Thread by @TNGeography

The forgotten story of #Tamil's perished in the construction of 415km Siam(Thailand)–Burma Railway. During World War-II, Japan captured Thailand, to go forward into Burma, they built a railway using POW & indentured labor incl Malaysian plantation Tamil. Overall >1 Lakh died 1/4

On 14th Dec 1941 Japan took control of Siam(Thailand), wanting to capture Burma and parts of India. To help move their Army, they started a 415km railway. Construction began in 15 Sep 1942 in Burma, involving >2.5lakh poor labor from Burma, Thailand and Malaysian Tamil's 2/4

Japanese used somewhere between 40000 to 90000 poor plantation Tamils, luring them with the false promise of high wages. But the disease and tough work environment killed 16000 to 40000 Tamil's. The story and the blood of Coolie Tamils between 1850 to 1950 is forgotten 3/4

This project is an engineering marvel built in the deep jungles of Thailand and Burma. It was completed in 25 Oct 1943. This 415km long railway line with >600 bridges, some are built across large rivers. The complex railway line built within the record time of 15 months 4/4

Recently, I had an informal conversation in a podcast about the story of Tamil Coolies who migrated out of Tamil nadu from 1828 to 1950. Part-3 is out, listen in 0.8X speed, i did not realized, I was talking faster. open.spotify.com/episode/37Jd0I…

Interview of Arumugam Kandasamy who survived the Railway project. I hope more record these interesting stories/historical record before they disappear

This video shows relatives of perished Tamils making a trip to the site after 70+yrs to remember loved ones

In the railway project, ~60000 White prisoners of war were involved by the Japanese in that ~12000 perished. Also ~2.5+ lakh indentured labor incl the >50000 Tamil labor also involved. In that ~90000 died. Railway museum in Thailand is dedicated to White POW but labour ignored