Unimaginable horrors of Japan's WW2 Death Railways: How PoWs were tortured, beheaded and thrown to crocodiles by ruthless guards in hellish race to build train tracks

By OLIVIA ALLHUSEN, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER Published: 12:41, 21 June 2026 | Updated: 12:59, 21 June 2026 Maggots were collected 'by the bucketful' from latrines to feed starving prisoners, men were tortured and beheaded by ruthless Japanese guards, and others were thrown into crocodile-infested waters. These were among the unimaginable horrors endured by Allied prisoners of war forced to build Japan's wartime death railways. The grim memories have been thrust back into the spotlight after Nithe station, a key refuelling and resupply point on the Thailand–Burma Death Railway, emerged after spending 40 years underwater. The railway was built to supply Japan’s forces fighting in Burma, with around 60,000 Allied prisoners of war, many captured after the fall of Singapore, forced to work alongside Asian labourers in brutal conditions that claimed more than 102,000 lives. British prisoner of war Ted Senior secretly recorded his own suffering on scraps of paper as he endured the notorious railway, later immortalised in the 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai. Senior, who battled malaria, intense headaches, toothache and painful sores on his hands, feet and backside, described how prisoners survived on starvation rations in the monsoon-soaked jungle with little medical care. He wrote: 'The weather is terrible, raining day and night and the whole area a sea of mud… The hut itself is awful, lets rain in many places & is infested with fleas, ants, lice, rats etc. What a life!'  Malaysian Tamils during the construction of Death Railway between June 1942 and October 1943 Prisoners move heavy logs during the construction of one of the many bridges built over several rivers Australian and Dutch prisoners of war at Tarsau in Thailand. The four men are suffering from beriberi – a disease caused by a severe deficiency of vitamin B1 Prisoners of war (PoWs) carrying sleepers in Burma, probably at Beke Taung, about 40km south of Thanbyuzayat on the Burma-Thailand Railway The 257-mile route was completed by the Japanese Imperial Army in just 15 months, despite engineers originally estimating it would take five years, with the brutal pace forcing prisoners to work for up to 16 hours a day in deadly conditions. Among those who survived were British prisoners such as Private Reginald Twigg, who recalled the terror of a Japanese guard smashing a rifle butt into his spine. 'Your heart stops. You feel dizzy and sick. You think you're going to piss yourself and then you feel the pain,' he said. Captain Reginald Burton, of the Norfolk Regiment, said he thought he would be killed as a guard beat him with a bamboo cane until he was semi-conscious and left him with permanent injuries to his scrotum and testicles. The brutality was overseen by feared guards including Lieutenant Usuki, known as the 'Black Prince', who was later hanged for war crimes after beatings and the beheading of a British PoW following an escape attempt. Another, Sergeant Seiichi Okada, nicknamed 'Dr Death', who carried out water torture by forcing gallons of water into prisoners' mouths before jumping on their swollen stomachs.  But the suffering was not confined to the Thailand–Burma Death Railway.  On Japan's later Pekanbaru Death Railway in Sumatra, Indonesia, the cruelty was so extreme that a military surgeon who warned a Japanese guard that every prisoner in his camp could be dead within eight months was told: 'Splendid, that's precisely the idea.' The same surgeon, WJ van Ramshorst from The Hague, later recalled how starving prisoners collected maggots 'by the bucketful' from latrines, washing and cooking them to feed sick inmates.  He also carried out amputations with simple knives and bent forks after tropical ulcers had eaten through to the bone. Other survivors described being beaten into shoulder-deep jungle waters where crocodiles lurked as they were forced into brutal labour. Eight Australian PoWs pay their last respects at the burial of a comrade who died during construction of the railroad, 1943 Native labourers building a bridge. Photographed in 1943 at either Songkurai in Thailand or Ronsi in Burma. Prisoners of war from Allied forces Across Japan's wartime railway projects, prisoners endured punishing shifts in searing heat and monsoon rain, hacking through jungle, hauling heavy timber and cutting through rock with primitive tools while suffering starvation, disease and relentless abuse. Those struck down by cholera, malaria, dysentery and gangrenous tropical ulcers were often forced to keep working on reduced rations, while guards routinely met weakness with savage beatings and other forms of punishment. The most notorious section of