Burma railway

The Burma Railway, also known as the
Death Railway, the Burma-Siam Railway, the
Thailand–Burma Railway and similar
names, was a 415 kilometres (258 mi)
railway between Bangkok, Thailand, and
Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar),
built by the Empire of Japan in 1943, to
support its forces in the Burma campaign
of World War II . The line was closed in
1947, but the section between Nong Pla
Duk and Nam Tok was reopened ten years
later in 1957. [1]
Forced labour was used in its construction.
About 180,000 Asian civilian labourers
(mainly romusha) and 60,000 Allied
prisoners of war (POWs) worked on the
railway. Of these, around 90,000 Asian
civilian labourers and 12,399 Allied POWs
died as a direct result of the project. The
dead POWs included 6,318 British
personnel, 2,815 Australians , 2,490 Dutch,
about 356 Americans, and about 20 POWs