HELLFIRE PASS

After the 'Fall of Singapore' in February, many of the thousands of soldiers taken prisoner were moved to various parts of Thailand and Burma to construct a railway line which the Japanese required to transport supplies and munitions to the Singapore area from where they could be loaded onto ships for use further south. 

One particularly notorious area became known as Hellfire Pass because of the large number of prisoners who died there working under extreme conditions with little equipment to dig a gap through a ridge. General details of that place can be found elsewhere, but the items we have relate specifically to the construction of a memorial in the area in 1989. The items we have are on display in the memorabilia area and include a letter outlining the background to the project, some of the railway spikes used to hold the rail tracks to the sleepers, a detailed, limited edition map showing the places of significance along the entire railway, and some photos taken during the 1989 project. Each of the pictures below can be viewed in more detail in a new window by clicking on the small 'arrow-in-square' icon in the top right-hand corner of the picture (or by clicking on the small + symbol at the bottom of each picture).

Section of map with annotations showing the location of Kanchanaburi and other camps & cemeteries

Photos of the Memorial location (Click the arrows at the right or left of each photo to scroll through):