1/11/08

The bridge of the River Kwai

We arrived this afternoon and as it was an organised tour were given 20mins to look round the war musuem and 20mins over at the rail bridge.

The museum itself was very moving. As the Japanese moved into Thailand during the 2nd world war, they took over Kanchanburi. They then initiated and supervised the prisoner of war labour in 1943 to build the bridge over the river Kwai (Death Railway) to link Thailand with Burma. It was estimated that about 30,000 prisoners of war were British amongst even more Dutch, Asians, Indians, Australians and some Americans. The POW were made to work over 18hrs a day with no rest periods. This coupled with the poor sanitation and prevelant threat of disease (chlorea and malaria) meant that many died. The bridge was a target for frequent allied bombing raids. Two B-52 bombs were dropped on the bridge folowing its completion when many of the POWs had been made to cross the bridge as a celebration of its finish.

Having looked round the museum, we walked on to look at the rebuild bridge and take a few snap shots of it. It was very sad to imaginbe what must have gone on here.

We returned to the minibus for our onward travel to the Tiger Temple.