1. The Burma Railway Atrocities By: Stephanie Jennette

2. In 1942, the Japanese invasion of Singapore created a large number of Prisoners of War (POW’s). These POW’s were made up of Australian, British, Dutch, Indian, and a small number of US soldiers. The Japanese would later force them to construct the Thai-Burma Railway (also known as the “Death Railway”). After invading Thailand and Burma, the Japanese wanted a railway from Bangkok, Thailand to Rangoon, Burma to transport troops and supplies quicker. The Japanese had been supporting the troops by shipping supplies by sea but this exposed the ships to the danger of being sunk by Allied submarines. So in 1943, the Japanese began the construction of the railway.

3. The railway would cover 258 miles, but the Japanese did not have enough manpower to construct it themselves. They decided to use the POW's captured in Singapore, along with forced Asian labor from Burma and Thailand, for the construction. The Japanese provided no heavy construction equipment, so the prisoners built the railway by hand with basic tools such as pickaxes, shovels, and buckets. The railway was completed in under 1 year.

4. The treatment and working conditions for the POW workers was harsh and aggressive. While many would die from exhaustion, cholera, beriberi, dysentery, and starvation, others would be beaten and tortured to death. Men who would fall behind would be shot, bayoneted, or beaten and left to die in the jungle. If a man tried to escape he would be beheaded. The men would be forced to work for 12 hours and sleep without shelter. Sometimes they would be given rice and a teaspoon of sugar with watery gruel to eat, but other times they would be given nothing at all. Of the estimated 330,000 men who were forced to construct the railroad, about 250,000 were forced Asian laborers and 60,000 were Allied POW's. Of those numbers, 90,000 Asians and 16,000 Allied POW's died.

5. The building of the Burma Railway is thought to be the biggest sustained POW atrocity of the Pacific War. The men soon realized how to stay alive during the construction: - Never fall back. Men would hang on each other's belts to keep going. - Never get on the outside of the work on the railway or you could get beaten. - Never lose your hat or the sun would kill you. The building of this railway is the biggest single use of POW's in the war. It is said that one man died for every railroad tie laid on the train track. It is estimated that 688 US personnel were part of the construction of the Burma Railway and the US death total is thought to be 356. 133 of these men were survivors of the sinking of the USS Houston and another 133 were from the Texas Army National Guard. There is no monument in the US to the POW's who died at the hands of the Japanese during the war.

6. After the completion of the railway, POW's remained to perform maintenance work. They continued to endure awful living conditions and they endured increased risk of death by Allied bombings of the rail line and bridges. The treatment of the POW's during the construction of the Burma Railway was counted as a war crime after the surrender by Japan.

7. The POW's that remained repaired the damage done to the railway by their own Allied bombers. In the end, the men were notified of the surrender of the Japanese and the end of the war in the Pacific by having thousands of leaflets dropped down on them from above. The leaflets read, "The Japanese have surrendered, you are now free men and we will get in touch with you as soon as possible".