A Bridge to the Past: Bridge over the River Kwai and Hellfire Pass, Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Even those who have never seen it (actually, me included) will no doubt have heard of the 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness. Although the storyline and characters are fictional, the film’s setting of the Burma Railway in 1942-1943 is a real and historic one.

Infamously, POWs and Asian slave labour were used to construct a railway between Thailand and Burma which the Japanese intended to use to transport cargo to support a planned invasion of India. The 400-kilometre-long track was built within a year, but became known as the Death Railway since tens of thousands of those who were forced to work on its construction lost their lives doing so. Maltreatment, disease, and starvation caused the deaths of 12,000-13,000 of the 60,000 prisoners of war alongside 90,000 of the 250,000 civilian slave labourers.

There were in fact two bridges constructed crossing the Mae Klong river, the first of which was wooden. The bridge that survives today is built from steel and concrete and is approximately 100 metres downriver of the site of the wooden bridge. The curved sections you can see in the photos are original. The straight sections were rebuilt after the war, repairing bomb damage. The wooden bridge was never reconstructed. 

You may be wondering why the bridge isn't called 'The Bridge on the River Mae Klong'. Since the railway follows the Khwae Noi Valley, the wrong name was attached to the bridge, and 'Kwai' arose from a British mispronunciation. In the 1960s this part of the river was renamed the Khwae Yai River, basically to accord with the historical association with the bridge, made famous by the film.

Although much of the railway was broken up in the postwar period, a small stretch (130 km) of the original track also still exists, and I took a train running along it to Nam Tok when I stayed in Kanchanaburi.

Below: A view from the train running along the surviving tracks of the original railway, plus a photo of me inside the train.

Situated close to the railway bridge is Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, the burial place of 7,000 POWs. The cemetery is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

One section of the railway in the Tenasserim Hills was particularly difficult to build due to its remote location and lack of proper tools. Japanese guards forced Allied prisoners of war to work for 18 hours a day to complete the cutting through the rock in 12 weeks, and 69 POWs were beaten to death during this time. Disease, malnutrition, and exhaustion claimed many more lives. Emaciated prisoners working alongside their shadows beneath burning torchlights created a scene that seemed to come straight from Hell, so this area came to be known as Hellfire Pass. A Memorial Museum and walking trail can nowadays be visited there, as a former Australian POW persuaded the Australian government to preserve the location as a historic site and memorial to those who perished in its construction.  

Below: Hellfire Pass, with memorials to the fallen.

As in other places throughout the world, the beautiful landscapes in this area belie the terrible events that took place here, since the green jungle has recovered so many of the scars we have inflicted upon it and ourselves. And, as so often in such cases, the natural surroundings offer a setting appropriate for remembrance and reflection. If only we could truly say ‘Never again’.

 

above: a view from the train to Nam Tok.

For more information, visit:

The True Story of the Bridge over the River Kwai | CWGC

Thailand | Department of Veterans' Affairs (dva.gov.au)

‘Death Railway’ to Kanchanaburi and Nam Tok | Thailand Trains