KANCHANABURI WAR CEMETERY

THANBYUZAYAT WAR CEMETERY

The village of Thanbyuzayat is 65 kilometres by road from Moulmein. The War Cemetery lies at the foot of the hills which separate the Union of Myanmar from Thailand, and the cemetery is one of the three in which are buried prisoners of war of the Japanese who lost their lives in the building of the Burma-Siam railway. Kanchanaburi is a town at the point where the River Mae Khlong divides into two separate rivers, the Kwai Yai river and the Kwai Noi river, 129 kilometres west-north-west of Bangkok. It is best reached by road along the National Highway which runs north from Bangkok. A motorway from Bangkok is under construction. There is a bus and train service from Bangkok. Kanchanaburi War Cemetery is on the Provinces Tourist route and is highly visited. The large cemetery is situated in the north-western part of the town along Saeng Chuto Road, the main thoroughfare. A Commonwealth War Graves Commission signpost faces the cemetery on the opposite side of the road. The cemetery is only a short distance from the site of the former Kanburi Prisoner-of-War Base Camp, through which most of the prisoners passed on their way to other camps, and is the largest of the three war cemeteries on the BurmaSiam railway. Designed, like Chungkai, by Colin St Clair Oakes, it was created by the Army Graves Service who transferred to it all graves, save American, from camp burial grounds and solitary sites along the southern half of the railway from Bangkok to Nieke. Most of the base camps and hospitals were in this area and the total number of burials in the cemetery is nearly 7,000. This figure includes 300 men who died during an epidemic at Nieke Camp and were cremated, and whose ashes now rest in two graves in the cemetery. Their names are commemorated on Portland stone panels in the shelter pavilion which stands towards the southern corner of the cemetery, and in line across its width with the Cross of Sacrifice and the Stone of Remembrance. (These two monuments are described in the section on Chungkai War Cemetery). In the cemetery register the addition of the words Spec. Mem. against the number of the graves indicates that the casualty is one of the men whose names appear on the panels. Over the two graves are bronze plaques bearing the inscription:HERE ARE BURIED THE ASHES OF 300 SOLDIERS WHOSE NAMES ARE INSCRIBED IN THE MEMORIAL BUILDING IN THIS CEMETERY All the graves in Kanchanaburi War Cemetery are marked by bronze plaques mounted on concrete pedestals. In the entrance building is a bronze memorial tablet recording the names of 11 soldiers of the army of undivided India, buried in Muslim civil cemeteries in Thailand, whose graves are unmaintainable. The register of the graves is kept in the cemetery service area and may be requested from one of the gardeners. The Commissions Group Supervisor in Thailand can also be contacted at this cemetery. Thanbyuzayat took its name from the Than Byu Zayat - which may be translated as white iron resting place - a hut or rest home built many years before the 1939-1945 War by some devout Buddhist for the accommodation of passing travellers. It was the Burmese terminus of the line built during the 1939-45 War by the Japanese with prisoner-of-war labour to transport supplies and troops through Siam to their army in Burma, by linking Moulmein with Bangkok. The first group of prisoners of war to work on the railway reached Thanbyuzayat, via Moulmein, at the end of September 1942, and the camp they established became Prisoner-of-War Administration Headquarters and a base camp. In January 1943 a base hospital was organised for the sick, then numbering 600. Between March and June 1943, the administration headquarters and the hospital, situated close to a railway marshalling yard and workshops, were visited three times by Allied bombers, and numerous casualties among the prisoners of war occurred. The camp was then evacuated and the prisoners, including the sick, were marched to camps further along the line where camp hospitals were set up. For some time, however, Thanbyuzayat continued to be used as a reception centre for the groups of prisoners arriving at frequent intervals to reinforce the parties working on the line up to the Burma-Siam border. The cemetery was created by the Army Graves Service for the graves originally located in camp burial grounds or isolated sites along the railway track between Moulmein and Nieke, which is just over the border in Thailand. There are some 3,800 burials, and each grave is marked by a bronze plaque mounted on a concrete pedestal. The plots of graves are widely spaced, radiating from a garden laid out in a half circle on the northern side. Here, at the entrance to the cemetery, wrought-iron gates are set on a tall pergola which links twin shelters of ashlar and rubble masonry. The Stone of Remembrance is situated nearby and at the far end of the cemetery stands the Cross of Sacrifice (see section on Chungkai). Prior permission is needed to travel to the area where the cemetery is located. Enquiries about the possibility of obtaining permission to visit the cemetery should be made to the nearest Union of Myanmar (Burma) Embassy, or a Commonwealth Embassy in Yangon (Rangoon). There is an occasional air service to the area from Rangoon, but otherwise visitors must rely on a rather arduous journey by train, ferry and taxi and are therefore recommended to seek the advice of a reliable travel agent before undertaking a visit. As in the Thai cemeteries, a register of the graves is available on site and may be requested from one of the gardeners.