H-POW-RailRoad

The Death Railway

extracted from “Issue in Doubt”

It is almost certain that some personnel from the 19^th & 7^th BG, who were left behind on Java, were among the American POWs who worked on this railway.

By early 1942, the Japanese occupied almost the whole of Southeast Asia. Japan's military was spread from Singapore to Bangkok to Rangoon, India. They had overextended their reach and were forced to slow their expanding empire because of the lack of supplies and munitions. To supply their far-flung troops and regain their early initiatives, Imperial Japanese Headquarters decided to build a railroad linking Singapore, Bangkok, and Rangoon. They would use POWs and conscripted laborers in the construction of this railroad. Captured Allied soldiers were shipped to Thailand and Burma to build a labor force for the Japanese.

The first POWs began work on Death Railway in June 1942, at Ban Pong and Nong Pladuk, in southern Thailand. This was where the railways from Bangkok and Singapore converged. Other POWs began work on the northern section of the railway at Thanbyuzayat, Burma, beginning at the established railway which ran between Moulmein and Ye. The two groups were to work toward each other and were to meet between Taimonta and Konkoita, Thailand.

The southern section of the railway started easily enough. POWs rapidly constructed the first fifty-five kilometers of railway from Nong Pladuk to Kanchanaburi (or Kachanabuan). They followed the Kwae-Noi River, a tributary of the Mae Khlaung River. At Tha Makham, just outside of Kanchanaburi, the POWs began experiencing the difficulties which would ultimately give this railroad its name - Death Railway. Before ascending into the mountains, a bridge had to be built across the Kwae-Noi River. In a project lasting almost six months (October 1942-February 1943) and costing thousands of lives, the POWs finally finished the construction of a wooden bridge across the Kwae-Noi River.' As construction moved farther north, the arduous work, jungle, and climate began claiming their tolls of POWs. Malnutrition, illness, disease, and the inhuman treatment by the Japanese were killing hundreds of POWs and conscripted laborers for every meter of track laid. Malaria, dysentery, insect bites, 100-degree-plus temperatures, along with humidity high enough to produce a physical presence, worked in concert with the brutality of the Japanese to claim POW lives.

POWs working on the northern section of the railway were faring no better. Although there were no major river crossings, the jungle and mountains were proving to be more than formidable. From the start, workers fell behind schedule. Approximately 100 kilometers south of Thanbyuzayat, at the Burma/Thailand border, a solid wall of mountains had to be cut through. Known as Three Pagoda Pass, this obstacle further slowed work. No amount of pushing, prodding, goading, or torture by their Japanese captors could keep the workers on schedule.

As POW deaths continued to mount and the mountainous jungle terrain proved to be a near impenetrable environment, the Japanese kept replenishing the expendable supply of construction laborers. The influx of POWs and conscripted laborers began to grow, with two to fill the spot of every one who died. This made the already inhuman living conditions even worse and the death rate grow even faster. Laborers were worked from sunup to sundown, with less than a cup of water and one bowl of rice per day for sustenance. Any minor cut or illness, falling by the wayside or passing out from the heat, or failing to work because of exhaustion, illness, or malnutrition, was a death sentence. Neither the Japanese nor the jungle showed mercy.

With work on the railway lagging far behind schedule and the Imperial Japanese Headquarters pushing ever harder for completion, POWs were moved inland to temporary work camps. For months at a time, POWs would live at these ill-provisioned camps until a section of the railway was completed. They would then be moved to the next camp to begin the process anew. (Table I lists the work camps along Death Railway.) When prisoners died, they were left where they fell, for there was a steady stream of replacement POWs.

In October 1943, the Death Railway was completed when the northern and southern sections joined at Konkoita, Thailand. The POWs were removed to camps at Tha Makham, Kanchanaburi, Tamuang, and Nakhon Pathom, where they were given food and medicine, were allowed to recuperate somewhat, and were then transferred to POW camps in Japan. This must have seemed like heaven for the emaciated and exhausted POWs.

