Commonwealth War Cemetery Thanbyuzayat

Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery is one of the three war cemeteries where the remains of prisoners-of-war rest, who died during the construction of the Burma-Siam-Railway. The graves are brought together from many locations along the railway.

The construction of the Burma-Siam-Railway took place from October 1942 to December 1943. In total, about 13,000 prisoners-of-war and 80,000 to 10,000 civilians died during the construction.

Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery contains 3,149 Commonwealth war graves. There are also 621 Dutch war graves.

The first prisoner of war (POW) grave on the Burma-Thailand railway, for VX32628 Driver Private Charles Clifford Johnson, 2/4th Reserve Motor Transport Company, who died at 17.50 hours on 24 January 1943 of diarrhoea, debility and heart failure, aged 39 years, and was buried on 25 January 1943 by Padre Cunningham. The grave was marked with a wooden cross. Thetkaw is fourteen kilometres south of Thanbyuzayat, or 400 kilometres north of Nong Pladuk (photo 2).

Do you have more information about this location? Inform us!

Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries en Jerry Karwacki
• Photos: Tetsuya Kitahata (1), Jerry Karwacki (2)