Hellfire Pass
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Hellfire Pass is the name of a railway cutting on the Death Railway in Thailand, known by the Japanese as Konyu cutting. There is a museum co-sponsored by the Thai and Australian governments at the site to commemerate the suffering of those involved in the construction of the railway. Konyu cutting was a particularly difficult section of the line to build due to it being the largest rock cutting on the railway, coupled with its general remoteness and the lack of proper construction tools during building. The Australian and British Prisoners of War were required by the Japanese to work 18 hours a day to complete the cutting. It was estimated that 68 men were beaten to death by the Japanese guards in the six weeks it took to build the cutting, although many more died from cholera, dysentery, starvation, and exhaustion [Wigmore p568]. The Japanese kept no records of these deaths.
There are no longer any trains running on this stretch of the line, the nearest railway station is at Nam Tok from where trains of the State Railway of Thailand can be caught running over the famous Whampo viaduct, and across the bridge over the River Kwai to Kanchanaburi which is the nearest major town and tourist base. Visitors to the museum usually base themselves in Kanchanaburi and it is possible to roll into one day a trip to the famous Erewan waterfall in the morning, followed by a trip to Hellfire Pass and the museum and then catch the train back to Kanchanaburi to cross the famous bridge around sunset.
As a part of the museum experience it is possible to walk through the cutting itself and along a section of the former railway trackbed. An audio tour including recorded memories of surviving Prisoners of War is available at the Museum.
Hellfire Pass is also another name for Halfaya Pass in north Africa.
References
- The Japanese Thrust - Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Lionel Wigmore, AWM, Canberra, 1957.