A life for every sleeper
Hugh V. Clarke

A pictorial record of the Burma-Thailand railwayand the experiences of the Australian and Allied POWs who built it.

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.

Forced labour was used in its construction. About 180.000 Asian civilian laborers (mainly romusha) and 60.000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) worked on the railway. Of these, around 90.000 Asian civilian laborers 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 from other British Commonwealth countries (the Indian Empire, New Zealand and Canada).