After the railway was hurried to completion in 13 months' time, it was
announced by the Japanese that a total of about 50,000 lives had been lost in
the construction work, including 10,000 Japanese troops as well as 10,000 POWs
and 30,000 labourers. But the number of POWs perished was later revised to be
12,399 by the Allied Powers and the actual death tool of labourers was
estimated to be as high as about 90,000. So, for some sections of the railway
at least, it is no exaggeration to say that one life was sacrificed for every
sleeper laid under the track. Hence the nickname Death Railway.
Now the so-called Death Railway is mainly a railway for tourists. It takes you
to picturesque countryside to see vast expanses of green fields, a
breath-taking viaduct winding along a precipice, long ranges of jungle-covered
mountains and a waterfall which is quite a safe place for even children to
play in because the water volume is small and the rocks are not slippery. You
will see the war cemetery just behind the Kanchanaburi railway station, where
6,982 bodies of British, Dutch, Australian and New Zealand POWs were buried.
It is planted with planty of flowers and is kept tidy and clean. The
inscriptions on the gravestones are simple but touching. There is another
cemetery at Ko Samrong where another 1,750 bodies were interred. But it is a
little out of the way and is not usually visited by ordinary tourists. The
Japanese also built a small cemetery of their own near the provincial town
