Thailand 2025. Day 23. Bridge over the River Kwai

A comparatively short drive of 150 km brought me to the River Kwai, where the infamous bridge was once built. Much to my surprise the location is a hot tourist destination with the traditional assortment of hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops. The Bridge over the River Kwai was really two bridges built between 1942 and 1943. One was the wooden trestle bridge depicted in the movie, whereas the other was a concrete piers and steel arched trusses built for the Thai-Burma railway (aka The Death Railway). Why a bridge over the River Kwai? I pursued this question by visiting the World War II museum near the bridge.

The Japanese took over northern China and Southeast Asia in a remarkably short time, but were stopped in southern China by the army of Chiang Kai Sek, and in the border between Burma and India by the English army. Not being able to supply the attack on India from China, the Japanese started by supplying that effort through shipping from Singapore to Rangoon (Burma's main river port, now called Yangon) through the Malacca Strait and the Andaman Sea, but that route was soon compromised by naval warfare. Then they came up with the idea of supplying the Indian war front by land from Bangkok through Thailand and coastal Burma to Rangoon through a railway. The railway would have to cross the mountains of central Thailand and had to be built by hand since heavy equipment could not be moved into the remote location. The railway was built between 1942 and 1943 with 60,000 POW "workers" (mostly British, Dutch, Australian, New Zealanders, and a few Americans) and 200,000 "hired" laborers from Thailand, Burma, and Malaysia. Working conditions were miserable, malnutrition and disease were rampant, and the death rate was above 20%, which amply justifies the moniker of Death Railway. 

The railway Bridge over the River Kwai opened in December of 1943 and operated until 1945, when it was destroyed by bombing. The wooden trusses bridge collapsed on a couple of occasions in the same time period.

After Japan surrendered in late 1945 the line was interrupted between Thailand and Burma. Myanmar decided to dismantle their half of the railway, but the Thai government took over their portion of the line, which continues to operate to this day. In fact, tourists crossing the bridge are warned that if the train comes they will need to clear the tracks, as it happened while I was having  lunch at one of the riverside cafes.