A warm January morning ThailandWest Kanchanapuri Province, Silva Kumar oversees the cremation of 106 skulls and bones – the remnants of Tamil workers who died 80 years ago when building a railway for Japan’s occupation army.
Silva Kumar, son of the survivor, stood in front of the ritual fire.
The Buddhist Festival has long been recognizing those who have forgotten those who have forgotten the unmarked graves, and their suffering has been destroyed from history.
Silva explained that the residues were discovered during a construction project near the Governor’s Office in Kanjanapuri, illuminating a painful past.
Silva said, “Of the 500 bones that initially discovered in 1990, 106 were handed over by the Archaeological Department of the University of Chilbhakorn (Jeet War Museum). The rest were cremated by the Chinese foundation.”
Silva, the leader of the Malaysians and Indians in the Bangkok (MIP) organization, said the attempt would be in April with the planned closure of the museum in April.
Silva’s father was one of the survivors, and his memories of the brutal conditions guided Silva personally.
Under the Japanese regime, Asian workers were considered spending – their suffering was not recorded and their deaths were ignored.
Between 1942 and 1945, about a quarter of a million Romshah – Japanese tenure for the forced Asian workers – forced to work on the last railway from Thailand to Myanmar Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia In Second World War.
Although the promised wage, they were replaced by brutal labor. Many people died of malnutrition, disease and fatigue, and their bodies remain in unprecedented graves.
Although the suffering of the 12,000 -year -old warriors who were destroyed with them were well documented, 90,000 Asian workers who lost their lives were often forgotten.
Asian compulsions are compelled to work in extreme conditions
415 kilometers (258 miles) Railway was built to connect Bangkok with Myanmar’s Rangoon and Yangon for Japanese military distribution taxes. This program, then, known as the “Death Railway”, is unpopular for its brutal working conditions.
Although the allies were greatly affected, Romusha, who was more than them, faced even worse conditions.
The imperialist Japanese army planned the railway as a strategic military path. Many workers from Malaya and Java have been deceived by good wage promises and must be subjected to compulsory labor under intense conditions.
CholeraDiarrhea and Malaria Was wide. The most weak on the job were often attacked – or simply letting die.
“The railway was cut through the thick forests, and it is difficult to obtain the goods,” said retired American senior and amateur historian JJ. Said Karwaki.
. Asian workers, it was too much, “he said.
Romusha’s posts shortage.
“The Japanese were confirmed that every body record was immediately destroyed after the war. Between the surrender and formal ceremony in September, in two weeks, they were said to have decided to eliminate everything related to Asian workers,” Karwaki DWU.
“They felt a duty to POWs to protect those records and hand them over to allies,” he said.
Bring Romusha out of shades
Efforts are now being made to properly acknowledge the contributions of Asian compulsions by establishing the stone of a country or Tamil heroes at the main war tomb in Kanchanapuri.
“Nathukal is a respectable symbol for the unjust Tamil workers,” Kumuda said.
“They have forgotten in history. This is a small step to give them dignity.”
The official recognition is slow. While allies have war souvenirs, some people in Thailand respected the dead Romisha.
The mother government, which focused on promoting Kanchanaburi as a tourist center, was not much more concerned about expanding Romusha’s historical documents.
Volunteers work to find the past
But the number of volunteers is increasing to detect the forgotten sections of the railway. Many sites have been overtaken in the jungle, and the remnants of labor camps have disappeared.
Groups of community members use satellite images and historical accounts to find residues of railways, labor camps and cemetery sites. The work is slow and difficult, but they believe that it is important to protect the entire history of the death railway.
“We see slices, rusty equipment, railway spikes, and fragments of history,” said local and local Saranyadavong, a group of his friends and enthusiasts.
“Tourists come here to see the bridge, but they do not know (full) history. Now, most people do not know where the railway is, or where it goes beyond the Namdok station in Kanchanaburi.”
After decades, Romusha is often invisible. Their remnants are invented in the mass graves, often revealed during construction projects or during land excavation.
Without official records, many of these remain cremated or renovated without proper consent.
“This is to ensure that these men, children and women are destroyed from it,” Silva Kumar said.
For lawyers like Silva, this is the beginning of the struggle to make sure Romusha remembers with the victims of other war.
While smoking over the Kanchanapuri p Buddhist grave, it is a final farewell-and-Tamil Romusha for a long recognition.
Revised: Keith Walker