the route became known as Hellfire Pass, named after the terrifying sight of emaciated prisoners labouring overnight by torchlight, creating a scene survivors said resembled the fires of hell. Shocking images show emaciated prisoners moving heavy logs and working under a broiling sun. In another picture, they could be seen paying their last respects at the burial of a comrade who died during construction of the railroad. Other harrowing images depict the suffering of starving prisoners, with some wearing false legs after amputations caused by severe injuries, disease and untreated tropical infections. Each prisoner was supposed to receive 680g of rice, 520g of vegetables, and 110g of meat or fish daily – portions that were rarely reached. During the war, Japan captured nearly 140,000 Allied military personnel from Australia, Canada, Great Britain, India, Netherlands, New Zealand and the United States. POWs line up for a meal at one of the camps along the Burma-Thailand railway Malaysian Tamils during the construction of Death Railway between June 1942 to October 1943 But Japan failed to follow the Geneva Convention's rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war, leaving tens of thousands of Allied captives to endure starvation, brutality and forced labour. The Thailand-Burma Death Railway returned to headlines this week after the Nithe station re-emerged when the reservoir covering it was drained for dam maintenance.  Previously the station had more than 60 stops or stations. Today, the line only runs within Thailand between Nong Pladuk and Nam Tok and has become a tourist attraction. Remnants of Nithe station began to appear in April when Thailand's electricity generating authority drained the water. Photographs published by The Nation, a Thai media outlet, showed sections of the railway tracks as well as some of the structural remains that were once used for operations and maintenance. One major discovery is the upper concrete structure of an old inspection pit located south of one of the turning points. It is a rare surviving feature of the original railway, since most of the stations have been refurbished or demolished over the years. The unexpected emergence of Nithe has attracted tourists and researchers from across the globe. Pictured: Lieutenant Usuki – a Japanese Imperial Army officer notorious for his brutal treatment of Allied prisoners of war Japanese prisoners under guard outside the war crimes tribunal on Labuan Island, Borneo, December 1945. All four were sentenced to death by firing squad for their ill treatment of PoWs during the war The Thailand-Burma death railway later immortalised in the 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai (pictured: a scene from the film) Martyn Fryer, an Australian researcher, whose grandfather died working on the railway in 1942, told the Associated Press that he had tried to visit Nithe station in the past without success. 'I've been to Nithe station three times in the past, but the water level has always been too high to actually really appreciate the fantastic offerings that it has with the remaining infrastructure and the layout of the railway itself,' Mr Fryer said. To locate PoW camps in the area, Fryer compared wartime aerial photographs of Nithe from the National Archives in London with hand-charted maps brought by Andrew Snow, a researcher with the Thailand–Burma Railway Centre. Like Fryer's grandfather, Snow's father was captured in Singapore and forced to work on the railway. Southeast Asia's dry season often exposes bits of the station. But the water levels hit a new low this year and drained so quickly that vegetation has not yet regrown, making Nithe easier to study, Snow explained. Hundreds of domestic visitors have also flocked to see the 'rare incident', said Kitti Laokham, a 47-year-old local resident whose posts of Nithe have racked up 32 million views on social media. Channarong Noimala saw the videos online and motorbiked 350 kilometers (217 miles) northwest from Bangkok to see the exposed station. 'At least for those who died here, no matter whether they are labourers or prisoners of war, we can remember them,' Noimala said. Time is running out for those who want to catch a glimpse of the station before it disappears again. The dam's maintenance will be completed in August and the reservoir will be refilled. The Bridge On The River Kwai is the Second World War Oscar winner about an Army colonel (Alec Guinness) obsessed with proving British superiority over his Japanese captors by showing that his engineers could build a better bridge than theirs. Although the 1957 film was set on the Death Railway of Burma, where British PoWs built a real bridge over a real River Kwai in Thailand, it was filmed in Sri Lanka. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. 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