Japan is likely to undertake Kanchanaburi route railway project

[Commerce]

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This is totally wrong on many levels. Seems that Thailand doesn't care much for history.

Isn't integrity and honour a big thing in Japan? Surely they have the education to remember what happened.

Not really a surprise with the distorted history lessons they get.

Ask a Thai what the Victory Monument commemorates and very few will know. Why it is still there after the land was given back is a mystery.

For the most part the Japanese don't know the truth about WWII, they aren't taught it in school and for obvious reasons it is quite a taboo subject.

As an example, I have a very good Japanese friend who lives in Thailand (mid forties), I took him to Kanchanaburi for the ANZAC Day 2010 dawn service and he couldn't believe what he was seeing; he couldn't believe the Japanese had done this.

He'd commented that the war never made it to Australia, again, when I mentioned the bombing of Darwin, midget subs in Sydney Harbour he was dumbfounded.

Unfortunately, the people who know the truth in Japan have sadly passed on without passing on the history.

They know what happened alright , they just wont admit it or apologize for it

Especially the rape of Nanjing, which is a part of why Sino/Japanese tensions still currently exist.

I declare this off-topic... but if you've never been to Nanjing, and it's museum.. please add knowledge to your remit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-NjDZqGwws

This does have some pertinence to topics being discussed though. Respect.

Edited March 27, 2015 by Commerce

[bheard]

Fits. Fits like a glove, they already have maps.

[DP25]

I wonder weather mr. air chief transportation minister general, has ever seen the "bridge on the river Kwai" and visited the museum. The whole project is a disgrace and an insult to all those who died there and for their families who still come there to pay their respect.

I hope the international community who is quite aware of the history and makes a fist. This simply cannot happen.

Why is the existing railway with some repairs not sufficient? Kanchanabury is on the map because of the 2nd WW. and the tourists visiting there. I am sure potential tourists to Kanchanabury will protest the project.

I just cannot believe the insentivity of Janthong and the Japanese.

Shame on both of you.

The Thais aren't allowed to build a train to one of their own provinces, and to their neighboring country, because the Japanese did something bad 70 years? That is ridiculous. The reason the Japanese wanted to build that line is because it is an important route between Thailand and Burma. There currently is no line between Thailand and Burma and the Thai side to Kanchanaburi is old and decrepit. There is a memorial and cemetery, that is plenty sufficient, the entire province and country doesn't have to suffer because of what happaned in the 1940s.

[EyesWideOpen]

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This is totally wrong on many levels. Seems that Thailand doesn't care much for history.

Isn't integrity and honour a big thing in Japan? Surely they have the education to remember what happened.

Not really a surprise with the distorted history lessons they get.

Ask a Thai what the Victory Monument commemorates and very few will know. Why it is still there after the land was given back is a mystery.

For the most part the Japanese don't know the truth about WWII, they aren't taught it in school and for obvious reasons it is quite a taboo subject.

As an example, I have a very good Japanese friend who lives in Thailand (mid forties), I took him to Kanchanaburi for the ANZAC Day 2010 dawn service and he couldn't believe what he was seeing; he couldn't believe the Japanese had done this.

He'd commented that the war never made it to Australia, again, when I mentioned the bombing of Darwin, midget subs in Sydney Harbour he was dumbfounded.

Unfortunately, the people who know the truth in Japan have sadly passed on without passing on the history.

They know what happened alright , they just wont admit it or apologize for it

Especially the rape of Nanjing, which is a part of why Sino/Japanese tensions still currently exist.

I declare this off-topic... but if you've never been to Nanjing, and it's museum.. please add knowledge to your remit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-NjDZqGwws

This does have some pertinence to topics being discussed though. Respect.

And of course, on the topic of what Japan did during WW2, don't forget Unit 731.

It was the Japanese version of the medical experiments that were performed upon

Jewish prisoners by Hitler, except that Japan conducted them upon Chinese people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

But back to topic, it seems a bit unseemly ( well moronic actually ) to have Japan

involved in any railroad in that area. China will never forget what Japan did, looks

like Thailand has a much shorter memory.....

Edited March 27, 2015 by EyesWideOpen

[Commerce]

I wonder weather mr. air chief transportation minister general, has ever seen the "bridge on the river Kwai" and visited the museum. The whole project is a disgrace and an insult to all those who died there and for their families who still come there to pay their respect.

I hope the international community who is quite aware of the history and makes a fist. This simply cannot happen.

Why is the existing railway with some repairs not sufficient? Kanchanabury is on the map because of the 2nd WW. and the tourists visiting there. I am sure potential tourists to Kanchanabury will protest the project.

I just cannot believe the insentivity of Janthong and the Japanese.

Shame on both of you.

