『戦場にかける橋』第二次世界大戦中にタイとミャンマーを結んだ鉄道、泰緬鉄道に乗ってみた
Good morning, I am Katoh. I am in Bangkok, Thailand, at a station called Thonburi. Thonburi is the station where Bangkok’s long-distance trains stop. From here, Thonburi Station, long-distance trains depart to the south and west of Bangkok. I’m going to take a train called the Burma-Thailand Railway.
I’m going to take a train called the Burma-Thailand Railway, which you might have heard of if you’re a history buff or a history lover. Thailand to Myanmar, then Burma. It was a railroad that was built in a hurry when Japan had to transport goods overland during World War II.
Most of it was destroyed after the war, but some of it is still there. I’ve been wanting to ride it for a while because I can ride it. And this is Thonburi Station, the starting point of the Burma-Thailand Railway.
We are now heading to Nam Tok station, the last stop on the Thai-Burma railway. So we’ll take the Burma-Thailand Railway. There are only third class carriages and they are a bit shabby. Things are starting to go very well. This is the Burma-Thailand railway. It’s kind of amazing.
For better or worse, it’s a historic train car, but it’s not the kind of train that has a big air conditioner like you see in Southeast Asia, it’s more like a fan that runs like this. It’s a bit old-fashioned.
And there’s a lot of outside air coming in and I don’t know why but it stops in places. Why the hell is it stopping so much? Yeah, you know what?
I got on the 7:45 a.m. train of the Burma-Thailand Railway, and it will take about 4 hours and 50 minutes to get to the last station, Namtok Station. It is 194km to Namtok Station. It takes 4 hours 50 minutes to get there, so it’s a pretty slow train.
When it originally ran from Thailand to Burma it was about 415km, but after Japan lost in WWII the Myanmar side was all gone. The Thai side has also been largely destroyed, so there are only 194km left. Only this much distance left, they say.
So it will take me 4 hours and 50 minutes to get there. I’m in Thailand because I have a strong connection to Thailand this year. I’m actually here on my third business trip this year and it’s today, Sunday.
So I have a little bit of time, so I decided to take a ride on the Burma-Thailand Railway, which I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. There is a very famous movie about the Burma-Thailand Railway called “The Bridge on the River Kwai”.
It’s a very famous movie made by the British and the Americans in the 1950s, and it’s a railroad track that goes through the bridge that was the subject of the movie.
It’s a movie about a group of POWs, mostly British, who are ordered by the Japanese to build a bridge. I’ll add the famous BGM later. It’s a very famous movie, and it became a worldwide tourist attraction because of it. There is a bridge called River Kwai Bridge.
The River Kwai Bridge Railroad? There’s a bridge that goes over the River Kwai that’s a sight to see and I’d love to see it. So about 4 hours, almost 5 hours. I take this train. We are now in Kanchanaburi. This is already a province in the western part of Thailand.
This is a province on the border with Myanmar. The Bridge on the River Kwai is already in front of us. I’ve been in a very rural area until I came here, but this is a prosperous town with a big train station. I feel like this is the center of the prefecture.
And there are a lot of western backpackers. I didn’t see so many before I came here, but I guess they stay here. There are a lot of western backpackers. Nearing the Bridge on the River Kwai Oh, is that a vehicle from back then?
We’re right in front of the River Kwai, which is now a major tourist attraction. There are so many people. Almost there, this area should be the railroad bridge. I think it is possible to go down to see the bridge.
The Burma-Thailand Railway is now officially called the Southern Line or the Nam Tok Line, but there are only two round trips a day. So if you’re here for a day trip, you won’t be able to get on and off the train too often.
So I’m going to skip getting off this time and explore a bit. We should be going through there soon. So this is the railroad bridge over the River Kwai. Oh, there is a POW camp on the other side. Oh, wow.
So this is the River Kwai Railroad Bridge built by the former Japanese army. Oh wow, this is amazing. I understand this part of the arch was built during WWII. This part seems to be the part that was rebuilt after the war.
It is true that the part rebuilt after the war seems to be more robust. The frame is solid. As far as I know this arch was built a long time ago. This is amazing. It’s over, isn’t it? It’s over.
Well, if you don’t know the history of this bridge, it’s nothing. But I am a little happy to be here. If you have never seen the movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai”, you should see it. It’s considered one of the greatest films in the history of world cinema.
Then I’d like to spend another hour or two and see it through to the end. Heading up to the Tham Krasae Railway Bridge. Wow, this is great.
