Hellfire Pass (other)
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Hellfire Pass (, known by the
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
as ''Konyu Cutting'') is the name of 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 ...
on the former
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 ...
("Death Railway") in
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 ...
, which was built with
forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...
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 ...
. More than 250,000 Southeast Asian civilians and 12,000 Allied
soldiers A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word ...
built the railway line, including Hellfire Pass. The pass is noted for the harsh conditions and heavy loss of life suffered by its labourers during construction. It was called Hellfire Pass because the sight of emaciated prisoners labouring by burning
torch A torch is a stick with combustible material at one end which can be used as a light source or to set something on fire. Torches have been used throughout history and are still used in processions, symbolic and religious events, and in juggl ...
light resembled a scene from
Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...
.


History

Hellfire Pass in the
Tenasserim Hills The Tenasserim Hills or Tenasserim Range (, ; , , ; ) is the geographical name of a roughly 1,700 km long mountain chain, part of the Indo-Malayan mountain system in Southeast Asia. Despite their relatively scant altitude these mo ...
was a particularly difficult section of the line to build, a dramatic cutting some 75 metres long and 25 metres deep. It was the largest rock cutting on the railway, coupled with its general remoteness and the lack of proper construction tools during building. A tunnel would have been possible to build instead of a cutting, but this could only be constructed at the two ends at any one time, whereas the cutting could be constructed at all points simultaneously despite the excess effort required by the prisoners of war (POWs). The Australian, British, Dutch and other allied prisoners of war were required by the Japanese to work 18 hours a day to complete the cutting. Sixty-nine men were beaten to death by Japanese guards in the six weeks it took to build the cutting, and many more died from
cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...
,
dysentery Dysentery ( , ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications may include dehyd ...
,
starvation Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, de ...
, and
exhaustion Exhaust, exhaustive, or exhaustion may refer to: Law *Exhaustion of intellectual property rights, limits to intellectual property rights in patent and copyright law **Exhaustion doctrine, in patent law ** Exhaustion doctrine under U.S. law, in ...
(Wigmore 568). However, the majority of deaths occurred amongst civilian labourers, whom the Japanese enticed to come to help build the line with false promises of good jobs. These labourers, mostly Malayans (
Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...
, Malays and
Tamils The Tamils ( ), also known by their endonym Tamilar, are a Dravidian peoples, Dravidian ethnic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to the southern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Tamil language is o ...
from Malaya), suffered mostly the same as the POWs at the hands of the Japanese. The railway was never built to a level of lasting permanence and was frequently bombed by the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
during the
Burma Campaign The Burma campaign was a series of battles fought in the British colony of British rule in Burma, Burma as part of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II. It primarily involved forces of the Allies of World War II, Allies (mainly from ...
. After the war, all but the present section was closed and the line is now only in service between
Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...
and Nam Tok Sai Yok Noi.


Present day

There are no longer any trains running on this stretch of the line. The nearest railway station is at
Nam Tok Sai Yok Noi Nam Tok Sai Yok Noi (, lit. 'small Sai Yok waterfall') is a small town (''thesaban tambon'') in Sai Yok District, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand, along the route of the Death Railway linking Thailand with Burma. It is named after Sai Yok Noi Wat ...
, where trains of the
State Railway of Thailand The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) (, abbrev. รฟท., ) is the state-owned rail operator under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport (Thailand), Ministry of Transport in Thailand. History The SRT was founded as the Royal State Rail ...
can be taken for a trip over the Wang Pho Viaduct and across the bridge over the River Kwai to
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 ...
, which is the nearest major town and tourist base. Visitors to the site usually base themselves in Kanchanaburi.


