Chungkai War Cemetery, also known as Chung Kai War Cemetery, is a war cemetery in Tha Ma Kham near

Kanchanaburi Kanchanaburi (, ) is a town municipality ('' thesaban mueang'') in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. The town of lies to the southeast of Erawan National Park within Kanchanaburi Province, approximately 120km west of Bangkok. In 2006 it had a po ...

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. Established in the 1950s, the cemetery hosts the graves of 1,426 British and 313 Dutch prisoners of war who died during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It was originally a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

camp on the

Burma Railway The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam–Burma Railway, Thai–Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a railway between Ban Pong, Thailand, and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). It was built from 1940 to 1943 ...

Description

The cemetery at Chungkai hosts the graves of 1,426 British and 313 Dutch servicemen who died during World War II. The majority of the interred died building the sections of the nearby

. The cemetery is built on the site of a prisoner of war camp used by the Japanese army to house Allied POWs during the conflict. In 1946, it was decided to re-bury the Burma Railway deaths which were buried in many graveyards along the line in three large cemeteries. The current Chungkai cemetery is an extension of the existing camp cemetery. American POWs were repatriated back to the United States. The status of the Australian soldiers is unclear. One source describes Australians being buried at the cemetery, while another states no Australians are buried there. or that it only contains several non-military Australian prisoners. The cemetery was designed by

Colin St Clair Oakes Colin St Clair Oakes MBE ARIBA (23 May 1908 – 12 December 1971) was a British architect. He was a Principal Architect for the Imperial War Graves Commission (now Commonwealth War Graves Commission) responsible for many of the war cemeteries an ...

Camp Chungkai

Chungkai (also: Thai No.2 Camp) was founded as a prisoner of war work camp. It was located 57 kilometres from the beginning of the line, at the edge of the jungle near the

Mae Klong River The Mae Klong (, , ), sometimes spelled Meklong, is a river in western Thailand. The river begins in Kanchanaburi Province and flows across Ratchaburi Province and Samut Songkhram Province. Course The origin of the river is in Kanchanaburi to ...

. The first prisoners arrived in October 1942, and were tasked to work on the

bridges A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somet ...

Tamarkan Tamarkan (also: ''Tha Makhan'') was a Japanese prisoner of war work camp during World War II. The camp was initially used for the construction of the bridge over the Khwae Yai or Mae Klong River and not the River Kwai. The camp was located about ...

and the section up to Wun Lun, at kilometre 68. One of the tasks was the Chungkai cutting, a

railway cutting Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

through solid rock. In November 1942, a hospital was constructed at Chungkai. Chungkai was considered one of the best camps with sufficient food. The camp and hospital closed in June 1945. The hospital had treated 19,975 patients during its existence.

References

External links

List of British POWs buried at Chungkai
at Commonwealth War Graves
List of Dutch POWs buried at Chungkai
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128184542/https://oorlogsgravenstichting.nl/begraafplaats/1166/chungkai-war-cemetery , date=2022-01-28 at Oorlogsgraven Stichting (in Dutch) Burma Railway Kanchanaburi Buildings and structures in Kanchanaburi province Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Thailand World War II cemeteries Cemeteries in Thailand

Description

Camp Chungkai

See also

References

External links