Tham Krasae Railway Bridge, I heard it’s also called Al Hill Railway Bridge and this was one of the most difficult places for the Japanese to build the Burma-Thailand railway. I see that part of the bridge is still made of wood. Amazing.
The river is the Kwai River where the railway bridge used to be. Along this river, oh it goes all the way over there, but wow. This is the rock wall on the other side.
According to one theory, not only the Japanese who came for the construction died, but also the British and other allied troops who were prisoners of war and the local Thai workers who were our allies at the time.
They were called “Romusha”, laborers in Japanese. I also heard that people from Malaya and other occupied places came and made this. They say about 100,000 people might have died if it was not done properly. I think 100,000 is an exaggerated number, but wow, wow. You carved that rock face too.
They made it by hollowing it out. This one is amazing too. Wow, it’s so close you can almost touch it, wow, you hollowed it out? I can touch it already. I can touch it. I really touched it. It’s amazing. Must be hard to hollow this out… Oh, a lot of people.
We have arrived at Tham Kra Sae station. It’s a rather primitive station with only one platform. For a major tourist attraction, the station building doesn’t look like much. But it was amazing.
I heard that you can walk across that pier bridge that you just crossed, so I want to go there for a little bit. I heard you can walk from here. The whole frame is made of wood. But this is wood, oh it’s not wood, it’s stone.
This is amazing. I feel like I’ve never been on a railroad bridge before in my life. It’s an amazing, peaceful place. There are only trees here. Must have been made of wood during WWII. I read somewhere that it was such a heavy construction that they said “one sleeper, one man”.
At that time, Japan was in control of Myanmar, then known as Burma. But the Allied Forces had taken control of the seas, so the Japanese Army had to resupply by land. This is all manual labor. Is it a bit finer because there’s no heavy machinery? This is.
It must look like that because it was done with pickaxes or something. I’m amazed. The Japanese army needed to transport goods, so they built the Burma-Thailand railway. Burma and Thailand have a long history of territorial disputes along this border.
I knew this area was an important transportation hub. It would certainly be difficult to conquer this difficult place and invade the enemy’s country. But the Japanese tried and built a railroad in 1 year and 3 months.
I think a lot of people died because they did it so fast. This is such a historic route. And the most important thing to see on the Burma-Thailand Railway is the bridge over the River Kwai that we just crossed and this Tham Kra Sae Bridge.
I hear these two are the best places to see. So if you go 6 stations away from here, you can go to Namtok station, which is the terminus of the current Namtok line of the Burma-Thai Railway. I heard there was nothing to see after this.
I think I’m going to turn around now because it’s been a long time since I’ve seen anything. Wow, but it’s still amazing to see it like this. It’s a bit stupid or reckless to do this by hand without heavy machinery. Two of my relatives have died in Burma.
I have a relative who died serving in Operation Imphal, which is closely related to the Burma-Thailand Railway. So I would like to go to Burma or Imphal once too. I really think it must have been an amazingly impossible mission just to hear that they made these things by hand.
By the way, my relatives on my mother’s side are four brothers, two men and two women, and the two men died in the operation. Two men died, but they both died without fighting. It’s a very sad story. The person who survived and came back is the uncle of these two relatives.
He told us how they died and that is why they both died of starvation. One of the brothers did well in his studies and became a tank driver. When you are drafted from a rural farming family, you usually become a soldier, but he worked hard and became a tank driver.
So he bravely went into battle as a military man. The Imphal operation was pretty much a supply and disease battle, so it’s a sad story that he joined the operation but he couldn’t fight and he died because he ran out of food.
It is often said that Operation Imphal was really a reckless operation. Yes, it was. I think it was. This is a remnant of the history of Japan fighting a desperate war in the Southeast Asian region. This is scary when you look down. It’s a little bit.
By the way, there used to be a lot of T-shirt shops near this station. There was a T-shirt that said “Death Railway”. Death Railway, Death, Death Railway. OKAY. So we are coming to a place that might be a little hostile to a Japanese person coming.
But there are a few Japanese here and there. Some are young tourists, some are old, some are family members of expatriates. It’s a popular tourist spot. The problem is, as I mentioned, there are only two trains a day going back and forth, so you don’t have much freedom.
There are other tourist spots besides this one, and there are many places to see once you get off the train, but it’s hard to stop if you want to make a day trip.
