Huai Kop

Today started at 8.30 we had a few items on the agenda today. All very interesting and different to each other.

The first was Hellfire Pass, the memorial area is very well done and extremly informative but quite upsetting as well.

The infamous cutting known as Hellfire Pass was the largest along the length of the Thailand Burma Railway and the most deadly for the people forced to construct it.
A small gallery lays out the history of the site and memorialises the victims with interviews from people who were there. We then descended the long set of stairs behind the museum to a trail following the original rail bed.

Locally referred to as Konyu Cutting the 600m stretch earned its 'hellfire' nickname following the final 'Speedo' construction period where shifts of 500 prisoners worked 16 to 18 hours a day. The glow from burning torches cast eerie shadows of the Japanese guards and of the gaunt prisoners’ faces, so that the scene was said to resemble Dante’s Inferno. As you walk past imposing walls of rock, you catch sight of occasional nails protruding from the chiselled surface. Czytaj więcej