I Heart WWII POWs

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Going to Kanchanaburi was quite an experience. Every stop seemed to make me appreciate more and more what it means to be an Australian. It's not because any of my relatives fought and died, because to my knowledge, they didn't. It was just the fact that these people were forced to endure starvation, hard labour, jungle ulcers and other unimaginable pains just because they had chosen to fight for the freedom of my country. I think it's the first time in a while I felt some real Aussie pride.

And what I love most about it, is that unlike a lot of countries that feel the need to celebrate only their great feats of power, one of the holiest places for Australians in terms of WWII is this place where Australians were captured, forced to live off practically nothing and build a railway that was direct help to the other side. But it is those kind of conditions that can bring out the best in people.

First stop in Kanchanaburi (which, by the way, took me ages to learn how to say, and in honesty, I still struggle), was the JEATH museum, (not death, it's an acronym including the first lettter of every country involved) which was a replica of the kind of huts the POWs lived in. Because the prisoners left behind so little, and had so little to begin with, most of the museum is full of photos and artworks depicting the daily life of the prisoners. The diseases sounded truly horrid. But the punishments by the Japanese were often nothing short of torture- and just for 'not working hard enough'. When you're fed a small serving of rice and vegetables twice a day and you have some sort of jungle fever, it's a bit hard to cut through solid rock, but hey, that's just my opinion.

Then we went to the cemetary where some of the prisoners were buried. It was a beautiful setting, and somehow reminded me of being in Australia- with the warm breeze and clean cut grass.

We also headed off to the famous 'Bridge over the River Kwai', I think it's famous because of some movie (if not, my apologies), but it was great actually walking along a strip of the Death Railway which is still in use today.

We also headed over to Hellfire Pass. The museum there was amazingly informative. And it included a couple of tools and things used by the POWs. Then we took the walk down to the infamous place where men, using only the simplest of hand tools and dynamite, had to carve their way through 100s of metres of rock. Even walking up the stairs on the way back I really felt the burn. Makes you appreciate it all even more: for the POWs the walk was the easy bit. And they were literally starving and often sick. I can't even imagine the ability to suffer that much. And yet so many of them had the will to live to make it back home. Phenomenal.

Just a random something I found out while there: the Red Cross sent parcels to the POWs with medicine, food etc. They were withheld by the Japanese. They didnt use them themselves, they just hid them, and let them sit there until the end of the war. And yet, they were so hell bent on getting this railway finished in 1/4 projected time. Surely a happy (or at least healthy) worker is a good worker. But I guess that's not the way war works. And that's why it's so fascinating.

Anyway, on the way back to the accomodation, we went to a waterfall to swim. Thanks to the rainy season, the downpour was so heavy you could hardly tell the difference when standing directly underneath the waterfall. But it was still pretty fun. As situations often are when things don't go as planned. And that was Kanchanaburi for me...

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Photos

The war cemetary
A truly beautiful memorial in my view...

Some of the tracks of the Death Railway
And twice a day a train comes over it.

Hellfire Pass
The rock face is so high, and at one point, pure rock. Pretty impressive stuff.