Hellfire And Fury Over Sacred Site Upgrade

[TizMe]

From todays Sydney Morning Herald

Hellfire and fury over sacred site upgrade

By Connie Levett Herald Correspondent at Hellfire Pass, Thailand

June 7, 2005

Angry POW … Bill Toon with a picture of Edward Dunlop.

Photo: Craig Abraham

Bill Toon has been back to Hellfire Pass 20 times since he slaved on the Burma railway with a hammer and chisel as a prisoner of war in 1942-43. But the next time will be different.

Mr Toon has walked the 25-metre deep cutting with his old friend Edward Dunlop, the Australian military doctor who saved so many POW lives by standing up to the Japanese guards. He helped raise the money to build the cement staircase from the road to the railbed.

He was there in 1994 when some of Dunlop's ashes were buried on the railbed between the rails. A year later he scattered the ashes of another POW, Arch Mackay, at the site. The ashes of at least five other POWs are believed to have been scattered there.

Next time he goes back, things will be different. The original rails and sleepers that formed Dunlop's headstone have been torn up. The rails lie unmarked beside the railbed 500 metres along the track.

"I think it's sacrilege to have pulled them up," said Mr Toon, 84, from his Melbourne home yesterday. "But the Government can do what they want."

A new battle is looming between bureaucrats and the former POWs over redevelopment of the Hellfire Pass memorial. The POWs are shocked at the cavalier treatment of Dunlop's ashes and angry they have not been consulted over the choice of a new memorial.

The original rails were pulled up as part of a redevelopment of the site to build a new granite and sandstone memorial.

"The focus of the memorial remains the cutting and the railbed rather than the rails," a spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs said. The rails will be relaid further away from the cutting.

But Terry Beaton, a former curator of the museum at Hellfire Pass, said: "They have built something with no empathy and lifted something that was genuine, that the prisoners had carried. The sleepers were taken from the track. Pulling up the tracks, sleepers … is a desecration of a war grave."

When Bill Flowers, of the POWs and relatives association, complained to the Office of Australian War Graves that it was improper to disturb the place where Dunlop's ashes were sprinkled a senior bureaucrat had told him, "Oh, but they'd only blow away."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs denied these words had been used.

Mr Toon has not seen the new monument. He struggles with his legs now but is still considering another trip to Thailand in August. But he has heard from friends about the rails and sleepers. He said everyone should be shocked by the disturbing of Dunlop's ashes.

"It is a [desecration] but when you look at it in another light, when they want to defend themselves, they can say he was buried in Australia," Mr Toon said.

A third of Dunlop's ashes were buried at Hellfire, a third on the River Kwai and a third in Australia.

The style of new monument, a black granite plinth inside a circle with a path of sandstone sleepers leading to it, has also angered the former POWs.

Jean Roberts, an Englishwoman who made a second visit to Hellfire Pass at the weekend, said her father, who served with the Royal Artillery, 3rd heavy anti-aircraft unit, was a prisoner on the railway.

On her first visit the rails and sleepers were still in place. "I was shocked [this time] that it was gone … The granite is very nice but they were the real rails. The granite memorial means nothing. The rails meant everything."

A request to interview the head of the Office of Australian War Graves was refused.

[Artisi]

Can someone tell me how do I load pics my reply - I can then show you what "was" there up until later last year.

[Jai Dee]

Can someone tell me how do I load pics my reply - I can then show you what "was" there up until later last year.

Have a look in Forum Support... loads of topics there.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=33347

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=28584

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=22048

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16687

Edited June 7, 2005 by Jai Dee

[mijan24]

Artisi

Are you the original curator (manager)? whose name escapes me.

Terry Beaton was there for 3 years and carried on the developoment in great style I communicated with Terry and Shelia many times whilst they lived 2 HP and subsequent selection of "curators" managers vis the AWGC is markedly a job for the boys - no sour grapes - just disappointed to see things go this way.

Mijan24

Can someone tell me how do I load pics my reply - I can then show you what "was" there up until later last year.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Artisi]

Mijan24

No, I'm not the original curator, but like you, I think that Terry was doing a good job- not too sure about the direction it is going now. The simplicity of what was there (or wasn't there) was / is a stark reminder of an awful and hopefully unforgetable event and it should be retained as a memorial not as a show-pony. Let them dress up the museum anyway they want - but leave the railway well alone.

[tuky]

Does anyone have a pic of how it looks now?

[Nordlys]

Just a simple question - Why is Hellfire Pass such a special and sacred place for Australian POWs and veterans but less so for British and Dutch? Was it mostly Australian POWs who slaved at that part of the Death railway?

[Kan Win]

The two placards posted on the wall which Artisi showed us in his photo (nice pic’s btw) but in more detail.

Tks to my mate Mel for these two.

R.I.P.

[mijan24]

The following address by JH on the opening of The Hellfire Pass Museum may expand why peoples place such emphasis on this particulat location.

Apart from the Farang's who lost their lives, it is also very interesting to note the numbers of Asians who also perished (the Asian numbers are estimated as the actual number is not known.

Copy of JH opening address.(courtesy of my files on The Burma Railway BF)

THE PRIME MINISTER

THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP

ADDRESS AT THE OPENING OF

THE HELLFIRE PASS MUSEUM

Deputy Defence Minister General Watanachai and Mrs Supawattisiri General Suntorn (Head, Armed Forces Development Command) Mr Direck (Governor of Kanchanaburi) veterans, ladies and gentlemen.

Memorials throughout the world attest to Australia’s achievement in battle. Most stand on the very tracts of earth where once our countrymen struggled and suffered before prevailing over their enemies.

