VJ Day ....
15th August 2020 (Saturday) 75th Anniversary of VJ Day; the day when
Culture Trip.Com.
It’s 1942, and the
Second World War is raging around the globe. Thailand remained neutral, yet
soon saw its land occupied by Axis-sided Japanese forces, leaving them no
choice but to cooperate with a far more powerful empire. Thailand’s proximity
to the British colony of Burma made it an ideal spot for Japanese forces to
gather and prepare for offensives against the British. However, preparation is
all well and good, but useless without the logistics to transport troops and
supplies to battlefield. An alliance signed between Thailand and Japan allowed
Japan full access to Thai infrastructure, yet with an abundance of local
labourers and Allied prisoners of war (POWs), Japan sought to build
infrastructure where there was none before. That’s when the Death Railway
project was begun.
Building begins
Construction began
in September 1942 in Burma, and November 1942 in Thailand. According to the Australian
government, the labourers consisted of in excess of 250,000 South East Asians
and 60,000 POWs from various Allied countries. The work itself was
back-breaking; often without the necessary tools, the workers slaved under a
hot sun and were brutalised by the Japanese and Korean overseers. Many
succumbed to diseases, which were easily spread given they were forced to live
in squalor and without even basic hygiene, and starvation was a real threat due
to the physical nature of the work and with food in short supply, with as
little as 600 calories the daily intake of the workers. The workers were
maltreated, malnourished and exhausted, and as a result it’s thought that in
excess of 100,000 people died during the construction of the railway – showing
precisely why it came to be known as the Death Railway. It’s thought that one
worker died for each wooden sleeper that was laid for the track.
The famous Bridge and Hellfire Pass
The most well-known
section of the Thailand-Burma railway was the bridge constructed over the river
Kwai. Initially written about in a book, it became an incredibly successful
film that won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture.
However, it was later criticised for not going far enough in its pursuit to
portray the terrible working conditions. A more than impressive undertaking,
the bridge was bombed several times by the Allies, who put it out of
commission. Yet whilst the bridge may be the most well-known section of the
railway, it wasn’t the most arduous – the Hellfire Pass has that distinction.
Hellfire Pass was
the largest rock-cutting on the line, with the workers having to cut into rock
in remote hills without proper tools for the job. Workers toiled for as many as
18 hours a day and long into the night; the sight of them doing so in
torchlight inspired the name of this section of the railway. Allied POWs, as
well as several other South East Asians who were lured by the false promise of
jobs, not only succumbed to exhaustion, starvation, dysentery and cholera, but
were often beaten to death by the Japanese guards too. Whilst there was a large
number of lives lost building this section, it isn’t in use today.
“They shall not be forgotten!”
Every time we went shopping in
Banchory, ‘Mither’ would give Harry and me a penny to put in a collection jar for our forces, saying “this is for your Uncle Lewis”. I remember that vividly because the shop
had slot at the edge of the window and the penny would roll down a track into
the jar; you didn’t have to go into the
shop. Uncle Lewis survived ‘The Railway’ and arrived
back in the UK on the SS Corfu with hundreds of other survivors. They all would have a tale to tell; very few told it. Many didn’t come back and my thoughts are
with those families whose relatives didn’t come back.
07.00 we have an overcast and damp start to the
day with only a light breeze from the East.
It should brighten up later.... much the same as yesterday. It’s a computer/television day.
13.30 I watched the British Legion VJ Day Service for the National Memorial Arboretum (Staffordshire)... and, as we’ve come to expect from the British Legion, it was well organised..... and also very moving in places; especially the interviews with some of those who ‘were there’.
The sky is a bit paler than it has been so I may get out on the bike later in the afternoon:. Ferry Road has been busy with cars this morning.... now I’m wondering if this is a ‘change over’ day.
I’ve had my ‘dinner’ and a cuppa and
the evening has turned cool, so the bike has been locked up for the night
and I have found something to watch on
‘81’, so that’s me for the evening. I’ve
had an enjoyable day albeit rather sombre.
At least the ‘Powers that be’ have finally got it right: WWII ended on VJ day.
