Content on Burma (Myanmar)

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'Japanese Thrust' map

After the war

For Australian prisoners of war the Japanese surrender on 15 August 1945 was the first step towards their coming home.

Anzac Day in Thailand

Just before dawn a few shadowy forms gathered on the road [at 75-Kilo camp, Burma].

Audio commentaries

Recollections of Japanese treatment.

Australian Prisoners of War 1941-1945 (Book)

This is a part of the series, Australians in the Pacific War. It gives a narrative and pictorial account of life in POW camps north of Australia during World War II. Includes Changi, the Burma-…

Background history

The Japanese advance in the Asia-Pacific in late 1941 and early 1942 was one of the most dramatic periods of conquest in modern military history …

Bart Richardson - World War II veteran (Army) (Video)

Barton (Bart) Richardson enlisted at Rutherford, New South Wales, in June 1940.

Bill Ennis - World War II veteran (Video)

Bill Ennis was 18 years old and working as a clerk when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in June 1940.

Bridges

Standing precariously on the sill, you swing your hammer and the whole trestle shook, especially nerve wracking doing it in the dark with only fire light to see with.

British

...the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history[British Prime Minister Winston Churchill describing the fall of Singapore.]

Burma-Thailand Railway and Hellfire Pass

Massive infrastructure projectHerculean tasks were enforced upon semi-starved and enfeebled captives.

Constructing the railway

The Japanese will carry out [their] schedule and do not mind if the line is dotted with crosses.

Cuttings

I was on the hammer and tap, drilling rock, as my comrades were … We started off having to drill 80 centimetres a day; we finished up having to do 3 metres …

Dutch

The Dutch had two different enemies during World War II: the Germans who occupied the Netherlands; and the Japanese who occupied the Netherlands East Indies.

Embankments

Embankments were the most common type of engineering task along the Thai-Burma railway, ranging from small earthworks to massive artificial hills rising out of the jungle.

Endurance: Stories of Australians in wartime captivity (Book), (Educational)

This commemorative publication is a part of the Century of Service series. It explores the stories of several Australians who were captured as prisoners of war. Each story highlights examples of…

Ernest Edward Dunlop

An Australian hero...everyone that came in front of Weary - a no-hoper, anybody, was a person. And he was an equal of Weary's in Weary's mind — he was a person to be helped.

Fall of Singapore: In Their Own Words (Video), (Online lesson), (Student activity), (Educational)

Hear from Australian veterans about their experiences of the Fall of Singapore during World War II.

Food

Hunger became an accepted part of our life … food was just like sex, we tried not to think about it.

Forced marches

Some 5000 Australian soldiers arrived in Germany in 1941 after long journeys through Eastern Europe from Greece. In 1943 another 1000 men crossed the Alps from Italy.

Found

… It was lovely, it was Australia…I just started to howl…[Sylvia Muir]

Gordon Jamieson - World War II veteran (Video)

Gordon Jamieson was just 19 years old when he enlisted in July 1940.

Gunner Cleary

If you escape the same thing will happen to you.

Hellfire Pass

The place earned the title of Hellfire Pass, for it looked, and was, like a living image of hell itself.

Hellfire Pass Interpretive Centre and Memorial Walking Trail

Opening of the centreThe Peace Vessel [at Hellfire Pass Interpretive Centre] emphasises the positive values of life where war once raged.[Peter Rushworth]

Hellfire Pass rediscovered

Hellfire Pass was 'lost' in the jungle for many years after 1945 and was rediscovered only in the 1980s …

Hintok Mountain camp

Accommodation in Hintock [sic] camp was extremely bad consisting largely of most defective R.D. tents often with only a single fly.

Hintok River camp

Hintok River camp were the most common type of engineering task along the Thai-Burma railway, ranging from small earthworks to massive artificial hills rising out of the jungle.

Hospitals

We had no bedpans, no facilities for bathing patients, no soap or disinfectants, and no special diets. The only medicine we had was Condy's crystals and ground charcoal.

Illness and death

One of the symptoms of cholera is a white stool … This fellow looked down and saw a milk-white motion; and he saw that I saw it.

Jack Thomas - World War II veteran (Oral history)

Jack Thomas - World War II veteran (Video)

Jack Thomas was born in Broken Hill on 4 November 1919. He worked as a grocer's assistant before enlisting in Broken Hill in June 1940.

James Kerr - World War II veteran (Army) (Video)

James Kerr was underage when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in March 1941. He was accepted, nevertheless.

Kami Songkurai camp

We found [Kami Songkurai] to be a pigsty compared with the comparatively well-drained camp at Shimo Songkurei.

Kanchanaburi today

Kinsaiyok camps

[Kinsaiyok] was on flat ground close to the Menam Kwai Noi River, and as the weather was still extremely wet, for the most part constituted a quagmire.

Konyu River camp

Above and behind us to the north runs a high jungle-treed ridge in the greens, browns and reds of the Australian bush.

Konyu Road camps

We had located Major Quick's 'T' Battalion early, on our arrival at Kenyu [sic], and received a shock to see the conditions under which they were living

Local memories

Very few Thais worked on the construction of the

Malay Hamlet camp

The site of the camp was on a beautiful sloping hill with a stream running and gurgling some twenty yards away.

Map of F Force camps

Map of the Burma-Thailand railway

Map of the Hellfire Pass area

Map of the Hellfire Pass area were the most common type of engineering task along the Thai-Burma railway, ranging from small earthworks to massive artificial hills rising out of the jungle.

Medical improvisation

For bedpans we used tin cans, old mess tins, half coconut shells and troughs or pots made from large bamboo. Toilet paper was the large leaves from nearby trees.

Mixed feelings as POWs waited to be released

Every day that Australians spent as prisoners of war they longed for freedom. They thought about family and friends at home and just hoped to survive for the end of the war.

Museums

The history of the Burma-Thailand railway is explored in of a number of museums in

Norman Anderton - World War II veteran (Video)

Norman joined the army in Sydney in 1940 at the age of 19, and served in the 8th Division Signals.

Nurses

Sores wouldn't heal. Your hair was getting thinner. You were so thin that you'd scratch and you'd get your finger caught in your ribs.

Other national memories

The Burma-Thailand railway was built by a multinational workforce, consisting of Al

Peril at sea

The ship was like a wreck; ragged, rusted gear, broken casting, bits of plating and junk, winch cylinders almost rusted through, great cankers of rust as if the ship had leprosy, the la
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