View from Hellfire Pass over the Noi River Valley, Kanchanaburi

Hellfire Pass, Kanchanaburi, Thailand

 

Hellfire Pass is the name of a railway cutting on the former Burma Railway ("Death Railway") which was built with forced labour during the Second World War. The pass is noted for the harsh conditions and heavy loss of life suffered by its labourers during construction. Hellfire Pass is named for the sight of emaciated prisoners labouring at night by torchlight, said to resemble a scene from Hell.

Hellfire Pass in the Tenasserim Hills was a particularly difficult section of the line to build. It was the largest rock cutting on the railway, coupled with its general remoteness and the lack of proper construction tools during building.

Sixty nine men were beaten to death by Japanese guards in the six weeks it took to build the cutting, and many more died from cholera, dysentery, starvation, and exhaustion. However, the majority of deaths occurred amongst labourers whom the Japanese enticed to come to help build the line with false promises of good jobs. These labourers, mostly Malayans (Chinese, Malays and Tamils from Malaya), suffered mostly the same as the POWs at the hands of the Japanese

 

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