The Bridge

After checking to make sure we had a new van with indestructible air-conditioning, we headed out to Kanchanaburi province about 120 km west of Bangkok. Kanchanaburi is the home of the "bridge over the river Kwai", made famous by the 1952 film with Alec Guiness and William Holden (which was actually filmed in Sri Lanka. During WWII, the Japanese needed a railway link between Burma and Thailand to help them accomplish two things: Cut off British and American support to China through the 'Burma Road', and give the Japanese empire secure access to tungsten deposits in Burma.

In order to build the railroad the Japanese used POW's captured in the Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Approximately half the workers died either from malnutrition, disease, or exhaustion. In the city of Kanchanaburi there is a cemetery dedicated to the British, Australian, and Dutch POW's that died during the construction. (In actuality, over eighty-percent of the workers who died on that project were Malay, Burmese, or Chinese that had been pressed in to service by the Japanese. There is no memorial for them.) After the bridge's completion it was destroyed by Allied bombing.

We had an enjoyable and education day learning about the Pacific theater. I enjoyed the Railway of Death museum. Jake enjoyed playing around in the waterfall. Del enjoyed dinner at the floating restaurant. Kaddi and Sharon enjoyed watching dozens of schoolchildren laugh and stare at me. Meg enjoyed chewing a jumbo package of Bubbilicious.