Very few POWs who began work on the Death Railway lived to see it completed. The average POW life-span was only a few months. Life had been reduced to surviving the next yard of track. POWs did not think in terms of surviving the day, but in surviving the next piece of track laid. Faces changed so rapidly that every day saw strangers working together. Friendships were not formed because one did not live long enough. The POWs who did live to see Death Railway completed suffered long-term illness, disease, and disability. Many of the survivors have recurrent bouts of malarial fever. Worse, most suffer permanent disability due to vitamin shortages suffered during construction of the railway. Many of those survivors are nearly blind due to vitamin deficiencies. The Allies did not know of this brutality until it was too late. One can only imagine how the course of 1942 might have changed had the Allies been aware of the degradation, deprivation, torture, and misery suffered by these brave POWs.

Table 1. Allied POW work camps and distances on the route of Death Railway.

Camp Name	Distance	Camp Name	Distance
Nong Pladuk	000	Rindato	198
Komma	002	Brankassi	208
Ban Pong	005	Takanum	218
Rukke	013	Namajon	229
Taruartoi	026	Tomajo	237
Tamuang	039	Tamuron Part	244
Tung Tung	041	Krian Kri	250
Kao Dih	047	Kutikonta	262
Pak Prage	048	Konkoita	262
Tung Na Talea	049	Teimonta	273
Kanchanaburi	051	Nikki	282
Tha Makham	055	Sonkurai	294
Chungkai	057	Three Pagoda Pass	298
Wang Lan	069	Changaraya	301
Won Yen	078	Anganan	311
Bankao	088	100 Kilo Camp	315
Takiren	098	Kyando	320
Arrowhill	108	Aparon	332
Lum Sum	110	Aparain	337
Wang Po	114	Mezari	343
Chong Cab	121	Kami-Mezari	349
Wang Yai	125	Konsi	354
ThaSoe	130	Tanzun	358
Nam Tok	130	Tanbaya	362
Tonchan	139	Anakuin	369
Tampi	147	Bekitan	375
Hin Tok	155	Repo	385
Kanyu	166	Konnokoi	391
Kinsaiyuk	168	Rabao	396
Kinsaiyuk Main	172	Tettoku	401
Rin Tin	181	Wegare	406
KuiYong	190	Thanbyuzayat	414

Note: All distances given in kilometers.

More than 30,000 British, 13,000 Australian, and 700 American POWs worked on the Death Railway (Japanese estimates place the number of POWs closer to 70,000). Almost 500,000 conscripted laborers were used in the construction of the railroad. Conservative estimates indicate that more than 18,000 POWs and more than 100,000 Asians died building the Death Railway. We will likely never know the true numbers.

In one of the great ironies of World War II, the Death Railway never performed its function of supplying the Japanese military. Almost from the start of construction, the Allies kept the railway under constant bombardment. Allies were trying to build the railroad, while other Allies were trying to stop construction. No train ever completed a journey on the railway,

The Lost Battalion

Frank Flicklin, who wrote the following, was part of the TX Field Artillery outfit on Java drawn upon by the 19^th BG to become gunners on B-17s that had fallen back from the Philippines.

Few people realize that American POWs worked and died on the Death Railway alongside Australian and British POWs. The story of the American POWs in Thailand gets lost among the story of Bataan and the Philippine POW ordeal. In terms of human degradation and suffering, claims that one group of POWs had it rougher than another would be ludicrous. But neither can we allow the agony and death of one group of POWs to overshadow the other. Frank Ficklin was one of the American POWs assigned to work camps in Thailand. His story of life in Thailand speaks eloquently for all American POWs who were forced to construct a railroad for the enemy in a hostile jungle.

Frank Ficklin joined the 131st Field Artillery in 1939 and traveled with his battalion to Java in January 1942. His unit surrendered to the Japanese in March 1943. He spent time in prison camps in Java, Singapore, and Thailand, and worked on the Death Railway.

I'm Frank Ficklin, 1992 president of the Lost Battalion Association. The Lost Battalion Association is a fraternal organization formed in 1945 and whose members are survivors of the cruiser USS Houston and the personnel of the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery in North-Central Texas National Guard Unit. The two units consisted of 904 men. There were 336 navy, 33 marines, and 535 army personnel. They seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth following their capture by the Japanese in March 1942.

The cruiser USS Houston and the Australian cruiser Perth were sunk in the early hours of March 1, 1942, when they engaged a large Japanese landing fleet consisting of one aircraft carrier, five cruisers, eleven destroyers, several PT boats, and forty transports in the Sunda Straits off west Java. After a tremendous battle in which the two Allied cruisers inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese fleet, the two Allied cruisers were sunk. Only 369 of the total complement of 1,163 of the USS Houston managed to reach shore. All survivors became prisoners of the Japanese.

