Cemeteries of the Burma-Thailand Railway

By the end of World War 2, over twelve thousand Australian, British and Dutch POWs had died while working on the Burma-Thailand Railway with the vast majority of deaths occurring during the construction phase in 1942 and 1943.

Dysentery, malaria, cholera and beri-beri (all treatable if access was available to proper foods and basic medicines but wasn’t) were the greater cause of the deaths with other forms such as exhaustion, the harsh treatment by the Japanese and in some cases, friendly fire from the aerial bombardment of the railway.

Along the railway, many camps were established to house the POWs as construction advanced. Inevitably as the death toll rose, cemeteries were cut from the jungle. Some camps had less than a handful of graves but others such as the hospital camps, had as many as several hundred.

After the war, the priority was to find the living and have them repatriated back to their country. Once completed, the next was to retrieve the remains from the graves at cemeteries along the length of the railway.

A small group of military personnel known as the War Graves Registration Unit (WGRU) played a vital role in locating the cemeteries and the recovery of the remains. This group was ably assisted by over twenty ex POWs who provided important on site details as to the location of the cemeteries. This was no small feat as by this time, some three years after the railway construction was completed, many cemeteries had been consumed by the jungle and their exact location was difficult.

Despite this, the WGRU made a magnificent effort and was able to locate every cemetery and with this came the recovery and identification of the remains of the POWs.

The Burma-Thailand Railway was not in a good condition due to the bombing and construction methods used to hasten its opening. After the war, there was much debate in relation to whether the railway would remain opened for general use. In the end, it was decided to close the railway once the remains of the POWs had been recovered and moved to their final resting place.

While the recovery was taking place, it was decided that the cemetery at Chungkai (on the River Kwai near Kanchanaburi and originally a hospital camp for the POWs during the War) was too small. An area beside the Chinese Cemetery at Don Rak at Kanchanaburi, close to the Bridge on the River Kwai, was chosen to be the final resting place for those recovered on the Thailand side on the railway. Except for the Australian POWs, those buried at Chungkai were to remain there. At the request of the Australian Government, all Australian POWs from Thailand, were to be reburied at Don Rak.

Meanwhile, another area was chosen at Thanbyuzayat in Myanmar (Burma) at the northern end of the Burma-Thailand Railway for the POWs who had died in Burma. In all, three cemeteries were to make up the final resting places of those who had died on the Burma-Thailand Railway.

There are 1,739 British and Dutch POWs buried at Chungkai, 6,980 Australian, British and Dutch POWs at Don Rak (Kanchanaburi) and 3,770 Australian and British POWs at Thanbyuzayat.

Chungkai War Cemetery (Thailand)