Death Railway Museum

Statue of POW soldiers 

The Death Railway Museum, as opposed to the Jeath Museum that we visited previously, also tells the story of the building of the Death railroad, as it became known due to the thousands of lives lost during the railroad construction. Whereas the Jeath Museum is an outdoor display in huts built to the same dimension and construction of the prison camps during WWII, the Death Railway Museum is more of a western style museum, built by the Australian government. Nevertheless, the stories from both are heart-wrenching and moving. The brutally and disregard for other humans lives shown to the POWs, Indian and Thai workers are unimaginable and yet so real. All manner of war crimes were committed against the POWs in the quest to complete the railway through the rocky mountains of western Thailand into Myanmar (Burma). One the more moving pieces is a scaled model of men digging through the mountains to lay the railroad tracks. The terrain was so rough that no heavy equipment could be brought it. All the digging had to be done by hand.

The Japanese jailers and masters of the camps did keep records of all POWs but none of the Thai, Indians, and other Asians that worked or were forced to work on the Death Railroad.

War Cemetary adjoining the Death Railroad Museum