Historical preservation and museum

The Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum and the preservation of the Hellfire Pass itself had its origins in 1983, when former POW J.G. (Tom) Morris toured the area in Thailand and resolved to convince the Australian Government that portions of the Thai-Burma Death Railway should be preserved as a historical site. Thanks to his efforts, the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC) was commissioned in 1984 to make a survey of the railway to choose a suitable site. Jim Appleby, a SMEC engineer at the Khao Laem dam site on the upper Kwai Noi, did much of the ground work and passed his reports to the Australian-Thai Chamber of Commerce in 1985. The first dawn service was held at the Hellfire Pass on
Anzac Day Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia, New Zealand and Tonga that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and ...
1990. The museum is co-sponsored by the
Royal Thai Armed Forces The Royal Thai Armed Forces (RTARF; ; ) are the armed forces of the Kingdom of Thailand. The Highest Commander of the Royal Thai Armed Forces (จอมทัพไทย; ) is the King of Thailand. The armed forces are managed by the Minist ...
Development Command and the
Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...
to commemorate the suffering of those involved in the construction of the railway. It was built by the
Office of Australian War Graves The Office of Australian War Graves (OAWG) is a branch within the Australian Government Department of Veterans' Affairs. The branch was initially a stand-alone agency, formed 1 January 1975. In 1980, the ''War Graves Act 1980 (Cth)'' formalised t ...
and opened by the then Prime Minister of Australia,
John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. His eleven-year tenure as prime min ...
. Renovated in 2018, the Hellfire Pass Interpretive Centre provides information and exhibits about the construction of the Death Railway, and the suffering and sacrifices endured during its construction. The museum includes multimedia displays, artifacts, and a memorial to those who lost their lives. As a part of the museum experience, it is possible to walk through the cutting itself and along a section of the former railway track bed. An audio tour, including recorded memories of surviving POWs, is available at the centre.


Recent developments

In 2006, proposals to create a railway network linking eight south-east Asia countries would see a railway link restored between Thailand and Myanmar. It is not clear if this would follow the original
Death 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 b ...
route through Hellfire Pass, since this route was necessarily built quickly and to low standard of curves and gradients.Trans-Asia railway planned

VietNamNet Bridge
.


Hintok

Hintok (also: Hintock) was an area just beyond Hellfire Pass. It was the beginning of the highlands, and the railway line needed a gradual gradient to climb. There were four camps: the river camp, which was subdivided into British, Australian and Tamil camps; and the mountain camp, which housed Australian, British and Dutch prisoners. The mountain camp was commanded by
Weary Dunlop Colonel Sir Ernest Edward "Weary" Dunlop, (12 July 1907 – 2 July 1993) was an Australian Surgery, surgeon who was renowned for his leadership while being held prisoner by the Japanese during the Second World War. Early life and family Dunlo ...
, and had a bamboo fence to protect against tigers. The first prisoners arrived on 26 January 1943 and were tasked to clear the forest and construct the camps. By March 1943, there were 800 prisoners in the camps. Beyond the Hellfire Pass was the Three-Tiered Bridge, a
trestle bridge A trestle bridge is a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by closely spaced frames usually carrying a railroad line. A trestle (sometimes tressel) is a rigid frame used as a support, historically a tripod used to support a st ...
to gain height, followed by another 400-metre-long and 25-metre-high trestle bridge which was later named the Pack of Cards Bridge because it collapsed three times during construction, and was later abandoned in favour of an embankment. On 19 June 1943, there was an outbreak of
cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...
at the Hintok mountain camp, killing 57 Australian prisoners. 31 prisoners died during the Pack of Cards Bridge's collapses, and 29 died from guard brutality. 130 sick prisoners were sent to Tarsao. Construction of the bridges was finished in August 1943. The Three-Tiered Bridge was often photographed after the war, but is now lost in the jungle.


Additional images

File:The Hellfire Pass - panoramio.jpg, Hellfire Pass memorial plaque File:Hellfire Pass - June 2004.jpg, Australian and New Zealand flags left by visitors at the memorial File:HELLFIRE PASS MEMORIAL MUSEUM 70KM FROM KANCHANBURI THAILAND JAN 2013 (8514838137).jpg, The old museum in 2013 File:Hellfire Pass rails.JPG, A portion of rail at the Hellfire Pass File:Trein op de houten spoorbrug bij km. 155 tussen Tampi en Hintoku in de Birma-Siamspoorweg in Siam, KITLV 25518.tiff, Three-Tiered Bridge


References


Further reading

*''The Japanese Thrust — Australia in the War of 1939–1945'', Lionel Wigmore, AWM, Canberra, 1957. *Authenticated Records from Japanese POW camps along the Thai-Burmese railway 1942–45, second floor, Research library, Thai-Burma Railway Centre, Kanchanaburi, Thailand, 2008. *Prisoners of the Japanese - POWs of World War II in the Pacific, Gavan Daws {{authority control 1940s in Thailand Geography of Kanchanaburi province World War II prisoner-of-war camps Japanese war crimes Railway cuttings History of rail transport in Thailand World War II museums Australian military memorials Military and war museums in Thailand Railway museums in Thailand History museums in Thailand Tourist attractions in Kanchanaburi province Buildings and structures in Kanchanaburi province Burma Railway