"The Burma Railway, also known also as the Death Railway, the Thailand-Burma Railway and similar names, is a 415 km (258 mile) railway between Bangkok, Thailand and Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar), built by the Empire of Japan during World War II, to support its forces in the Burma campaign. Forced labour was used in its construction. About 60,000 Asian labourers and 100,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) worked on the railway. Of these, around 9,000 Asian labourers and 16,000 Allied POWs died as a direct result of the project."
"The most famous portion of the railway is probably Bridge 277 over the Khwae Yai River (The river was originally known as the Mae Klong and was renamed Khwae Yai in 1960.) It was immortalized by Pierre Boulle in his book and the film based on it: The Bridge on the River Kwai. However, there are many who say that the movie is utterly unrealistic and does not show what the conditions and treatment of prisoners was really like."
"The living and working conditions on the railway were horrific. The estimated total number of civilian labourers and POWs who died during construction is about 160,000. About 25% of the POW workers died because of overwork, malnutrition, and diseases like cholera, malaria, and dysentery. The death rate of the Asian civilian workers was even higher; the number who died is unknown, as the Japanese did not count them."
The river was actually quite beautiful and went spent the day there wondering the bridge and area, went to a museum, ate on a restaurant over the river, and visited a POW cemetery. It was surreal to stand on the bridge an realize how many people had died due to its construction a mere 60 years ago. Apparently, there were a few instances when the allies attempted to bomb the bridge. To prevent them the Japanese had POWs strung across the bridge but often they could not be seen and were destroyed along with the bridge.
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