It is also to honor Little Mother Ubon who aided prisoners of war in a interment camp here in Ubon Ratchaithani. We will be participating in a wreath laying ceremony.

About Little Mother Ubon

 

In 1945, some residents of Ubon Ratchathani (Ubon) risked their lives to help exhausted & sick Allied prisoners of war.  After the war, some of the ex-prisoners paid to build the Monument of Merit to thank Ubon people for their humanity & kindness.

The Japanese army used Allied & Asian prisoners to build the terrible “Death Railway” which ran from Thailand to Burma (‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ movie).  The food was so bad and the work was so hard that many of the prisoners died.

Most of the prisoners who perished were Asian, about 90,000; however, nobody knows the exact number.  The Japanese used whole Tamil-Indian families from Malaysia to work on the Death Railway.  Many of the Asian prisoners also came from China and Myanmar (Burma).  Many of those were worked & died were women and children.

Approximately 16,000 of the 60,000 Western prisoners who worked on the Death Railway died while in internment.  Those western prisoners who perished include 6,318 from Britain; 2,815 from Australia; 2,490 from Holland; and 4,377 from the USA.  Many other prisoners died later from illnesses contracted during their imprisonment.  The deaths were not accidents!  As the railroad needed to be built fast, the prisoners worked without adequate food, rest, or medical care.  They worked until they dropped.  New slaves replaced the dead.

 

The Japanese army brought the last of the Allied prisoners in Thailand to Ubon. The guards threatened the local Ubon people not to give aid to the prisoners, but many Thais bravely tried to help when they could.  Survivors told about one Thai woman and her daughter, ‘Little Mother Ubon.’  Even though the prisoners were strangers, Mother Ubon and her daughter repeatedly came to the camp to give fruit to the starving men.  This showed great bravery and compassion,

A Thai officer fighting with the allies marched into Ubon in 1945 & finally freed the prisoners.

Flier from the organizers of the ceremony.

 

Download Flier: Remember Day Nov 2020 Flyer.pdf

Google map: https://goo.gl/maps/ubKZFuSsjN82  GPS: 15.230841, 104.858398

RIP ,Lest we forget. I am stuck in Australia or I'd attend.

 

I’m going down to Kanchanaburi this year. Laying 2 wreaths on behalf of the Royal Army Medical Corps. Maybe next year if I’m still here. Lest we Forget.

Always Remember, but also Forgive.

On 11/6/2020 at 5:55 PM, mpyre said:

Always Remember, but also Forgive.

Forgive what? Perhaps you should read “The Rape of Nanking” Iris Chang. 

Our attendance at the ceremony is in then news now.

 

On 11/7/2020 at 6:35 PM, Patriot said:

Forgive what? Perhaps you should read “The Rape of Nanking” Iris Chang. 

Forgive Us Our Sins for outrageous criminality on all sides. I've read it, and it doesn't paint a pretty picture of humankind. It's something like employing fuel-air explosions perfected by the "good-guys," in Afghanistan, thermite bombs and napalm, not to mention nuclear weapons in Japan itself...these actions cannot support any claim to a superior moral position. But perhaps you see that as it for tat. And so the cycle continues forever.