War cemeteries in Thailand

War cemeteries in Thailand

Chungkai and Kanchanaburi War Cemeteries

The Burma Railway is the infamous railway between former Burma (now Myanmar) and Thailand. Thousands of forced labourers and prisoners-of-war built the “Death Railway” on the orders of the Japanese oppressors. In addition to 15,000 prisoners-of-war, many Thai, Burmese, Malaysian and Indonesian forced labourers did not survive the dreadful conditions. Initially, the dead were buried alongside the railway line. Later they were (re)buried in three war cemeteries: Chungkai (first image) and Kanchanaburi in Thailand and Thanbyuzayat in Myanmar. These war cemeteries were created on the initiative of the ‘Commonwealth War Graves Commission’.