The 2nd Battalion of the 131st Field Artillery, less Battery E, went into combat in support of an Australian Pioneer Infantry group in Leuwilleng near the central Java city of Bandoeng. The men of the battalion became prisoners on March 8, 1942, after the Dutch commands unconditionally surrendered on the same day.

Battery E had remained behind in the east end of Java to guard an airfield at Malong, and to support the Dutch troops and the Surabaya area, which is at the east end. Battery E was engaged in heavy ground action prior to their unconditional surrender. Battery E remained in the Surabaya area until removed to Nagasaki and other areas in Japan via Batavia and Singapore in November and December of 1942.

For the American POWs in Java, there began an unbelievable string of events which would last three and one-half years, and was to weld the two military units together in a bond that is closer than blood. The day-to-day suffering throughout forty-two months of starvation, physical and mental torture, degradation, and tropical diseases with no medical help, and watching their friends die slowly, built a close relationship which still exists today.

Moving by ship from Java to Singapore and then to Burma, Thailand, or Japan, the men were packaged like cattle in the lower holds of the ship, taking turns sitting, squatting, standing, or lying down, all the while suffering from seasickness, dysentery, malaria, and other tropical diseases, at the same time standing in their own filth or that of their neighbor's. It was impossible or not permitted to go to the ship's side latrine on the main deck.

The men then worked twelve to eighteen hours a day in the steaming jungles and monsoon seasons of Burma and Thailand, felling trees, building roadbeds, bridges, and laying ties and rail with primitive tools in building the infamous Burma-Siam Death Railway. Some of the men were mining coal or working on the docks in Japan while living in substandard housing without heat or sufficient clothing during the cold Japanese winters.

Death Railway is a prime example of Japanese military brutality and inhumane treatment of POWs and Asian conscripted laborers, where over 105,000 died constructing 260 miles of jungle railway. Allied POWs who worked on Death Railway numbered 60,000, and 15,000 died. This was in a two-year period. Approximately 270,000 Asian conscripted laborers were recruited through deception and trickery to help build the railway. More than 95,000 died during the construction. There's no accurate figure of subsequent deaths of Asian laborers after their release from labor camps. The deaths of Allied POWs and Asian conscripted laborers were listed as caused by various tropical diseases, malnutrition, tropical ulcers, beriberi, cholera, and various other diseases. However, the true cause of death was brutality, starvation, and lack of medical attention. The famous movie, The Bridge on the River Kwai, portrays some of the brutal treatment and suffering of the British POWs in building one bridge on the construction of the 260-mile Death Railway.

The Allied World War II cemetery in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, honors British, Dutch, Indian, and Australian soldiers who lost their lives during construction of the notorious Death Railway. However, there is no mention of the 133 Americans who died during construction of the railway. The Lost Battalion Association felt that a similar honor should be afforded the Americans and in 1989 began inquiries to the U.S. State Department, Senator Phil Gramm, and the U.S. Embassy in Thailand.

The U.S. Embassy obtained permission from the Thai Department of the Interior, with the understanding that the governor of the province of Kanchanaburi had the final authority for the site of the monument. In mid-1990, the governor of Kanchanaburi appointed a commission composed of fifteen government agencies to study our memorial proposal. After several months of meeting and discussions, I requested permission to meet with the commission to assist in choosing a memorial site. On December 14, 1990, the firs secretary of the U.S. Embassy and I met with members of the corn mission and the chief civil engineer of the Thai National Railroad and agreed on a site and a procedure for constructing a concrete bas and landscaping. A bronze plaque was cast containing the names o the 133 Americans, and a dedication was scheduled for February 23 1992, with forty Lost Battalion members to attend in Kanchanabur Thailand. A letter was received from the chief civil engineer, Th National Railway, dated July 7, 1991, altering the agreement an changing the concrete base to an elaborate marble base with a cos increase of approximately $17,000. Our reply on August 21, 1991 thanked the railway for their time and effort in designing and up grading the monument base, but requested that they reconsider their verbal agreement, as we were unable to finance the addition $17,000. We have not received a reply as of this date. We are still i contact and hope to resolve the situation to the satisfaction of all.

By the way, that bronze plaque sits in my garage today and w hope one day to have a memorial service to honor those 133 Americans who paid the ultimate price.