burma railway prisoners of war list

Dunlop Force was the first group of Australians to reach the southern end of the railway.

Most of the prisoners of the Japanese were Australian Army about 21 000. Read our guide on RFC, RAF and RNAS personnel for other records on RAF prisoners of war. $33.86.

Yet in relative terms, Australian POW deaths were very significant, accounting for around 20 per cent of all Australian deaths in World War II.

", "Yamashita: the greatest Japanese general of World War II?

[8th Division in Captivity - Other Thailand Forces:] Medical report of 800 Prisoners of War, March from Nakom Naiyoke to Pitsanloke, May 1945.

The guide provides advice on the various types of PoW records we hold and how to search for them at The National Archives.

These have now disappeared into the exquisitely beautiful landscape but this website reclaims them as witnesses to the POW story. Some of their works were used as evidence in the trials of Japanese war criminals. Second World War - PoWs held in the Far East, selected prisoners of war records 1715-1945, British Army Prisoners of War, 1939-1945 database, Correspondence of the Foreign Office, 1920-1951, Prisoners of war, British Army, 1939-1945, Prisoners of war, naval and air forces of Great Britain and the Empire, 1939-1945, Prisoners of war, armies and other land forces of the British Empire, 1939-1945, index cards for British prisoners of war who were captured by the Japanese, National Archives and Records Administration, Friends of The National Web"Dusty" Miller was a British P.O.W.

McEachern 1942-1945. Search and downloadindex cards for British prisoners of war who were captured by the Japanese(WO 345) on Findmypast ().

There were also memorable fictional accounts of captivity, some of which were adapted for commercial films and television series. More than 22 000 Australians were taken prisoner in the Asia-Pacific region in the early months of 1942. Articles on the Australian medical personnel working on the railway. [7] The Japanese began this project in June 1942.

Coates, Impressions of the Nakom Pakon Hospital, written at the request of the Japanese Imperial Army. Many of these proved to be immensely popular. Theatres of bamboo and attap (palm fronds) were built, sets, lighting, costumes and makeup devised, and an array of entertainment produced that included music halls, variety shows, cabarets, plays, and musical comedies even pantomimes.

The building of the Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum by the Australian government in 1998 also made it a key site of memory, attracting tourists and 'pilgrims' of many nationalities. Javanese, Malayan Tamils of Indian origin, Burmese, Chinese, Thai, and other Southeast Asians, forcibly drafted by the Imperial Japanese Army to work on the railway, died in its construction. The Burmese had welcomed the invasion by Japan and cooperated with Japan in recruiting workers. [68] In February 1943, 1,000 Dutch prisoners of war were added to Tamarkan. From Bampong, they marched 140 kilometres north to Tarsau. Only the first 130 kilometres (81mi) of the line in Thailand remained, with trains still running as far north as Nam Tok. At the end of May, F Force was distributed among five main camps, with 1,800 Australians at Lower Songkurai, 393 at Upper Songkurai and 700 at Konkoita. [30][33], In early 1943, the Japanese advertised for workers in Malaya, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies, promising good wages, short contracts, and housing for families. Australian prisoners of war: Second World War - Pr [8th Division in Captivity - "A" Force ( Burma ):] Reports on conditions, life and work of Prisoners of War in Burma and Siam by Brigadier C.A. We pay our respects to elders past and present.

Free shipping. Mills (Captain, 2/10th Aust Fld Amb, AIF, POW). WebFind many great new & used options and get the best deals for Building the Death Railway: The Ordeal of American Pows in Burma, 1942-19 - GOOD at the best online prices at eBay!

There are good reasons for this.

Records of Naval Operating Forces, RG 313. The movie centres on a various American serviceman primarily a captain played by Dana Andrews re-adjusting to civilian life. A further 354 were from the Royal Australian Navy and 373 from the Royal Australian Air Force. [77], Hellfire Pass in the Tenasserim Hills was a particularly difficult section of the line to build: it was the largest rock cutting on the railway, it was in a remote area and the workers lacked proper construction tools during building.

galleries are progressively closed from 4 pm.

We were under the command of Colonel Knight of the Royal Norfolk regiment and we were known as H battalion, plus the Korean guards. WebFind many great new & used options and get the best deals for PRISONER DOCTOR: AN ACCOUNT OF THE EXPERIENCES OF A ROYAL By Richard Philps *VG* at the best online prices at eBay! The majority of Australian prisoners from Changi and Java were sent to Thailand to assist in the building of the railway.

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A bridge was not built until the Thanlwin Bridge (carrying both regular road and railroad traffic) was constructed between 2000 and 2005. French Indo China. The memory of Changi [66][67] No compensation or reparations have been provided to Southeast Asian victims.