The Thais aren't allowed to build a train to one of their own provinces, and to their neighboring country, because the Japanese did something bad 70 years? That is ridiculous. The reason the Japanese wanted to build that line is because it is an important route between Thailand and Burma. There currently is no line between Thailand and Burma and the Thai side to Kanchanaburi is old and decrepit. There is a memorial and cemetery, that is plenty sufficient, the entire province and country doesn't have to suffer because of what happaned in the 1940s.

It's also an enormous route for China too.. China's on the mainland. So what's your point? Tell me the Japanes route onland.

[Commerce]

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What a bunch of rubbish comments. The Past is past. Totally irrelevant with the present railway project.

says who? Rubbish, shame on you too. How old are you?

Did a kindergarten access mummy's phone maybe?

[sgtsabai]

There is just something wrong with that project. It doesn't sit well with me at all and shouldn't happen. Having been born in the last days of WWII, that history is burned into my mind. I read more of the Japan War than the German, I guess a natural instinct for the East. It sounds rather strange that today the US Marine Corps is teaching the Japanese how to invade and conquer islands. Times have changed. Rather than letting China get an even bigger slice of Thailand it should be the Japanese building the route to Nong Khai. Japan can build a railroad, Germany can build a railroad, anything China does is suspect to the core, both product and motive.

The number of Southeast Asian workers recruited or impressed to work on the Burma railway has been estimated to have been upwards of 180,000 of whom as many as one-half may have died. In the initial stages of the construction of the railway, Burmese and Thai were employed in their respective countries, but Thai workers, in particular, were likely to abscond from the project and the number of Burmese workers recruited was insufficient. The Burmese had welcomed the invasion by Japan to end British rule and cooperated with Japan in recruiting workers.[10]

In early 1943, the Japanese advertised for workers in Malaya, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies, promising good wages, short contracts, and housing for families. When that failed to attract sufficient workers, they resorted to more coercive methods, rounding up workers and impressing them, especially in Malaya. Most of the romusha working on the railway were probably coerced, rather than being volunteers. Approximately 90,000 Burmese and 75,000 Malayans worked on the railroad. Other nationalities and ethnic groups working on the railway were Tamil, Chinese, Karen, Javanese, and Singaporean Chinese.[11]

Working conditions for the romusha were deadly. A British doctor said: "The conditions in the coolie [romusha] camps down river are terrible...They are kept isolated from Japanese and British camps. They have no latrines. Special British prisoner parties...bury about 20 coolies a day. These coolies have been brought from Malaya under false pretences ' easy work, good pay, good houses!' Some have even brought wives and children. Now they find themselves dumped in these charnel houses, driven and brutally knocked about by the Jap and Korean guards, unable to buy extra food, bewildered, sick, frightened. Yet many of them have shown extraordinary kindness to sick British prisoners passing down the river, giving them sugar and helping them into the railway trucks>"[12]

I have read an estimated 10,000 Thais died on the project. There are no exact figures on how many SE Asians died.

[sgtsabai]

Sorry about the running together there, for some reason everything I post on TV does the same even though in the reply part it looks ok.

[louse1953]

The Japanese should drop in to the Kanchanaburi cemetery at least once a week and offer their condolences.

I have seen young ones cry when they see the truth.Asked a Thai working there and he said that it happens regularly and they donate heaps.

[louse1953]

This is totally wrong on many levels. Seems that Thailand doesn't care much for history.

Isn't integrity and honour a big thing in Japan? Surely they have the education to remember what happened.

Not really a surprise with the distorted history lessons they get.

Ask a Thai what the Victory Monument commemorates and very few will know. Why it is still there after the land was given back is a mystery.

Move on mate.

[BadBouy]

This is totally wrong on many levels. Seems that Thailand doesn't care much for history.

Isn't integrity and honour a big thing in Japan? Surely they have the education to remember what happened.

Not really a surprise with the distorted history lessons they get.

Ask a Thai what the Victory Monument commemorates and very few will know. Why it is still there after the land was given back is a mystery.

I understand your point but perhaps the Japanese see it as an opportunity to right a wrong. Just about all who participated are gone now, it's time to make amends and move on.

[louse1953]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

This is totally wrong on many levels. Seems that Thailand doesn't care much for history.

Isn't integrity and honour a big thing in Japan? Surely they have the education to remember what happened.

Not really a surprise with the distorted history lessons they get.

Ask a Thai what the Victory Monument commemorates and very few will know. Why it is still there after the land was given back is a mystery.

For the most part the Japanese don't know the truth about WWII, they aren't taught it in school and for obvious reasons it is quite a taboo subject.

As an example, I have a very good Japanese friend who lives in Thailand (mid forties), I took him to Kanchanaburi for the ANZAC Day 2010 dawn service and he couldn't believe what he was seeing; he couldn't believe the Japanese had done this.

