Note painted on the tender of the rather decrepit locomotive

A note painted on the heavily corroded tender of the locomotive plinthed at the entrance to the JEATH museum in Kanchanaburi, Thailand informs us of the sombre tasks the machine was put out to perform during her heydays. The sign is fairly self explanatory if viewed in full screen or expanded mode. During the Second World War raging around the globe circa 1942, Thailand remained neutral. And yet her land was occupied by Axis-sided Japanese forces, leaving them no choice but to cooperate with a far more powerful empire. Thailand’s proximity to the British colony of Burma made it an ideal spot for Japanese forces to gather and prepare for offensives against the British and enter Burma and push forward even further into India. However, realizing the importance of sound logistics to transport troops and supplies to the battle zones, Japan had Thailand enter into an alliance with them, which will allow Japan full access to Thai infrastructure. Having that put in place, Japan then set about making use of an abundance of local labourers and Allied prisoners of war (POWs) to build infrastructure through some extremely harsh and inhospitable terrain, full of difficult terrain and infested with wild animals. To make matters worse, none of the European POWs had any experience in doing physical manual labour. But sadly, this when the Death Railway project commenced. More notes about this project appear throughout this album. (see previous and subsequent pictures in this album). (Kanchanaburi, Thailand, Oct. 2008)

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