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Ban Pong, a pivotal railway junction in
Ratchaburi province south west of Bangkok I alighted, a
strange term only ever used in relation to railway
stations, and headed away from the station, on the main
line, past the clock tower, past the buses and
songthaew, to the smaller halt by the busy main
road. This line, which originates in Nong Pla Duek, as
far as Kanchanaburi, was constructed by Asian labour, at
this early stage much of it Siamese. However Siam was
still in theory a neutral country and after the Japanese
base in Ban Pong was attacked in December 1942 by
disgruntled Siamese it became increasingly difficult to
find local, willing labour.
Japanese sentries had spotted a monk
milling round by the railway line talking to some of the
allied prisoners. Quite how these battle hardened
veterans could feel threatened by a shaven headed
vegetarian clad in a saffron robe is unclear but they
slapped him round the head. Bad move. If you ever buy
one of those books that deal with culture shock in
Thailand nearly all of them will mention, probably on
the first page, that slapping a Thai, any Thai, round
their head is not a good idea. Doing it to a monk even
more so, the stunned novice fell into conversation with
some Thai labourers and told them his woes. Possibly
fuelled by alcohol, fuelled by resentment at the ‘allied
Japanese’ invader, fuelled by the outrage of a monk
being treated so harshly they attacked a Japanese sentry
and killed him. Japanese soldiers mobbed up and a punch
up erupted in sleepy Ban Pong.
Reinforcements were called for and
eventually the fighting subsided with some reports
having a couple of dead Japanese. In another incident
Thai police got caught up in a gun battle with some
Japanese reinforcements at the roundabout near the
police station with further fatalities before being
brought under control. A mile of track was dug up, some
Thai women threw stoned some troops while there were
reports of armed Thai groups taking pot shots at the
unwanted guests. A Japanese officer remarked in his
diary the Thai’s attitude ‘was extremely bad,’ which
seems an almost British understatement. The Thai Prime
Minister, Field Marshal Phibun ordered Kanchanaburi and
Ban Pong cleared of any foreigners which doubtless did
little to calm the Japanese while the Japanese command
in Saigon called for the execution of people involved in
the incident, reparations for dead officers and cannon
fodder, sorry junior ranks, a formal apology and for
good measure the novice monk to be executed because he
started the whole bun fight by having his head slapped.
Despite not being officially at war it’s
fair to say the Japanese and Thais weren’t always bosom
buddies. Coming from Japan or China the newcomer found a
land of milk and honey and the wherewithal to enjoy it
which caused friction between the two peoples, the
Thais, suffering from galloping inflation, not
unnaturally jealous at the Japanese and their
loadsamoney poses. Several months after the incident the
demand for reparations was ditched as was the execution
of the novice monk but while the wheels of diplomacy may
have turned slowly the people on the ground may have
felt differently.
Non local, non willing labour on the
other hand was much easier to find. The complete track
reaching far into Burma was built by slave labour under
brutal conditions, if the weather didn't wear you out
the guards did, or the work. From here, after a 5 day
journey in a box car from Singapore with little food,
less sanitation and no privacy, thousands walked
westwards.
For More on the
Death Railway
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