War Cemetery
Kanchanaburi is 129 kilometres West-North-West of Bangkok.
Kanchanaburi War Cemetery is situated in the North-Western part of
the town along Saeng Chuto Road. A Commission signpost faces the cemetery
on the opposite side of the road.
The notorious Burma-Siam railway, built by Commonwealth, Dutch and
American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project driven by the need
for improved communications to support the large Japanese army in
Burma. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of
war died and were buried along the railway. An estimated 80,000 to
100,000 civilians also died in the course of the project, chiefly
forced labour brought from Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, or conscripted
in Siam (Thailand) and Burma (Myanmar). Two labour forces, one based
in Siam and the other in Burma worked from opposite ends of the line
towards the centre. The Japanese aimed at completing the railway in
14 months and work began in October 1942. The line, 424 kilometres
long, was completed by December 1943. The graves of those who died
during the construction and maintenance of the Burma-Siam railway
(except for the Americans, whose remains were repatriated) were transferred
from camp burial grounds and isolated sites along the railway into
three cemeteries at Chungkai and Kanchanaburi in Thailand and Thanbyuzayat
in Myanmar. Kanchanaburi War Cemetery is only a short distance from
the site of the former 'Kanburi', the prisoner of war base camp through
which most of the prisoners passed on their way to other camps. It
was created by the Army Graves Service who transferred to it all graves
along the southern section of railway, from Bangkok to Nieke. Some
300 men who died during an epidemic at Nieke camp were cremated and
their ashes now lie in two graves in the cemetery. The names of these
men are inscribed on panels in the shelter pavilion. There are now
5,084 Commonwealth casualties of the Second World War buried or commemorated
in this cemetery. There are also 1,896 Dutch war graves. Within the
entrance building to the cemetery will be found the Kanchanaburi Memorial,
recording the names of 11 men of the army of undivided India buried
in Muslim cemeteries in Thailand, where their graves could not be
maintained. The cemetery was designed by Colin St Clair Oakes.
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