I heard about the 1957 Oscar-winning movie
The Bridge On The River Kwai (starring William Holden and Alec Guinness) but did not watch it until I was staying at a resort roughly 1 km from the actual bridge. The city of Kanchanaburi is a couple hours west of Bangkok and its life-blood depends on tourists (like me) coming to see the bridge that Allied forces were forced to build during the Second World War.
I must admit this part of Thailand is beautifully serene which makes it difficult to imagine the constant military bombardment and thousands upon thousands of soldiers who died here some 70 years ago.
The actual bridge was within walking distance from the resort so one afternoon I decided to take a personal tour; it didn't take long before the bridge came into view as I walked a nearby trail.
When reviewing its history, you learn that after the Allied forces built the bridge in 1943 they then bombed it two years later to deter the Japanese from transporting war goods! We also learned the outer curved spans of the bridge were part of the original structure while the middle section had to be rebuilt.
The rail line that allowed transportation from Thailand (Siam) to Myanmar (Burma) is not in use anymore but one of the trains that carried war supplies for the Japanese is on display at a local museum. Today a modern train carries tourists over the bridge.
About 2.5 km from the bridge is a cemetery donated by the people of Thailand to honor the thousands of soldiers who lost their lives from disease, exhaustion and war crimes while building the railway and bridges. Let's just say that I spent a few hours touring around and understand how easy it is to feel the effects of extreme heat when not careful. I can't imagine what the prisoners of war went through working 10-12 hours a day in similar temperatures without relief. Hence the name
Death Railway attributed to the war-time project.
On my way to the cemetery I met an older gentleman from Holland and a couple from the UK and then it dawned on me that most tourists I had encountered that day were from these and surrounding countries. No surprise since
Kanchanaburi War Cemetery represents over 1,800 Dutch and 5,000 soldiers from the Commonwealth.
Visiting the cemetery was definitely a moving experience, especially when reading the ages of most of the fallen soldiers: 22, 27, 23, 21, 34, 22, 37, 23 and so on and so on. A sobering reminder of the travesty of war.
Right next to the
War Cemetery exist an old Chinese cemetery with a city road through the middle of the property. This cemetery hosts varying styles of tombstones from elaborate granite to simple raised boxes to high-reaching spires. I imagine the design of tombstone is indicative of social status and perhaps religion of the deceased.
I noticed many of the tombstones had three columns of Chinese text and later determined: the larger text in the center displays the name of deceased, with date and place of birth and age of deceased usually inscribed on the right, and the date and time of death found on the left (or on the eastern side) which often symbolizes new beginnings and a future.
Today was definitely a day of reflection, not only regarding historical events that occurred in this part of Asia but also thinking about those who lived these events some 70 years ago.