[57][58], In addition to malnutrition and physical abuse, malaria, cholera, dysentery and tropical ulcers were common contributing factors in the death of workers on the Burma Railway. Birkenheads Philip Toosey, a senior officer of prisoners of war on the Thailand Burma railway, features in an Imperial War Museum exhibition. However, the British would form only a minority of the Allied POWs in Burma.

[44], The construction camps consisted of open-sided barracks built of bamboo poles with thatched roofs. Its purpose was to supply the Japanese forces in Burma, bypassing the sea routes which had become vulnerable when Japanese naval strength was reduced in the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway in May and June 1942. For example, a group of 400 Dutch prisoners, which included three doctors with extensive tropical medicine experience, suffered no deaths at all. [69] An unknown number of Malayan workers were housed in a nearby camp. Prisoners of war were also transported from Java. Parts of the abandoned route have been converted into a walking trail.[28].

[17] A holiday was declared for 25 October which was chosen as the ceremonial opening of the line. north carolina discovery objections / jacoby ellsbury house The Americans were called the Lost Battalion as their fate was unknown to the United States for more than two years after their capture. There is a popular perception that they also died at a higher rate than Australians. Department of Veterans' Affairs, Sharing Australia's military and service history through the experiences of our veterans, We can'''t respond to comments or queries via this form. What types of records does The National Archives hold? Now they find themselves dumped in these charnel houses, driven and brutally knocked about by the Jap and Korean guards, unable to buy extra food, bewildered, sick, frightened.

Web1945-1989 1990 to the present day Show more filters Applied filters Far East Prisoner of War Showing 1-30 of 98 records. H Force joined D Force in cutting Hell Fire Pass; 179 men in H Force died. They include bothBritish prisoners of war and other nationalities.

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Woods). More than one in five of them died there.

WebPrisoners of war from Java (Williams Force, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel J. M. Williams, and Black Force, including 593 Australians commanded by Lieutenant We'd like to use additional cookies to remember your settings and understand how you use our services. Records of Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters, World War II, RG 331. By far the majority of British POWs nearly 29 000 of them were sent to Thailand.

The Australian War Memorial acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia.

Japanese soldiers, 12,000 of them, including 800 Koreans, were employed on the railway as engineers, guards, and supervisors of the POW and rmusha labourers.

Hospitals were established at Tanbaya, Tarsau, Kanburi, Nakom Paton and Tamuan. However, it is known that all of them had volunteered to serve. Contains nominal rolls and paybook photographs searchable by name, theatre of war, unit, location of POW camp. Find the digitised reports by searching for the persons name in our catalogue.

The movement of POWs northward from Changi Prison in Singapore and other prison camps in Southeast Asia began in May 1942. He served 11 years.

Most recruits were in their twenties.

Many remember Japanese soldiers as being cruel and indifferent to the fate of Allied prisoners of war and the Asian rmusha. There were also many camps housing the thousands of workers, including Australians. Affidavits and sworn statements. The papers of Sir Edward Ernest Dunlop include his military and prisoner of war experiences and related post-war concerns. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Burma_Railway&oldid=1148215962, Japanese prisoner of war and internment camps, Articles with incomplete citations from March 2017, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2019, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2021, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles needing additional references from October 2017, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Iron bridge across Kwae Yai River at Tha Makham, Arch Flanagan (19152013), Australian soldier and father of novelist, This page was last edited on 4 April 2023, at 19:50. For memories to survive at the collective or national level they need to be championednot just once but over the decades. WebOut of an estimated 5.7 million Soviet POWs captured by the Germans, 3.3 million died in captivity.

Since the 8th Division was raised during the crisis of the fall of France in mid-1940, these men would also have chosen to play a role in averting Allied defeat. Life in the POW camps was recorded at great risk by artists such as Jack Bridger Chalker, Philip Meninsky, John Mennie, Ashley George Old, and Ronald Searle. A second air-raid by the RAF on 24 June finally severely damaged and destroyed the railroad bridges, and put the entire railway line out of commission for the rest of the war. Nor was the workforce in this region exclusively Australian.

Prisoner Under The Rising Sun by Harold Bill Evans.

Although working conditions were far better for the Japanese than the POWs and rmusha workers, about 1,000 (eight percent) of them died during construction.

Estimates vary but the number who worked on the railway was possibly as high as 18 000.

After the railway was completed, the POWs still had almost two years to survive before liberation. Between 180,000 and 250,000 Southeast Asian civilians and over 60,000 Allied prisoners of war were subjected to forced labour during its construction.

