| Places | |
|---|---|
| Accession Number | P00761.019 |
| Collection type | Photograph |
| Object type | Black & white |
| Physical description | Black & white |
| Date made | c October 1945 |
| Conflict |
Second World War, 1939-1945 |
| Copyright |
Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain
|
Chungkai (Kao Poon), Thailand. c. October 1945. Lieutenant G. H. Schroder, Netherlands East ...
Description
Chungkai (Kao Poon), Thailand. c. October 1945. Lieutenant G. H. Schroder, Netherlands East Indies Army, a ex-prisoner of war (POW) member of a War Graves Commission survey party, standing in a bund, or drainage trench, around the Chungkai POW camp. These trenches, dug in 1944 by POW labourers, also provided security at camp. Machine guns were strategically placed to cover these bunds, and there is evidence that the Japanese intended to use them as mass graves after a massacre of the POWs occupying the camp. Such massacres were, it is believed, set to take place towards the end of August 1945, in anticipation of an Allied invasion of the Thailand-Malaya area. Chungkai, approximately two kilometres north of Kanchanaburi, was the site of a large POW base hospital opened by the Japanese in November 1942, and which functioned until it was closed on 26 May 1945, when the remaining occupants were transferred to Tamuang, approximately eleven kilometres south of Kanchanaburi (Kanburi). (Donor A. MacKinnon)