This museum - through its stories, by it message also a Memorial - is no different. Here also, Australians struggled and suffered and, in the end, prevailed. Here was fought a war within a war - a deeper, darker battle against the very essence of an enemy which sought to enslave the free world. Put simply, in the words of a great man who served at this place, "it was a war against monstrous things".

Our enemies then aimed at the complete submission of those they sought to conquer. Unconditional surrender of the spirit was demanded - a world created in which the vanquished were to be made dumb and dull-eyed, where all spark of compassion for their own kind was to be extinguished and with it the means to organise, to resist.

This Memorial is dedicated to the memory of every man and woman whose heroism was marked by their survival in the face of outrageous brutality and terror and to every individual who sought to deliver them from servitude.

We can only wonder how they managed to endure and to survive. They existed in a ###### where the slightest pause, or misconstrued gesture, could result in appalling retribution - in beatings with rifle butts or bamboo canes or boots. Here alone, at Hellfire Pass, 68 young men were beaten to death for being too exhausted, or too weak, or too sick.

None of us can imagine how men can claw out solid rock with nothing more than their own hands and primitive tools. Let alone imagine how near naked and starving men could build a railway through 420 torturous kilometres of jungle, across rivers and over rugged mountain ranges. Or how survival is possible on a handful of rice each day and living each hour stalked by disease and pain. Or how madness could be kept at bay.

Yet this Memorial does not seek to magnify tragedy but to commemorate triumph. And celebrate the brilliance of Medical Officers such as Albert Coates, Bruce Hunt, Roy Mills, Weary Dunlop and every one of their colleagues. The compassion of medical orderlies who risked their own lives in cholera wards tending the sick and the dying.

The courage of ordinary soldiers who, haunted by memories of home and happiness, faced the dawn of each new terrible day.

Invested here is every small, unrecorded act of kindness bestowed upon a mate and every act conferred upon a complete stranger. It is a place to represent the shared experience of nations by paying tribute to all those who suffered. The thousands of British, American, Indian and Dutch imprisoned with Australians, enduring the same abuses, dying the same deaths. The estimated quarter of a million romusha, forced labourers from Singapore, Malaya, Java, Vietnam, Burma and Thailand of whom 90,000 are said to have perished - numbers only the brutality of man in foul climate and harsh terrain could seek to camouflage.

It is a place also to recognise the kindness and bravery of the Thai people who attempted to ease the suffering of our men. Who risked their own subjugation for the deliverance of others. Through simple deeds of hard-boiled eggs left anonymously on riverbanks to be found by starving prisoners. And great heart-stopping risks taken to smuggle medicines into workcamps.

At this sacred place, we affirm that Australia will never forget acts of courage made on behalf of its people.

I wish to recognise two extraordinary individuals, Boonpong and his wife Boopa Sirivejaphan, who were shadowed by the threat of torture and even death to smuggle much needed medical supplies, money and other goods to allied prisoners along this railway. The extent of their sacrifice was kept secret from grateful prisoners until 1945 yet their selfless actions sustained life and morale for many Australians throughout their servitude.

On behalf of a thankful nation I present this posthumous award, a certificate of our appreciation, to the grandson of Boonpong and Boopa, Veeravej Subhawat. Let it mark our enduring gratitude for the virtuous deeds of your grandparents and let it symbolise the warmth of our friendship which has grown ever stronger since the war.

As a token of an unrepayable debt, I also wish to announce today the contribution by the Australian Government of a further $50,000 towards the Weary Dunlop/Boonpong Exchange Trust. A trust in memory of all Australian Medical Officers and of every Thai citizen who risked torture and death to provide comfort and hope to our sick. A trust to allow talented young Thai surgeons to travel to Australia to refine their skills. Out of war, a legacy of peace.

So too, can this museum be claimed as a legacy for the future. Let it exemplify the courage and compassion which are the highest virtues to which our young can aspire. Let it be a prophecy of Australia’s commitment to Asia and all its peoples. Of our willingness to stand together during empty years of adversity as well as bountiful years of plenty. Let it warn off any nation who may mistakenly judge that freedom loving countries will ever allow tyranny to prevail. And let it promise that the memory of what was done here, lost here, gained here, will not be forgotten.

To all those responsible for the vision and reality of this museum, our heartfelt thanks are owed you. On behalf of the Australian people and in memory of those it honours, I declare the Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum.

To answer my own question on the original curator "Rod Beatty" springs from the depths of the muddlement I call a brain - last info Rod I is still in the museum game in Karnchanaburi.?

Regards

Mijan24

[Artisi]

Mijan24

Thanks for the copy of the opening address - for those not aware of the significance of "the railaway" to Australians (speaking as an Australian) and others who were involved or interested, this address should give a good insight to some of the reasons why it is considered by many as something a "bit special".

I too would be interested to know what it looks like but plan to be there for ANZAC Day in 2006 anyway so will see first hand. Even at this point I feel very negative about it and would have prefered to see it left alone - as it was - a stark reminder to all those who worked and perished on the railway.

[Nignoy]

Mijan24

Thanks for the copy of the opening address - for those not aware of the significance of "the railaway" to Australians (speaking as an Australian) and others who were involved or interested, this address should give a good insight to some of the reasons why it is considered by many as something a "bit special".

I too would be interested to know what it looks like but plan to be there for ANZAC Day in 2006 anyway so will see first hand. Even at this point I feel very negative about it and would have prefered to see it left alone - as it was - a stark reminder to all those who worked and perished on the railway.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We were in Sai Yok 3 weeks ago , visited Hellfire pass with Mon friends who also lost many family members, anyone visiting the pass suggest you stay at River Kwai village Resort, there is a wonderful little museum there!! with lots of information about the Death Railway, there are lots of lesser known war grave sites in the area, we were even shown inscriptions carved by dutch, mon, and british p.o.ws in rock faces near Nam Tok Noi, lest we forget!! nignoy