He'd commented that the war never made it to Australia, again, when I mentioned the bombing of Darwin, midget subs in Sydney Harbour he was dumbfounded.

Unfortunately, the people who know the truth in Japan have sadly passed on without passing on the history.

They know what happened alright , they just wont admit it or apologize for it

Wrong,the kids don't know.If there is no reference to it in Japan how do you expect them to know.I didn't know about aboriginal genocide and child abductions by the state until much later in my life.Was never taught at school that's for sure.

[louse1953]

If Thailand has a short memory(70 years)then Europe,UK,USA,AUST and NZ must have altziemers.

[Oziex1]

It's distressing to hear those who sound like the memories of our brutal past is reason to remain prejudiced and are ready to take up arms again. the Japs were brutes we know that, and we had to stop them with the most devastating weapon known to man.

Now they are a technologically advanced nation who can ably assist the Thas to build the railway.

[rametindallas]

Japan is likely to undertake Kanchanaburi route railway project

So, if Japan 'undertakes' this project, they will be 'undertakers', which is a synonym of 'mortician', who buries people.

How à propos since Japan has a history of burying folks in Kanchanaburi while building a railroad.

It is ironic that Japan, of all the countries wanting to invest in this infrastructure project, should get this particular route.

Maybe they should build it for free as reparations to try and make amends.

[NoshowJones]

This may be a bit off topic, but it has the same meaning. When I was in primary school, we had history lessons every week, there was nothing

taught about the British Empire, and how they ruled two thirds of the world only 100 years ago.

Of course the Japanese didn't teach certain history in their school. As far as I could see when I was a school teacher here in Thailand, the Thai kids

were not taught history at all, although they were taught geography.

I bet the German kids are not taught about Hitlers atrocities during World War 11.

[pattayasteeve]

I wonder weather mr. air chief transportation minister general, has ever seen the "bridge on the river Kwai" and visited the museum. The whole project is a disgrace and an insult to all those who died there and for their families who still come there to pay their respect.

I hope the international community who is quite aware of the history and makes a fist. This simply cannot happen.

Why is the existing railway with some repairs not sufficient? Kanchanabury is on the map because of the 2nd WW. and the tourists visiting there. I am sure potential tourists to Kanchanabury will protest the project.

I just cannot believe the insentivity of Janthong and the Japanese.

Shame on both of you.

in general idiots wth no respect !

[pattayasteeve]

What a bunch of rubbish comments. The Past is past. Totally irrelevant with the present railway project.

did you lose anyone there doubt it , knobhead another retard comment from an idiot with no respect

[sprq]

This is totally wrong on many levels. Seems that Thailand doesn't care much for history.

Isn't integrity and honour a big thing in Japan? Surely they have the education to remember what happened.

Not really a surprise with the distorted history lessons they get.

Ask a Thai what the Victory Monument commemorates and very few will know. Why it is still there after the land was given back is a mystery.

Move on mate.

Yes mate, be a moron, forget the past, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, forget it all. Doesn't mean anything, forget it. Just like the Thais, in fact.

[sprq]

This may be a bit off topic, but it has the same meaning. When I was in primary school, we had history lessons every week, there was nothing

taught about the British Empire, and how they ruled two thirds of the world only 100 years ago.

Of course the Japanese didn't teach certain history in their school. As far as I could see when I was a school teacher here in Thailand, the Thai kids

were not taught history at all, although they were taught geography.

I bet the German kids are not taught about Hitlers atrocities during World War 11.

You are utterly and totally wrong about the Germans. They teach their kids everything - EVERYTHING! - about what the Nazis did, so that it's as unlikely as possible that anything like it will ever happen again in Germany. This is the huge difference with the Japanese: they cover up as much as possible about the Japanese crimes of the Pacific War and so the Japanese have very little knowledge of it, and get very surprised at the criticisms of the Chinese in particular, who suffered the most at their hands. Read Ian Buruma's excellent book on it called The Wages of Guilt, where he specifically compares the present-day German and Japanese attitudes to World War II.

As to the British Empire (and Dominions), it comprised a quarter of the world at the most up until 1948, never two-thirds. What British kids are told about it seems to vary from how good it was when I was in school in the 50s and 60s, and how bad it was in schools today.

[sprq]

Perhaps the Japanese will round up all the British and Australian expats in Thailand to work on the railway.

[davidstipek]

Someone better keep extremely close check on them.... Is there a reason they are interested in doing the railway... in this location? Maybe it has to do with the Gold... Money... Treasures that were hidden and never recovered after their hastily retreat....????

?????

Ask them to build rail project anywhere else.... won't even be slightly Interested!!!

Seems in the not to distant past... They seemed to want to build a "New Highway" here also... ????

What's with this location? Is someone wanting to recover and remove something??? While we get an hastily... inferior project in the end????

