The delegates of Borneo Exhibition Group Incorporated Perth Western Australia, led by Ryan Rowland with Labuan member of Parliament Datuk Rozman Isli after the Anzac Day Dawn Service at the Labuan World War II Memorial on April 25 this year. — Bernama photo
KUALA LUMPUR: History books and memoirs have documented much of the Siam-Burma Death Railway, another dark chapter of World War II (WWII).
Much of the documented facts tell of the fate that befell the 60,000 Allied Prisoners of War (POWs) who worked at the infamous railway line when construction started in 1943.
However, for Chandrasekaran Ponusamy of the Death Railway Interest Group (DRIG), the available history on the Death Railway is only one side of the coin providing the narrative of the European historians and the Allied POWs involved in the tragedy .
Much of the historical accounts does not include the almost 200,000 Asians made up of Thais, Burmese, Javanese, Chinese, Malays and Tamils from Malaya who were forced to work on the railway line and where almost half of them lost their lives compared with 13,000 POWs. They have played an enormous role in its construction and accounted for the highest number of fatalities, yet the Asians have been sidelined to footnote of history.
“It is obvious that the death railway episode, if you will, has been given a whitewash,” said the private tutor who is also the son of a steam locomotive driver who had worked on the Death Railway built by the Japanese Imperial Army.
A lopsided history of the death railway
In his younger days, listening to the conversations between his father and his railway peers on many occasions, Chandrasekaran learnt a lot on the railway line. However, what he heard from his father and the survivors was different from what he had read in history books and the archived documents.
Even more disappointing for Chandrasekaran is the fact the Tamils from Malaya alone accounted to about 100,000 of the Asians involved. A correspondence dated Oct 1, 1946 between Dr C.Siva Rama Sastry of the Congress Medical Mission to Malaya and the Congress Party leader back in India then Jawaharlal Nehru lends credence to this figure.
It was literally forced labour. Many perished due to the harsh working conditions, brutal treatment, famine, cholera, malaria, dysentery and even suicides. The sufferings of the POWs have been well documented in words and pictures. Monochromes at war archives show POWs looking like a bag of bones at the coolie camps along the track.
Unfortunately, there are extremely limited records on the fate of Asians drafted to build the railway line. Chandrasekaran believes this is the testament that the Asians have been ignored right from the start to the end. No one took note of their plight during the construction of the line and even after WWII ended, a special train was sent to pick up the POWs but the Asians were told to find their own way back.
Till today there is no cemeteries, memoirs or memorials that provide a legitimate recognition for the Asians who died there, except for a few epitapths erected by the Japanese themselves.
Many of the forlorn graves of the Asians remain scattered along the railway line with survivors pointing out many more were unceremoniously disposed of in the Kwai Moi river alongside which the railway line was built.
The annual Anzac Day ceremonies at Hellfire Pass of the railway track also fails to provide recognition for the non-POWs who lost their lives there. For Chandrasekaran, in a nutshell, the Asians involved in the death railway have been conveniently forgotten not only by historians but also by the countries where they originated.
The Death Railway is a major tourist draw in Thailand today where visitors get to see the POW cemeteries, the Thai-Burma Railway Museum and the famous Bridge over River Kwai with hardly a hint of the role of the Asian forced labour and the misery they endured.
Asian victims need a rallying point
Chandrasekaran has met a number of Death Railway survivors who had narrated what they had gone through and witnessed but largely ignored by history. The handful of remaining survivors are now centenarians or close to becoming centenarians with some yet vividly recalling one of the greatest human tragedies.
Centenarian Ellian Kannian of Jeram, Kuala Selangor went to the death railway with his brother and brother in law and only to return alone. He lived to share the hardships and the tragedies of the Asian Death Railway workers.
The survivors recalled how some of those who could no longer bear with illness of suffering offered themselves to the poisonous snakes in the jungle or jumped on the tracks when a train passed by.
There have been a number of attempts by individuals and small groups to bring together the death railway survivors in the 1960s and 1970s, but the efforts failed to see the light of the day.
Hence, in creating awareness on Asians who took part in the Death Railway construction and the scale of human tragedy, Chandrasekaran and several like minded individuals established the DRIG that has organised a series of symposiums and field trips to the Death Railway site.
DRIG is taking efforts to research, document, preserve and publicise the oral history of the survivors before they are forgotten altogether. Chandrasekaran also makes it clear that the group is not going out to seek compensation for the victims and only wants to seek recognition for them.
In Sept 2016 a symposium on the subject matter was held in Kuala Lumpur and it witnessed overwhelming response with 400-500 people attending the event.
In keeping the memories alive, there has to be a monument like the ones built for POWs at the Death Railway site. Chandrasekaran points out even today if the Asians are to pay homage to their ancestors who had died during the construction of the railway they have no where to go while the descends of Allied POWs can go to the war memorials.
The three war cemeteries, in Kanchanaburi and Chungkai in Thailand and Thanbyuzayat in Myanmar stand testament to the fate that befell the Allied Prisoners of War (POWs) who worked at the railway line. However, the Asians who perished remain buried in unmarked graves along the track.
DRIG is now looking into ways how a monument can be built somewhere along the Death Railway alignment in Thailand along with some facilities like chalets that could help bring some returns to maintain the monument that will serve as the reminder that Asians too have been part of the Death Railway tragedy.
Beforehand, DRIG is planning to come up with a virtual monument, that will also help to gather information on the victims from survivors or their next of kin. By this way, DRIG believes it could provide a comprehensive picture of the Death Railway episode and the victims.
Survivors or their next of kin who want share their story or information can email DRIG at [email protected]. — Bernama