What were the atrocities on the Burma Railway?

Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and other forced laborers from the region built the railroad. Estimates say that nearly 300,000 people were forced to work on the railroad. Brutal treatment and disease resulted in thousands of deaths. As a result, the railway earned the nickname Death Railway.



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Australian prisoners of war: Second World War In all, 9,500 Australian prisoners of war worked on the construction of the Burma-Thailand Railway, which ran from Bampong, Thailand, to Thanbyuzayat, Burma . Building commenced at each end of the railway. Altogether, 2,815 Australians died working on the railway.

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Between June 1946 and July 1947 a total of 111 Japanese and Korean soldiers were convicted for crimes on the Burma-Thailand railway in Singapore. Death sentences were given to 32 of these men. Among those tried were some of the most feared men on the railway.

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Located in central Tennessee, Camp Crossville developed a reputation as one of the three worst POW camps in the United States during World War II. The first group of prisoners arrived on November 28, 1942.

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Legacy. The railway was completed in October 1943. The Japanese were able to use it to supply their troops in Burma despite the repeated destruction of bridges by Allied bombing. More than 90,000 Asian civilians died on the railway, as well as 16,000 POWs, of whom about 2800 were Australian.

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