Three Australian war veterans are planning to retrace the Thailand-Burma (Myanmar) Death Railway, which was built by prisoners of war (POWs) and Asian laborers during World War II more than 60 years ago, according to a Channel NewsAsia report on Monday night.

 

Laurie Sams, Paul Billsborough and Ron Fossen paid a tribute to the victims of the war at Kranji War Memorial and attended a remembrance service at Changi Chapel before they left Singapore for Thailand by train on Monday.

 

Upon arrival, the group will walk 300 kilometers along the railway that claimed lives of some 20,000 POWs and many forced laborers when it was under-construction during WWII.

 

During WWII, Kanchanaburi town in Thailand, lying some 120 kilometers west of Bangkok, was the construction site of the Japanese project of a 415-kilometer-long railway connecting Thailand and Myanmar.

 

The Japanese army started the Thai-Myanmar Railway construction in mid 1942, enforcing about 240,000 Allied prisoners of war and Asian laborers to work on the project.

 

The Australian war veterans' 11-day journey, which they expect to be thought-provoking, will be recorded in online diary entries, said the report.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2005)