Of the approximately 10 million tourists who visit Kanchanaburi each year, many, especially foreign tourists, come to this remote central Thai province just to visit the “Death Railway” and the “Bridge on the River Kwai,” made famous by a 1957 British-American film.
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| Lam Dong journalist delegation and members of the Thai Local Journalists Association at the River Kwai Bridge |
1. It took us more than 3 hours from Bangkok airport to get to Kanchanaburi.
This is my first time coming to Thailand. This trip I went with members of the Lam Dong Journalists Association, which has long had cooperation programs with the Thai Local Press Association in visiting and working together.
Kanchanaburi with the city of the same name Kanchanaburi is a large province located in Central - Western Thailand with an area of 19,483 km2, population of about 900 thousand people. This is the 3rd largest province in Thailand, after only 2 provinces Nakhon Ratchasima and Chiang Mai.
From Bangkok, we followed a two-lane highway connecting the provinces and cities in Thailand. The car was driven on the left, and on both sides of the road were plains with peaceful villages, pointed-roof pagodas, and deep-silted rivers flowing through vast rice and sugarcane fields. However, when we reached Kanchanaburi, the western mountains and hills gradually appeared.
Nearly 62% of Kanchanaburi's area is forest or land covered with forest. Because of the large forest area, Kanchanaburi has 7 national parks and 2 wildlife sanctuaries. This place is also the source of 2 large rivers, the Kwae Yai and Kwae Noi rivers (the river famous for the River Kwai Bridge). The confluence of these 2 rivers in Kanchanaburi city creates the 132 km long Mae Klong River, flowing through the 2 provinces of Ratchaburi and Samut Songkhram into the Gulf of Thailand.
Along with primeval forests, famous landscapes (such as the 7-storey Erawan waterfall considered the most beautiful in Asia), large rivers, and handicraft villages, Kanchanaburi also attracts tourists because it is an ancient land from the Ayutthaya dynasty and has vestiges of the 13th-14th century Khmer culture in Thailand with Mueang Sing Historical Park.
However, when talking about Kanchanburi, it would be a mistake not to mention the Death Railway and the world-famous “Bridge on the River Kwai” (the bridge crosses the Mae Klong River, but this railway follows the Kwae Noi Valley, so it is called the Bridge on the River Kwai). It is this infamous railway and the famous bridge that have attracted countless tourists to come here, including me.
2. To talk about the death railway and the bridge on the River Kwai, we should go back to the years of World War II. At that time, Kanchanaburi was still a remote border province (because it bordered Burma, now Myanmar), considered a dangerous land, with miasma, poisonous forests and water. In 1942, after conquering many countries in the region, the Japanese army wanted to build a railway connecting Thailand to Myanmar, through this land to prepare forces to attack the British army in India. This land route was considered safer for the Japanese than having to transport by sea at that time.
Construction began in 1942, and the railway, called the “Burma Railway”, has a total length of 415 km, from Ban Pong, Ratchaburi Province, Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Mon State, Myanmar. It was designed by the Japanese and was expected to take about 4-5 years to complete. However, due to the urgent need for war, the Japanese army at that time mobilized about 180-250 thousand workers from countries in the region and 61 thousand prisoners of war to come here to do forced labor on the construction site to complete the road in just 16 months.
Due to harsh working conditions in the humid mountainous area, lack of food, medicine, and poor medical conditions, the road took the lives of about 85,000 workers and about 12,500 prisoners of war when it was completed. Most of them died of exhaustion, malnutrition, or infection.
As for the workers, most of the dead were Burmese, Malaysians, Indians, and Thais; as for the prisoners of war, they were soldiers captured by the Japanese army such as Australians, British, Americans, Dutch, New Zealanders... When they fell, their bodies were buried along this route.
Right at the beginning of the railway bridge over the River Kwai, I read a commemorative plaque from the United States, which clearly stated that about 700 American soldiers were captured by the Japanese, became prisoners of war and were forced to do hard labor on this road, of which 356 died from “disease, starvation, overwork and cruel physical torture”.
It is no exaggeration to say that for every sleeper placed on that road of death, a life is lost.
3. But history seemed to lie somewhere in the pages of books and in the memories of those involved, until a movie was released. It was a film with the cooperation of England and America, with a star cast and a talented director. The film was about the fate of prisoners of war who worked hard on this road, especially when building the railway bridge across the River Kwai. After its release, the image of the death railway and this iron bridge was brought to the world.
The entire story of the movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai” is based on the novel “Le Pont de la Rivière Kwai” by French writer Pierre Boulle, about prisoners of war working hard on the death railway and the construction of a railway bridge across the river Kwai with literary and dramatic additions. In the movie, the Japanese army ordered British prisoners of war to build the bridge. Colonel Nicholson, a proud British prisoner of war, decided to build a solid bridge for fame, while the Allied army sent a commando team to destroy the bridge.
But the genius of the film's director, David Lean, a British man, turned the story with those added details into a tragic epic. Although the film's story is not similar to the real story compared to the stories told by survivors on the road of death later, the film was received beyond expectations when it was released in 1957. It was like a storm, sweeping the world's prestigious film awards, winning 3 Golden Globes and 7 Oscars.
Interestingly, the scenes in this movie were not shot in Thailand but were mainly shot in Sri Lanka. The most impressive scene, the scene of the bridge being blown up by a mine at the end of the movie, was also shot in Sri Lanka in 1957. However, in reality, the iron bridge across the River Kwai was designed and built by the Japanese, put into use in May 1943, and collapsed not by a mine but by an air raid by the US Air Force in 1945. The bridge was then rebuilt and still exists today. The wooden bridge across the river was also bombed 9 times and was rebuilt shortly after. Right at the head of the iron bridge on the River Kwai, there is a giant model of a bomb stuck into the ground to refer to this collapse event.
“The Bridge on the River Kwai” directed by David Lean has been rated as one of the best war films of the 20th century; ranked 11th among the best British films; selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the US Library of Congress.
4. It should be said that the Kwai River Bridge is just a normal iron bridge like any other railway bridge across a river in Thailand or Vietnam. But with the movie "The Kwai River Bridge", it has become a bridge made of "gold" for Thai tourism and Kanchanaburi province.
During the afternoon walking on this railway bridge, I started talking with a British family. It was Mr. Richard's family, he was 71 years old, with his wife and 4 children including son, daughter, daughter-in-law and grandchildren who came to Thailand, to Kanchanaburi province to visit the bridge, to visit the grave of a relative in the very large war cemetery built nearby to commemorate those who fell on this road.
For many years now, the Thai people have restored the model of the prison complex, barracks, train station, built a cemetery, restored part of the railway, built a museum; repaired and renovated the bridge, repaired old locomotives and organized train cars for tourists to visit; built villas and restaurants along the river, organized boat trips along the river to see the bridge. Right at the head of the bridge, there is a small market selling many souvenirs for tourists...
The Governor of Kanchanaburi Province said that every year the province has over 10 million tourists coming here.
When I walk on the Kwai Bridge with many tourists every day, I think of the Dalat - Thap Cham cog railway. It is also a historic railway, a beautiful route with unique cog railways climbing mountains, old steam locomotives, tunnels carved through the mountains with French engineers and many Vietnamese workers working on this road since the early 20th century, many of whom died because of the wild forest and poisonous water. The railway, which was once in operation, is now lying dormant and waiting for investment.
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