Content on Thailand

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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.

Ambon and Hainan

We'd go out and dig the graves, and then bury them. And by the time we got back from one there'd be another one ready to go out … You couldn't keep up with it.

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 in the Asia-Pacific

Locations in South East Asia where Australians were captured and the main sites of capture of Australian POWs including maps and descriptions.

Australian Prisoners of War 1940-1945

More than 30,000 Australians became prisoners of war (POWs) between 1940 and 1945. The Germans and Italians captured Australians during the Mediterranean and Middle East campaigns, and also at sea in…

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.

Borneo

I became aware it was a one-way trip when we started to hear shots, and you felt that there was no hope for anyone that fell out.

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

It was a gigantic Via Dolorosa of the halt, the lame and the blind ...

Burma-Thailand Railway and Hellfire Pass 1942 to 1943

Over 22 000 Australians were captured by the Japanese when they conquered South East Asia in early 1942. More than a third of these men and women died in captivity. This was about 20 per…

Burmese and Thai Involvement

The history of the Burma-Thailand railway is often told with little reference to the people on whose territory much of it was built: the Thais.

Camps near Hellfire Pass

In early to mid-1943 many thousands of Allied prisoners of war and Asian r?musha were brought by the Japanese to work on the construction of the Burma-Thailand railway in the Konyu–Hintok region. To…

Camps of F Force

The story of F Force is one of the most terrible of the Burma-Thailand railway. One of the last labour forces to leave Changi, Singapore, in mid-April 1943, F Force consisted of 3662 Australians and…

Changi

Ah, Changi! You were heaven to us then![Stan Arneil, One Man's War, Sydney Alternative Publishing Cooperative, 1980, 155.]

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.

Events

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.

Formosa, Korea and Manchuria

It was cold, by jeez it was cold, no vegetation, just flat uninteresting Manchurian plains. Then we saw the camp barracks.

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.

Japan

While all our hopes during the long years of captivity had been to see an Allied victory, we were apprehensive about our chances of surviving an invasion of Japan.

Java and Sumatra

The thought of the day is that all men en masse are shites (or super shites) … I would dearly have loved to see a few people with socialist convictions watching the conduct of this

Journeys

For most Allied prisoners of war the journey to the Thai–Burma railway was the first taste of the gruelling life that awaited them as workers for the Japanese.

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.
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