A Life for Every Sleeper

A pictorial record of the Burma-Thailand railway. The Allies Cemetry in KAN'Buri, Thaild

One of the most extraordinary stories of World War II was the construction of the Burma-Thailand railway. With primitive tools and virtually no regard for human life, the Imperial Japanese Army thrust a railway over 400 kilometres through one of the most rugged and pestilence-ridden areas in the world, in the incredibly short span of twelve months. The cost was a life for every sleeper laid over its most difficult sections. Thirteen thousand Allied prisoners of war and some 70 000 Asian conscripts died as slaves to build the railway.

This account, by a survivor, makes use of documents, first-hand reports and photographs, many of which have never before been published. Some photographs were taken by a Japanese surveyor during construction. Others show what remains of that effort and agony after four decades. All bear witness to the immensity of the enterprise, and its cost. All are a testimony to a common endeavour in which brutality and death, courage and compassion, were everyday occurrences.

Hugh V. Clarke survived sixteen months and six different camps as part of 'D' Force. He is the author of nine books, including a novel based on his experiences during those terrible months. He returned to the railway in 1978. 'I wondered whether this would be the same place where more than a generation ago a wretched army of slaves had laboured so hopelessly; where cholera had moved stealthily through a watery world, leaving behind so many scanty graves and hasty funeral pyres...'