THE "QUIET LION TOUR" 2005
THE BURMA-THAILAND RAILWAY
THE DEATH RAILWAY - 414 kms

By June Tomlinson Hon. Secretary & 2006 Congress Convenor
Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory Inc

Through an article I wrote some time back about a POW, Tommy Broadhurst, I corresponded with a remarkable POW - Neil MacPherson. Later I met Neil and another POW Owen Heron when they visited Darwin. It was at this time I learnt about the "Quiet Lion Tour" which is organized by the Burma Thailand Railway Memorial Association (located in Western Australia). Both Digger and I are interested in war history so we decided that going on this ten day tour with the POW's, would give us a greater appreciation of what happened in WWII in this part of the world. On the tour we also met POWs Ernie Redman and Bill Haskell. The railway was built from Thanbyuzayat in Burma which was where Neil MacPherson and Owen Heron worked, and continued to the south at Ban Pong. Ernie Redman and Bill Haskell were at this end of the line at Kanchanaburi. The joining point of this 414 km line was at Konkoita which was at the 262.87 kms. There were 80 of us on the tour including 31 high school students/cadets.

At the outset I must state that we feel privileged to have met four amazing soldiers who survived as prisoners of war under brutal conditions. None of these four soldiers bear any grudge towards the Japanese or the Koreans as a race. All POWs were candid about what happened to them, how they felt at the time, how they dealt with what confronted them on a daily basis, how they survived, how they coped with seeing their fellow mates brutally treated, how themselves received the same treatment and how they managed, what they did to just get through a day and to ultimate survival.

Their reason for conducting these tours is to keep alive, and tell the story of the sacrifice Australian soldiers made so that you and I can live in a free country but also the hope no one will ever forget that this tragedy did happen. They are particularly interested in passing knowledge to high school students and cadets - our future generations. Without a doubt the courage of these men is inspirational. They have no time for those who speak of hate for the total of the Japanese race, the POW's treatment came from Japanese and Korean soldiers. Once the POWs left the railway and worked in the coal mines in Japan their living conditions marginally improved. Neil told us that the Japanese civilians they saw were no better off as far as rations were concerned but in my view after what they had been through anything would have been an improvement.
This tour is not about shopping and the night lights of Bangkok. We spent the first day and night in Bangkok, the rest of the trip was spent out in the rural area of Thailand. We visited the Summer Palace, several temples, attended the Anzac football match between two teams from the Thailand Tigers Football Club, visited Kinsaiyok National Park, enjoyed a river cruise lunch on the Kwai Noi River and visited other places of signifance to the area and the POWs.

Our main accommodation was at the spectacular "Home Phu Toey Resort" which is not far from Kanchanaburi. The Resort is another story, it is located in a valley on the Kwai Noi River, which is a very steep drive down the mountain from the main road. Beautiful gardens, motel type accommodation sitting in blocks of four units dotting the hillside, with paths winding in and out, little waterfalls, bridges, stepping stones, shrubs and ferns, golf course and swimming pool. No newspapers, no TV, hit and miss text messaging - the world carried on and we were removed from it for this short time - it was totally peaceful.

Each day was packed full with touring - cemeteries, sites of jungle camps, field hospital site, train journeys, walks along the Hellfire Pass Heritage Trail, visits to Compressor Cutting, Hintok Mountain Camp site, Wampoo Viaduct, Bridge over the River Kwai, Jeath Museum, (stands for Japan English, Australian, Thai, Holland - these were the countries involved in the building of the railway - whether by choice or at the end of a bayonet). Corridors of rail bed have been claimed back from the jungle and cleared as walking tracks for visitors like us so we could easily visit the various points of interest along the rail line in this area. The jungle is made up predominately of trees and bamboo - which during the war was put to good use - they made everything from bamboo - beds, huts, orthopaedic equipment, spoons etc, the list seemed endless to me.

In all of this the POWs, particularly Bill Haskell, briefed the group on what would have been happening at the time. How this railway was built by hand tools is absolutely mind blowing. For instance in the visit to Hellfire Pass area, Bill described how they worked, the "hammer and tap" method of getting a railway through a mountain, where the camp was situated in comparison to where they worked, what their day was like from the time they woke up till the time they dragged themselves back to their "bed", the Cholera outbreak and how that was dealt with. Bill told us that if your best mate got Cholera you would not recognize him within two hours, the description of what a person would have looked like certainly came from the heart of someone that had seen this horrendous sickness first hand, at times I personally felt I was there and looking in on what was actually happening. It certainly felt surreal.

Anzac Day at Hellfire Pass gave me the feeling that there were a lot of lost souls around me - the peace that seems to wrap around you is amazing. The Anzac Day Dawn Service was a disappointment to me - it was impossible to see any part of the service. The space was limited, Minister Phillip Ruddock was in attendance, so too was a very large contingent of Australian Embassy staff, fellow genie member of our Society, Edna Pratt and I were sitting behind crew members of HMAS Waramunga, their backs were the sum total of our view of the service, of course there were tourists just like us; some had travelled from Australia just for Anzac Day. Later that morning the Anzac Day address was given by POW Bill Haskell, Bill's address put everything into perspective and could not have been more poignant given that we were in the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery amongst the graves of 7,000 servicemen. Bill address is reproduced in full over the page.

We met Rod Beattie, Director of Research at the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre in Kanchanaburi. If you have any queries regarding POW's in this area, Rod maybe able to help you. Email rbeattie@access.inet.co.th or visit the web site at www.tbrconline.com

There was always a special dinner to attend to in the evening no matter where we stayed, lots of conversations with people from many walks of life, who said you need TV to entertain you? This was a trip definitely well worth doing, it cost $1,990 per person (this is the price from Perth), if you want to travel under your own steam and meet up with the group in Bangkok, then the land price was $1,100 - with 4 ½ and 5 star hotel accommodation, plus all meals and tours this was indeed value for money.

The Association has just started their own Website so check it out at
www.btrma.org.au

If you want more information on future tours contact Voyager Tours Pty Limited in Perth, on 08 9321 7525 email: clara@chinatours.com.au, or Neil MacPherson on 08 9534 4082 email macphersonbros@bigpond.com