After the war, the Allied War Graves Commission survey party, located 10,549 Allied war graves in 144 cemeteries along the Burma-Thailand Railway. They used buried paybooks and hidden records as aides. The time elapsed since burial meant that the graves had deteriorated in the hot, wet climate. The dead were exhumed and reinterred in 3 Commonwealth war cemeteries in Burma and Thailand. Each Allied prisoner of war (POW) received an individual headstone. It was a combined effort of the Allied nations, in particular the United Kingdom, Australia and the Netherlands. Later, a memorial was erected to honour some 90,000 deceased Asian labourers (rōmusha) who had no marked graves.
The first [cemetery] with 146 graves had sufficient of the original crosses still legible for location to be simple … The cholera cemetery was hard to find … Finally … we found the pathetic little mounds marking the spots where ashes had been buried.
[Jack Leemon, War graves digger, p 106.]
Locating graves
To locate the site of war graves along the Burma-Thailand Railway, the Allied authorities consulted Japanese records, surrendered personnel and prisoners of war (POWs) before they were repatriated. The POWs had also kept meticulous records during captivity, including diaries, cemetery plans and details of deaths and atrocities.
Aware that the Japanese respected the dead and feared disease, the POWs had often buried sensitive documents in camp cemeteries. At Banya in Burma (now Myanmar), one cross bore the inscription:
A bottle containing a sketch and list of names is buried at the foot of this cross.
The Japanese faithfully re-inscribed the message when they replaced the cross.
War Graves survey party
The grisly task of locating and exhuming the dead was entrusted to an Allied War Graves Commission survey party. The unit included:
- Allied officers
- volunteers from former POWs
- a Japanese translator.
The party left Ban Pong, Thailand, on 22 September 1945 and arrived in Thanbyuzayat in Burma 2 days later. From there, they worked their way back to Thailand over 2 weeks.
Along the way, the survey party consulted many Japanese units still up-country. Some Japanese units had yet to surrender formally, so there were several tense standoffs.
The jungle also posed dangers, including tigers and local bandits.
The survey party located 10,549 graves in 144 cemeteries along the railway. Incredibly, only 52 of the graves the party had set out to find remained undiscovered.
The survey party's Japanese interpreter, Nagase Takashi, was so affected by his experiences that he dedicated his energies after the war to transnational reconciliation in Kanchanaburi.
Reburying the dead
After the graves had been located and marked, the joyless task of reburying the dead began.
The Allied authorities decided to inter the dead in 3 cemeteries, now maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission:
- Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Burma
- Kanchanaburi (Don Rak) War Cemetery, Thailand
- Chungkai War Cemetery, Thailand.
The bodies of United States (US) POWs were repatriated to the US.
The largest cemetery is Kanchanaburi. It's located near the site of a wartime POW hospital to the north of the town. It holds 5,084 Commonwealth and 1,896 Dutch war graves.
Just outside Kanchanaburi on the banks of the Kwae Noi River, the Chungkai War Cemetery was built on the site of a wartime hospital. Most of its 1,427 Commonwealth and 314 Dutch burials are POWs who died at the hospital.
At the Burma end of the railway, Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery was also built on the site of a wartime hospital. It became the cemetery for all Allied personnel who died between Moulmein (now Mawlamyine) and Ni Thea (now Nieke). It holds 3,149 Commonwealth and 621 Dutch war graves.
Headstones and memorials
As was the practice of the Imperial or Commonwealth War Graves Commission since World War I, each Allied POW was given an individual headstone, if possible. The headstone usually lists:
- name
- rank
- military service number
- date of death
- age at death
- unit badge.
There was no distinction on account of military rank or race.
Many British and Australian graves carry personal messages from families that continue to evoke an emotional response in visitors. The Dutch graves did not follow this convention.
The missing were commemorated with headstones inscribed 'A Soldier of the 1939–1945: Known unto God' and in a stone chamber at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery. This lists the names of soldiers whose remains were cremated up-country and whose ashes, if found, were interred in a mass grave in the cemetery.
While Allied countries went to great lengths to locate and reinter their war dead, up to 90,000 rōmusha who died on the railway have no marked graves. Lacking military organisation and leadership, they either crawled into the jungle to die or were buried in mass graves without records.
A memorial to the rōmusha was erected in the Chinese cemetery next to Kanchanaburi War Cemetery.
Over the years, Kanchanaburi has become a key site of commemoration, including on Anzac Day (25 April). It is a popular tourist destination, with busloads of visitors most days.
Find a war grave
You can search for a war grave on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.
Sources
Leemon, J, Leemon, B and Morgan, C (2010), War graves digger: service with an Australian Graves Registration Unit, Australian Military History Pub, Loftus, https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/651782951.
Glossary
- Allies
- repatriation
- rōmusha