On arrival at Thanbyuzayat, some groups of workers were
fortunate enough to be transported to their work areas. Most of them however were forced to march. In the early stages of construction this was
not a major problem since the distance to be marched was short and was done
during the dry season.
By early 1943, the situation was changing and for the
worst. Many of the workers were arriving
in an already weakened state after living under Japanese control for more than
a year. The distances to march were
longer – up to 300 kilometres. Then in
April – just like now - the rains started.
The group of Allied prisoners of war to suffer most from
this was Reg’s “F” Force. This group of 7,000 British and Australians had to
march 300 kilometres, at night, carrying all of their personal equipment,
medical and camp stores, Japanese stores and their own sick. This march lasted seventeen days and passed
through camps occupied by Asian workers where cholera had already broken out.
“Leave at night. Weather terrible. Track nothing but mud. Cannot see.
Boys tired. This is murder. Help one another along.” Eric Stone, “F Force”.
On arrival at their worksites, most workers found
dilapidated or unfinished bamboo and attap huts. Others carried worn out tents with them. Often they were not given time to repair or
finish this accommodation before being driven out to work on road or rail. Whatever the accommodation – tattered tents
or leaking attap – the men were packed in together like sardines, 28 men under
a tent fly which normally covered eight.
The sleeping platforms added to the distress of all. These were made of split bamboo fixed to bamboo
frames. Not only were these platforms a
torture to emaciated bodies but also soon became infested with blood sucking
lice and other biting insects, so even the chance to have restful sleep was
denied the exhausted labourers.
Mosquitoes from above – lice from below and all night, the
demands of dysentery making distressed men stumble and crawl their way to and
from the latrines.
“The camp is a quagmire, mud on
everybody and everything – in the tents, on the bamboo bed boards, splashed up
our legs and taken to bed with us …” Ray
Parkin, “Dunlop Force”.
Initially the railway construction timetable allowed
reasonable working conditions to be imposed on the POW’s who, at that time,
formed the majority of the workforce.
This combined with the fact that the work was being done during the dry
season of 1942-43 meant that few deaths occurred during the first eight months
of the construction period.
Deaths: July 1942 to February 1943
Americans 8, Australians
27, Dutch 136, British 255
In March 1943 when the
Japanese High Command ordered the rapid completion of the railway – soon to be
known as, “The Speedo” period – working conditions became much worse. Large work quotas, longer working hours and
increasing brutality became the norm.
The inadequate diet, which had just been sustaining the men, no longer
proved sufficient and the physical condition of the men began to
deteriorate. But still the death rate
remained moderately low.
Deaths: March to May 1943
Americans 4, Australians
148, Dutch 418, British 430
With the advent of the wet
season of 1943, the real tragedy of the Thailand-Burma Railway occurred. Disease thrived in the conditions created by
a tropical wet season, and the effect on men already weakened by meagre
unsuitable rations and brutal work was devastating. They fell victim to diseases that would not
usually prove fatal if reasonable accommodation, adequate food and medicines and
time to recuperate had been provided by the Japanese.
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