I really think other Countries that were involved here during war.... Would also like to observe the project.... 1st Hand!

Edited March 27, 2015 by davidstipek

[NickJ]

Its in pretty bad taste. But what does anyone who lives here think?.....There was zero co sideratio when the project came up on thee table as for sure there is almost no Thai in the govt that knows anything about ww ll history......they would be lucky to be able to write one line on who Pol Pot was let alone Tojo

Edited March 27, 2015 by NickJ

[EyesWideOpen]

Perhaps the Japanese will round up all the British and Australian expats in Thailand to work on the railway.

There was about 900 Americans that were prisoners and worked on the death railroad.

While their total numbers were smaller than the other countries, they suffered the highest

percent death rate. So if the Japanese start rounding up expats, they will have to

add in a few Americans to make it like the old days..... And of course have to bring over

a few Koreans to do the beatings to really bring back the old days.

[MW72]

Oh the irony. I had a wee chuckle to myself when I read this. And before anyone fires back at me, let me stress that I don't find what happened on the death railway funny in any way. My grandfather was a Japanese POW.

I just think that some people are getting a bit worked up about nothing. If it hadn't escaped your notice we have been at peace and doing business with the former axis powers for 70 years now. There is however an issue with the Japanese' inability to face up to their past and admit their wrongdoing unlike the Germans.

[Pompey50]

This is totally wrong on many levels. Seems that Thailand doesn't care much for history.

Isn't integrity and honour a big thing in Japan? Surely they have the education to remember what happened.

Not really a surprise with the distorted history lessons they get.

Ask a Thai what the Victory Monument commemorates and very few will know. Why it is still there after the land was given back is a mystery.

You seem to be suggesting that Victory monument is to in some way commemorate WW2, forgive me if I am mistaken but just to clarify. The monument was erected in June 1941 to commemorate the Thai victory in the Franco-Thai War, a brief conflict waged against the French colonial authorities in Indo-China, which resulted in Thailand annexing some territories in western Cambodia and northern and southern Laos. These were among the territories which the Kingdom of Siam had been forced to cede to France in 1893 and 1904, and patriotic Thais considered them rightfully to belong to Thailand.

[Pompey50]

This may be a bit off topic, but it has the same meaning. When I was in primary school, we had history lessons every week, there was nothing

taught about the British Empire, and how they ruled two thirds of the world only 100 years ago.

Of course the Japanese didn't teach certain history in their school. As far as I could see when I was a school teacher here in Thailand, the Thai kids

were not taught history at all, although they were taught geography.

I bet the German kids are not taught about Hitlers atrocities during World War 11.

German kids are taught about the atrocities, When on an exchange visit some years ago we where given a tour of the area wart and all!

[djjamie]

I hope the Japanese do it out of respect for the deaths they caused. Unfortunately I doubt it. It is all about money.

That aside I have always wanted to take my family to Kanchanaburi for ANZAC day to expose them to Australian culture and respect for the diggers that gave their lives for the cause. Unfortunately I was never in county at the time or had prior commitments due to work while in country.

Lets hope the location is more accessible to allow more Aussies to venture the route.

I ensure ANZAC day is more important to my wife and kids than xmas, easter or any other day of the year.

Edited March 27, 2015 by djjamie

[Pompey50]

Perhaps the Japanese will round up all the British and Australian expats in Thailand to work on the railway.

There was about 900 Americans that were prisoners and worked on the death railroad.

While their total numbers were smaller than the other countries, they suffered the highest

percent death rate. So if the Japanese start rounding up expats, they will have to

add in a few Americans to make it like the old days..... And of course have to bring over

a few Koreans to do the beatings to really bring back the old days.

The deaths of allied soldiers on the death railway are well documented. There where 686 American POW's of which 133 died a mortality rate of 19%. There where 30,131 British POW's, 6,904 a death rate of 23%. In my view one death was to many!

This story has resonance for personal reasons. My grandfather served the whole of WW2 in SE Asia. He was in Burma and fell back to India along with the rest of the forces from Rangoon.

In August 1945 he was amongst the first British soldiers to reach Changi Prison. What he saw stayed with him for the rest of his life. He could never forgive the Japanese for what they did. He came back to the UK in late 1945 a very different man to the one that left in 1939. He died in 2005 aged 99. He still suffered with bouts of malaria all those years later. And according to my grandmother he would still wake up in a cold sweat. re-living the terrible memories of the things he saw and endured.

We have to put this into context and remember that this was 70 years ago. though we should never forget what happened the world moves on. There are not many left alive who remember what happened from first had experience. Do we continue to blame the grandchildren of those who carried out these atrocities?

For the Fallen

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Laurence Binyon 1914

Edited March 27, 2015 by Pompey50

[fred Kubasa]

Or, maybe China or Korea or Kazakhstan ?