the jungle had been cleared from the lower land. We passed through fields and villages, stopping at small wooden stations to pick up more passengers. Vendors waddled through the moving train selling barbecued chicken, fish on sticks, cakes and doughnuts. We joined the local Thais and snacked as we leaned out of the open windows waving to children leading an elephant through a village.
A shrill train whistle warned of our approach to the Bridge on the River Kwai, made famous by David Lean’s epic 1957 film. Unlike the film the modern bridge is steel, but there was a parallel wooden bridge during the war. Both were bombed and put out of action by the Royal Australian Air Force. The story of the horrific building of the railway and the bridge is well told in a factual and balanced way in the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre museum in Kanchanaburi.
The museum overlooks the Allied War Cemetery where 7,000 of the Allied soldiers who died building the railway are buried. We spent a morning paying our respects. The graves are immaculately kept with some bearing a memorial phrase from the families of the departed man. Most were between twenty and thirty years old when they died. Interestingly the remains of the American servicemen who died building the railway were returned to America after the war.
The bridge and the railway are of course an important and well used local asset. It also brings in many curious visitors who want to see the bridge and ride on the railway and this has boosted the tourist industry of Kanchanburi town.
