**** Star Sight

Hellfire Pass, Kanchanaburi

The were countless examples of excessive brutality during the construction of the Thailand to Myanmar (Burma) railway and the Japanese occupation of south east Asia but the excavation of Hellfire Pass is possible the most horrific. In a joint project between the Thailand and Australian governments an emotional series of monuments of remembrance have be constructed. Hellfire Pass should be visited to understand the brutality that was experienced by the prisoner of war labours and to ensure such horrific action are ever repeated.

The Thailand to Burma rail route was named the Death Railway due to the massive losses of human life during the construction of the railway both of allied prisoners of war and Thai natives. The final insult of the Death Railway is that the rail route was severely bombed during the final stages of the war and was never fully repaired, the deaths of the POWs were for a completely futile task.

 

Hellfire Pass is a series of three rock rock cuttings which the railway required passage through. The seer magnitude of the excavation work can be gleaned by the assessment before the project by a senior Japanese engineer who stated that the 1000m passage would take 18 months to complete, but the project was finished in just 12 weeks. To achieve this the prisoners of war where forced to work 12 to 18 hour shifts during the day and night. Food rations were kept at a minimum and malnutrition and disease were riff within the work teams. By the end of the excavation work over 70% of the 1000 prisoners had died from exhaustion, starvation or tropical diseases.

The prisoners were force to cut the rail route through the solid bedrock using the most simplistic of tools and hazardous explosives. The fuses for the explosives were deliberately shorted to increase the work rate but caused immense danger to the workers. Hellfire Pass was so named due to the scenes of explosives and naked flame illumination during the night, it was described that the touches lead to the mouths of hell, the workers were facing a hell on Earth.

 

Visitors to the site of Hellfire path arrive first at the museum which explains in graphic detail the horrors and tragedies which befell the allied prisoners of war and displays artifacts from the construction and prisoners. The court yard to the rear of the museum over looks the old route of the railway. A section of the death railway has cleared and partially restored this route heads north from the museum. This section of the old railway leads through Hellfire Pass with numerous memorials to the victims along the partial railed route.

Above the cliff sides, which can be viewed from the vantage point, are the remains of some of the equipment from the initial construction that was simple abandoned after construction. The old rail route can be continued for another 3.5km until the Pack of Card Bridge, this walk takes about 2 hours and passes through all seven cuttings of this section of the track.

 

Hellfire Pass is approximately 80km north of Kanchanaburi on the main road of the region the route 323. All buses heading north from Kanchanaburi to Sangkhlaburi or thong Pha Phum pass the main entrance to the Hellfire pass museum. The pass is a common destination on the organised tours of the region which combine the visit with a journey on the section of the track which is still in use.

Kanchanaburi Tourist Guide

Kanchanaburi Introduction - 3 Day Itinerary - Image Tour - Tiger Temple - Weather - Erawan Waterfalls - Erawan National Park - Hellfire Pass - Kanchanaburi Allied War Cemetery - Bridge Over the River Kwai - Death Railway