The Kanchanaburi Allied War Cemetery
During the Second World War, the occupying Japanese began work on a railroad between Thailand and Burma, in order to shorten supply lines to Burma for an eventual planned attack on British India. They forced 250,000 Asian laborers and 61,000 Allied prisoners to work on 160 miles (258 kilometers) of railroad. Many thousands died of starvation, disease, exhaustion, and abuse at the hands of the Japanese. Nowadays, 6,982 Allied prisoners are buried in the Kanchanaburi Allied War Cemetery, about 75 miles (121 kilometers) northeast of Bangkok. A visit to the cemetery is a moving experience, knowing that each grave represents a man who died during the horrors of the Second World War.
