Building the Death Railway: The Ordeal of American Pows in Burma 1942-1945 (48)

The Oscar-winning movie Bridge Over the River Kwai dramatized to millions the building of the infamous Japanese Death Railway – the supply line for Japans planned invasion of India during World War II. But the movie told only part of the story giving the impression that all men working on the line were British. In fact 668 Americans – serving on the USS Houston and with the Texas National Guards Second Battalion – worked alongside the other Allied troops in the jungle camps. In Building the Death Railway their story is told for the first time. In 22 interviews with American survivors we learn the details of their lengthy ordeal. Disease punishment camaraderie work conditions and attempts to escape are described by the men who were there. The story begins with their capture and ends with their liberation 42 months later. The Burma-Thailand Death Railway was one of the most horrible sentences a prisoner of war could endure. Thousands died in the jungles of Burma. More than 130 Americans – one man in five – never returned home victims of neglect abuse starvation and disease. Building the Death Railway gives the American perspective on events that shocked the world.