The Burma-Thailand railway (known also as the Thailand-Burma or BurmaSiam railway) was built in 194243. WebIn 1944, a compilation of medical reports from the main prisoner of war work camps along the infamous Thailand-Burma railway was submitted to General Arimura Tsunemichi, commander of the Japanese Prisoner of War Administration. [8], The project aimed to connect Ban Pong in Thailand with Thanbyuzayat in Burma, linking up with existing railways at both places. Singapore, Changi and Burma Thailand Railway by Katherine Bell.

[Medical - Attendance on POW's:] Part of medical returns and correspondence handed to medical historian by Lt Col J.G.

WebThe Dutch formed the second largest contingent of Allied prisoners of war on the Burma-Thailand railway, after the British. Some 1,438 men of F Force did not return. Please.

Another cohort of 450 US personnel suffered 100 deaths. At present they are only taking search requests enquiries that meet certain criteria see their website for further information. Prisoners in Changi were divided into forces to work on the railway in either Burma or Thailand. Experience as a POW in Burma and Thailand, general report on medical aspects of POW's treatment by Japanese, 1944. research.

Records of Australian Military Forces prisoners of war and missing, Far East and South West Pacific Islands. Search by surname in ADM 358 for enquiries into missing naval personnel. WebIn 1944, a compilation of medical reports from the main prisoner of war work camps along the infamous Thailand-Burma railway was submitted to General Arimura Tsunemichi, Some have even brought wives and children. Use this guide if you are looking for records of British or Commonwealth prisoners of war (PoWs), as well as some PoWs from Allied countries, taken prisoner between 1939-1945 or 1950-1953. The shock and scale of these losses affected families and communities across the nation of only 7 million people. WebHighlights. Please note that this series is still accruing and currently only goes up to June 1940. [12][13] The projected completion date was December 1943. Over the years, many prisoners of war or their descendants, mainly from Australia, the Netherlands, and the UK, came here to pay tribute to the war dead. Except for the worst months of the construction period, known as the "Speedo" (mid-spring to mid-October 1943),[51][52] one of the ways the Allied POWs kept their spirits up was to ask one of the musicians in their midst to play his guitar or accordion, or lead them in a group sing-along, or request their camp comedians to tell some jokes or put on a skit.

Another group, numbering 190 US personnel, to whom Lieutenant Henri Hekking, a Dutch medical officer with experience in the tropics was assigned, suffered only nine deaths. Search for missing RAF personnel in AIR 81.

Although Dunlop was only one of 106 Australian POW medical officers, in recent years he has come to represent them alland the values of courage and compassion that they and many Australians manifested in captivity. Haruku by Amanda Johnston.

A railway route between Burma and Thailand, crossing Three Pagodas Pass and following the valley of the Khwae Noi river in Thailand, had been surveyed by the British government of Burma as early as 1885, but the proposed course of the line through hilly jungle terrain divided by many rivers was considered too difficult to undertake. [33] Other documents suggest that more than 100,000 Malayan Tamils were brought into the project and around 60,000 perished.[35][36].

The two curved spans of the bridge which collapsed due to the British air attack were replaced by angular truss spans provided by Japan as part of their postwar reparations, thus forming the iconic bridge now seen today. Ambon. WebPrisoners of War of the Japanese 1939-1945 - Single webpage packed with general info on POWs, camps, hellships Mapping POW Camps in Japan During World War II - Excellent digital map consisting of ten GIS data layers that show camp locations, company locations, hellship routes, etc.

Search by name of ship or surname in BT 373 for Merchant Navy prisoners of war. Describes executions, conditions, rations, illness, work and movements.

You can restrict your search to reference WO 208 and the relevant year range.

[29], The number of Southeast Asian workers recruited or impressed to work on the Burma railway has been estimated to have been more than 180,000 Southeast Asian civilian labourers (rmusha). Use this login for Shop items, and image, film, sound reproductions, Australian prisoners of war: Second World War - Prisoners of the Japanese, Burma-Thailand Railway, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander military service, British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF), Researching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander military service, Local information sources about Australians at war.

WebOther articles where Burma Campaign is discussed: Burma Railway: Japanese armed forces during the Burma Campaign. In his book Last Man Out, H. Robert Charles, an American Marine survivor of the sinking of the USS Houston, writes in depth about a Dutch doctor, Henri Hekking, a fellow POW who probably saved the lives of many who worked on the railway.

v3.0, except where otherwise stated, British and Commonwealth prisoners of the Second World War and the Korean War.

Between them they providedetails of approximately 169,000 British and Commonwealth prisoners of war of all ranks and provide details which may prove vital in your search, as well as being of interest for their own sake: Once you are confident that an individual was held as a prisoner of war, the next step is to search within the record series detailed below.

