Britain's Prince Philip traveled to the infamous bridge over the River Kwai Wednesday and paid homage to the thousands of Allied prisoners who died building the World War II railway it carries.
Tropical rains cleared moments before the prince arrived at two Allied war cemeteries in this provincial Thai town, the highlight of a weeklong visit by Queen Elizabeth to Thailand.The iron bridge spanning the Kwai River in Kanchanaburi is the best known part of the 250-mile railway the Japanese forced 60,000 Allied prisoners and 200,000 Asian laborers to build to supply their army in Burma.
It gained widespread notoriety through the 1957 Oscar-winning film "The Bridge on the River Kwai," which depicted the torture, random executions, starvation and disease suffered by the POWs under brutal pressure from their captors to build the line through the jungle.
"This area is really known for the atrocities the Japanese committed against their captives," said Graham Downing, chairman of the British Legion, which escorted 33 family members of survivors from Britain to the ceremonies. "The fact that the royal family is paying respects is very important to the families."
The prince was the most senior member of the British royal family to view the bridge, which still carries three trains a day and is visited by 1 million tourists a year.
A helicopter carrying the prince hovered over the span to give him a bird's eye view. He then visited war cemeteries in Kanchanaburi and nearby Chungkai, where most of the 12,000 British, Australian, Dutch, American and other Allied prisoners who died on the line were buried.
An estimated 100,000 of the Asian laborers who perished remain buried where they fell.
The POWs suffered appallingly. Naked except for loin cloths, skeletal due to a starvation ration of one bowl of rice a day, they were forced to work up to 18 hours a day.
Most who fell from disease died - there was no medical care. Those who worked too slowly or showed signs of rebellion were shot, bayoneted or beaten to death.
Hilda Scarr, 83, and her two grandsons laid miniature crosses at the headstone marking the grave of her first husband, Pvt. George Dove, who died of disease on the line at the age of 27.
"I thought the world of him," Scarr said. "I'll never, ever forget or forgive the Japanese for what they did."