Kwai - a river in western Thailand

Kwai  - a river in western Thailand

Kwai (Khwae Noi) - a river in western Thailand near the border with Burma, flows into the Gulf of Thailand. During the Second World War two bridges were built across the river. During the building many Allied prisoners of war were killed.  It remind me 60’s when I saw The David Lean film The “Bridge on the River Kwai.”  Which was based on the novel by Pierre Boulle of the same title. The river and the events of the war were made famous by the film.

When the Japanese entered the Second World War, they immediately began to wonder how to avoid the blocking the Bay of Bengal by the Allies. The search for a different way between the gained lands, stretched from Singapore to the northern border of Burma. They decided that the best solution would be to build a railway - linking stations in Burma and Thailand. They marked trail through the valley of the River Kwai, although the area was almost inaccessible to man

Work on both ends of the railway line began in June 1942. It's hard to believe that up to 60 thousand slaves were forced to work. Allied prisoners of war later expanded the number to 200 thousand. Allied prisoners and Asian forced labourers, with the help of primitive tools, cut through 7 million cubic meters of rock and built nearly fifteen kilometres of bridges. When, after fifteen months the line was completed, it fully deserved to be called the "Railway of Death."  The cost of lives rose to 16 thousand prisoners and 100 thousand Asian workers.

 

The Photograph I snapped on my visit to the Bridge on KWAI on 21-07-2013