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KANCHANABURI WAR CEMETERY
Thailand
Location
Information:
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.
Historical
Information:
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.
No. of
Identified Casualties:
6843 |