If I had more time I could see a lot of things if I had enough time to spend a night here in Kanchanaburi.
I heard that there are still some things left, like a museum with many things from the time when the Burma-Thai railway was built, and a cemetery where the dead are buried. Wow, this is amazing.
But if you look at it from here, it’s amazing how they hollowed out this rock pile to build the bridge. I think seeing these things in person is more powerful than seeing them in movies or literature. I left Bangkok Thonburi station at 7:45 a.m. and arrived here at 10:53 a.m.
It is exactly on time and took about 4 hours to get here. It will take me about 4 hours to get back home, but I’m going to eat something before I go home. Time is surprisingly more accurate than I thought. Let’s see, it’s 5:40, 5:40 pm.
The train was supposed to arrive at 17:40, but it actually arrived at 17:40. Thai trains are amazingly on time, aren’t they? We are back at Thonburi station where we left this morning. Ah, that was fun.
I wanted to see the Bridge on the River Kwai and I got to ride the Burma-Thailand Railway so I was incredibly happy. It’s nice to have at least one day off between business trips. So this video is just one day.
I’m between business trips, so this is the only video of this Thai trip. I’ll leave you with this. Thank you very much.
出張の合間に、泰緬鉄道に乗ってきました。
泰緬鉄道は、第二次世界大戦中に旧日本陸軍が建設した、タイのバンコクからミャンマーのヤンゴンをつなぐ鉄道路線です。大日本帝国は米英に宣戦布告していたため、イギリスの植民地であった英領ビルマ、現在のミャンマーへの侵攻を計画していました。そこで旧日本軍はタイ在住の反イギリス植民地支配のビルマ人を募集し、現在のミャンマー軍の前身ともいえるビルマ独立義勇軍（Burma Independence Army, BIA）を結成して軍事教練を施します。1941年12月、タイ王国は大日本帝国と日泰攻守同盟を結び同盟国となり、枢軸国側に列しました。旧日本軍はこのビルマ独立義勇軍とともにタイを通過し、ビルマに侵攻をしました。これに対して連合国はイギリス領インド軍が守りましたが、3月には首都ラングーンが陥落。蒋介石が派遣した中華民国軍もビルマに到着して日本軍と戦闘に入りますが、5月にはイギリス領インド軍も中華民国軍もビルマから撤退します。こうして1942年5月には、日本軍はビルマに軍政を敷くことになりました。
しかし、1942年6月のミッドウェー海戦で旧日本海軍が大損害を被ったため、旧日本軍は海上輸送で劣勢に立たされます。タイ・ビルマ国境は大変な山岳地帯のため、満足な道路も整備されていませんでした。旧日本軍は開戦時には英領ビルマの全面占領を計画していなかったために物資が不足し、さらに海上権を失うことも想定していなかったので補給が貧弱になり、急遽陸上輸送路が求められることになりました。
こうした状況に置いて、1942年6月から泰緬鉄道の建設工事は開始されることとなります。
英領ビルマはビルマ-タイ間の鉄道建設を検討したことはありましたが、複雑な地形のために計画は断念されていました。この難工事を、東京の大本営に持ち込んだのは、「作戦の神様」と讃えられるほどの頭脳を持ちながら非人道的な指揮官とも罵られた、辻政信中佐でした。建設は急を要したために、旧日本軍、連合国軍の捕虜、タイやミャンマー、マレーシア、インドネシアからの労働者が40万人ほど集められ、5年はかかるとされた路線を1年4か月で完成させます。労働環境は過酷で、多くの死者が出たためにDeath Railwayとも呼ばれています。完成後は、1944年3月にインド国民軍と旧日本軍が共同で行ったインパール作戦などでも使用されました。
大戦終了後は、ビルマ側の線路はイギリス軍によって撤去されました。泰緬鉄道によるシンガポール港の重要性の低下を危惧した結果だと考えられています。タイ側は、ミャンマー国境近くまでタイ国有鉄道南本線ナムトック支線として残っており、現在も観光列車として営業されています。もとはバンコクからラングーンまで415㎞あった泰緬鉄道ですが、現在はバンコクからナムトックまでの194㎞のみが残ります。
現在は、バンコクのトンブリー駅から終点のナムトック駅まで、毎日2往復の電車が出ています。たったの100バーツで終点まで乗れますので、タイの田舎を満喫しながら、歴史の遺構を満喫するにはいい路線です。往路4時間50分の旅ですので、朝早くから乗ることをおススメします。
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