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"
Death Railway "
 Kanchanaburi
It was constructed in 1942, when the Japanese army decided
to build a 415 km (260 mile) long railway line linking
Burma and Thailand, thereby guaranteeing an unbroken
link between the Japanese base in Singapore and the
Indian front. Several hundreds of thousands of coolies
from the region and some 60,000 allied prisoners of
war were forced to work under inhuman condition in order
to complete the Kanchanaburi section through mountainous
jungle territory, including the construction of the
bridge over the River Kwai. No fewer than 90,000 coolies
and 16,000 prisoners of war died during construction,
thus giving rise to the tragic name of "Death Railway"
When in October 1943 the first trains rattled over the
bridge, the Japanese had already virtually lost the
war in Southeast Asia. In 1944, the bridge was bombed.
At the end of the war most of the railway line war dismantled
by the Thais and today the passengers in the trains
which still run across the bridge are mainly tourists.
To one side the remains of the temporary wooden bridge
erected during construction and almost completely destroyed
in an allied bomb attack still stand. Nearby lies the
modest but crucial Japanese monument, framed by four
cornerstones with inscriptions. At the end of November/beginning
of December each year, the first bombing of the bridge
is commemorated in an elaborate sound and light spectacle.
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