WW2 Museums in Kanchanaburi, Thailand

There are four World War II Museums in Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

They are the Japan, England, Australia, America, Thailand and Holland (JEATH) Museum, The World War II Museum, Thailand-Burma Railway Centre and Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum.

THE JEATH WAR MUSEUM, THAILAND

Is one of four museums in Kanchanaburi about the Death Railway built from 1942 to 1943 by Allied POWs under the direction of the Japanese. The museum was built in 1977 by the chief abbot of Wat Chai Chumpol Venerable Phra Theppanyasuthee. It is located on the grounds of a Temple at the junction of the Khwae Yai and Khwae Noi rivers in Kanchanaburi. The acronym JEATH stands for the soldiers of Japan, England, Australia, America, Thailand and Holland all of whom help build the infamous Death Railway. The bamboo structure resembles the huts the POWs were forced to live in during their internment and contains photographic, pictorial and physical memorabilia.

THE WORLD WAR TWO MUSEUM

Is located on the bank of the Kwai River near the Bridge on the River Kwai and was opened on 5 December 1988 by Boonyiam Chansire and her family. Her father died fighting the Japanese when she was only eleven years old. The private sector Museum collects lots of World War II stories, such as war instruments, photographs, uniforms etc

THAILAND-BURMA RAILWAY CENTRE, KANCHANABURI , THAILAND

(Next to the Allied War Cemetery on the main road)

The Thailand-Burma Railway Centre (TBRC) is a privately operated interactive museum, information and research facility, which opened in January 2003. It is dedicated to presenting the factual and unbiased history of the construction of the railway between Thailand and Burma by Allied prisoners of the Japanese and Asian laborers during WWII.

The Centre is fully air-conditioned and offers the visitor an informative and moving experience as the story unfolds over the two levels of world-standard and interactive galleries. The revealing and sometimes graphic displays are very interesting, emotive and educational to all visitors.

Due to a unique and intimate knowledge of the railway and its associated wartime campsites, railway stations, and cemeteries, connected family members can be taken on a TBRC personal pilgrimage tours to the specific work areas of their PoW relative. Historical guidance and accommodation packages are tailored to meet individual circumstances.

TBRC is an excellent facility that not only meets the needs of the most demanding visitor, but gives the many relatives of ex POW railway workers around the world somewhere they can go to for answers to their many questions, from staff with a deep personal understanding of their needs. The Museum galleries continue to expand as new artifacts become available through family donations or new information is revealed by the vast amount of ongoing research being conducted by the Centre.

The Museum complex is on the western side of the main Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, 1km from the city centre. The location is approximately 100 metres from the cemetery entrance, and about 200 metres from Kanchanaburi railway station. Both the ground floor entrance plaza and the Coffee Shop/Cafe on the second level give superb views of the cemetery for quiet contemplation of the tragic events in WWII.

For more information visit web-site: http://www.tbrconline.com/  

HELLFIRE PASS (KONYU CUTTING) MUSEUM, THAILAND

The museum is co-sponsored by the Thai and Australian governments at the site to commemorate the suffering of those involved in the construction of the railway. As a part of the museum experience, it is possible to walk through the cutting itself and along a section of the former railway track bed. An audio tour including recorded memories of surviving POWs is available at the museum. The Konyu cutting was a particularly difficult section of the line to build due to it being the largest rock cutting on the railway, coupled with its general remoteness and the lack of proper construction tools during building. A tunnel would have been possible to build instead of a cutting, but this could only be constructed at the two ends at any one time, whereas the cutting could be constructed at all points simultaneously despite the excess effort required by the POWs.