American Prisoner of War Memorial Plaque- Death Railway at Hellfire Pass
Details:
Along the trail outside the interpretive center on the rock wall of the pass cut through. Plaque
A black inscribed metal plaque.
The plaque remembers the Americans POWs who were forced to build the Thai-Burma Railway or Death Railway in present day Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand. This plaque is located at Hell Fire Pass which is approximately at the 150 kilometer mark along the the 458 km railway and required difficult labor to cut through the pass.
From the "Lost Battalion" Website:
The surreal and astonishing story of the men of the 131st Field Artillery (Lost Battalion) and USS Houston (CA-30) must not be allowed to fade. As brothers in captivity, their camaraderie in chains created a unique and life-long bond. The grueling conditions of their imprisonment forever seared them as eyewitnesses to some of the most unimaginable atrocities committed in twentieth-century warfare. Of the 902 soldiers of the 131st and the survivors of USS Houston (CA-30) captured on Java, 668 of them were transported via “hellships” to Burma to build the infamous Thai-Burma Railway. 77 crewmen of USS Houston (CA-30) and 86 soldiers of the 131st perished as POWS. Most of the men of both units who died in captivity perished while working on the “death railway.”
Source: https://weplaythegame.us (Lost Battalion Website)
Monument Text:
The plaque is inscribed in Thai and English. The English reads:
American Prisoner of War Memorial
This memorial honors the approximately 690 American prisoners of war who labored for their Japanese captors under horrific conditions on the Burma-Thai Railway and the Thais who risked their lives to support them.
Most of the American prisoners of war were captured on Java in the Dutch East Indies (present day Indonesia). They were primarily Soldiers along with Sailors and Marines from the USS Houston, a United States Navy heavy cruiser sunk in the Sunda Strait in the early hours of March 1, 1942. Before sinking, the USS Houston’s crew rescued Merchant Marines and Soldiers of the 2-131st Field Artillery, 36th Division, Texas National Guard, from a torpedoed troop transport ship which had been sent to assist with the defense of the Dutch East Indies. As their fate remained unknown until the end of the war, the 2-131st became known as “The Lost Battalion.” Aside from United States servicemembers, several American civilians captured by Japanese on Java were sent to work on the railway. Approximately 134 Americans died on the Burma-Thai Railway, and all were repatriated to American soil following the war.
The section of the railway, known as Hellfire Pass, is a stark reminder of the grueling conditions experienced by allied prisoners of war and the thousands of Asian civilians forced to labor for the Japanese.
Given on this day by the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States of America, 26 October 2023.