H Force, including 600 Australians commanded by Lieutenant Colonel R. F. Oakes, left Changi on 5 May 1943.

Not all Australian POWs worked here in 1943. The remains of United States personnel were repatriated. Ballarat's botanical garden is home to a memorial to former Australian prisoners of war. Our collection contains a wealth of material to help you research and find your connection with the wartime experiences of the brave men and women who served in Australias military forces.

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Thirty-two of them were sentenced to death. Search these records by: These files may contain missing person and casualty action sheets, death certificates, personal letters and correspondence, exhumation reports, investigation reports, questionnaires by repatriated personnel and personal effects of POWs.

The authors stated that the reports were neither complaints nor protests, but merely statements of fact. Use the card index to identify which document reference you require in: Consult reports of escapees in AIR 40/1545-1552 for information about Royal Air Force prisoners of war who escaped or evaded capture. Contents 1 Background 2 Internment 3 Death 4 See also 5 References Major A. L. Andrews commanded the AIF party of 3 officers and 70 other ranks included in L Force. This included personnel from USS Houston and the 131st Field Artillery Regiment of the Texas Army National Guard. It also describes the living and working conditions experienced by the POWs, together with the culture of the Thai towns and countryside that became many POWs' homes after leaving Singapore with the working parties sent to the railway.

The line was abandoned beyond Nam Tok Sai Yok Noi;[27][22] the steel rails were salvaged for reuse in expanding the Bang Sue railway yard, reinforcing the BangkokBan Phachi Junction double track, rehabilitating the track from Thung Song Junction to Trang, and constructing both the Nong Pla DukSuphan Buri and Ban Thung PhoKhiri Rat Nikhom branch lines. The main parties of Australian prisoners of war are as follows. [54][55], After the completion of the railroad, over 10,000 POWs were then transported to Japan.

Nominal Roll and medical record of "F" Force under command of Colonel Pond, Burma-Thailand Railway, April -November 1943. Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop. Records of the Army Staff, RG 319. For the railways of the country Burma, see, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The Japanese invasion of Thailand, 8 December 1941", "How was Thailand Impacted in World War 2?

[25][26] After the accident, it was decided to end the line at Nam Tok and reuse the remainder to rehabilitate the line. Information on the index cards are partly in Japanese.

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Id like to know his movements etc. The series WO 418 consists of the UK Ministry of Defences record set of escape and evasion maps produced by MI9 between 1940 and 1945. Williams Force was based at Tanyin and Black Force at Beke Taung camp at Kilo 40. The Burma Railway, also called the Death Railway, was built between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat in Burma, put together with a ready supply of labour in the form of Prisoners-of-War (PoW). The Chinese WAR SLAVE pages [link no longer good]. WebThe list contains over 1700 names and is particularly interesting as a record of the decimation, by disease or untreated wounds, of prisoners working on the Burma [8th Division in Captivity - "F" Force (Thailand): ] History of "F"Force .1945-46. Short online film about prisoners of the Japanese during World War II.

These are selected digitised records from a variety of For quick pointersTuesday to Saturday

Transported by train to Bampong, F Force then marched to Nieke, some 180 miles north and thence to Lower Songkurai.

Little is known of why the men of the 2nd AIF volunteered to serve. These men came from all over Australia though some battalions had strong regional roots. Human hair was often used for brushes, plant juices and blood for paint, and toilet paper as the "canvas".

The enormity of the Thai-Burma railway project made it necessary for the Imperial army to forcibly conscript a huge workforce for the construction, consisting of some 62,000 prisoners of war (POWs) and more than 200,000 Asian civilians from Thailand, Burma, Malaya, French Indochina, and the Indonesian archipelago.

Call Number: 940.547252 BEL. [74] Repairs were carried out by forced labour of POWs shortly after and by April the wooden railroad trestle bridge was back in operation.

More than a third of these men and women died in captivity. We can either copy our records onto paper or deliver them to you digitally, Visit us in Kew to see original documents or view online records for free, Consider paying for Finally, on 1 July 1958, the rail line was completed to Nam Tok (Thai , 'waterfall', referring to the nearby Sai Yok Noi Waterfall) The portion in use today is some 130km (81mi) long. [28] One museum is in Myanmar side Thanbyuzayat,[95] and two other museums are in Kanchanaburi: the ThailandBurma Railway Centre,[96] opened in January 2003,[97] and the JEATH War Museum.

Since the 1990s various proposals have been made to rebuild the complete railway, but as of 2021[update] these plans had not been realised.