LITMIR.BIZ

      Ewart Escritt produced his translation during the 1980s. He and his proposed publisher at that time – The Athlone Press – then agreed that while this was a literal (word for word) study which faithfully reflected the Japanese original it required suitable annotation, revision and editing to make it more understandable to potential readers. The precise nature of these changes would inevitably have been a matter of some discussion but Escritt’s death in 1991 ended this possibility so it has fallen to me to make any necessary amendments. It should be stressed, however, that this final version is fundamentally that created by Escritt more than twenty years ago and that these alterations are essentially of a minor character. In addition, the passage of time has seen much more information becoming available and it is hoped that its inclusion will add further value to the translation. As a result of these modifications it is believed that this revised edition will place Futamatsu’s writing in a better perspective and be a fitting tribute to Ewart Escritt’s scholarship and memory and at the same time make the text attractive to a wider readership.

      Following his work on Futamastu’s text Ewart Escritt felt it would be useful to provide a personal Introduction which would aid the readers’ understanding of his study. In his opinion this required an outline of many background topics as well as details of Futamatsu’s career, views and philosophy. The most important of these concerned the planning and construction of the Railway and Escritt was anxious to point out the limitations which Futamatsu experienced in his choice of route. Escritt also wished to refer to certain aspects of Japanese culture, mentioning good and bad individual behaviour and the nation’s constitution which gave critical power to the military authorities. It was they, rather than any parliamentary body, which then made the decision to employ prisoners-of-war irrespective of the legal niceties if it would assist the Japanese war effort. This was, of course, against the provisions of the Geneva Convention – which are included in full⁶⁴ – not signed by Japan but also in breach of the earlier Hague Agreement which she had.

      Escritt then provides some details of the labour that was utilized in the building programme and comments on the Japanese lack of medical care for their own troops as well as for prisoners and locally recruited men. He continued by emphasizing the value of discipline, loyalty and personal relationships in the difficult circumstances of the construction process and how secret radios brought hope and comfort to many in near despair. These were banned by their captors and discovery would have led to severe punishment. Escritt mentions a numbers of cases which involved the kempeitai but many brave individuals were never deterred. A further danger arose from the growing number of bombing raids made on the Railway: the details of several of these are included: one of which records the death of Major Paddy Sykes at Nong Pladuk.⁶⁵ Those prisoners who survived their work on the track as well as these other perils were then to face a final challenge as the Japanese guards planned their elimination if Allied forces were thought to be approaching.⁶⁶

      In his Introduction Escritt also provides a brief account of his own wartime career and of the parts played by many individuals. Amongst these was Boon Pong,⁶⁷ Pharaoh Adams,⁶⁸ Jim Bradley⁶⁹ and C.H.D. Wild (whose eloquence saved Bradley from execution)⁷⁰ and, inevitably, Philip Toosey under whom he served in many camps. However, it was Escritt’s relationship with Futamatsu which forms the most important aspect of his Introduction. This is typified by an exchange of Haiku (a three-part poem of seventeen syllables) which demonstrated their mutual regard.⁷¹ Although not an essential prerequisite to the reading of Escritt’s translation this background information will undoubtedly provide the general reader with a better appreciation of the role and achievements of the Thai-Burma Railway. It may also help to increase their understanding of Japanese attitudes and resulting policies as well as more fully explaining the background to the suffering of those who worked and died during its construction.

      In my revision of this translation I have followed Ewart Escritt’s decisions in a number of ways. Futamatsu’s English is somewhat archaic and in places it may be difficult to understand his exact meaning. Nevertheless on balance I, like the translator, felt that retaining his style more accurately reflects the Japanese text so I have made only marginal changes. It would also appear that Futamatsu wrote a number of his chapters as separate entities so that some contain a degree of repetition. While these could have been omitted or limited both Ewart Escritt and I believed that this would seriously disturb the flow of the narrative so we agreed to leave the text as the author intended. A final point concerned the number of substantial quotations from the writings of ex-POWs Adams and Bradley and of the American pilot, Carl Fritsche, which were included in the Japanese original. These were employed by Futamatsu to supplement his own impressions of events so although they may be thought to be too extensive they have also been retained in full.

      With these minor comments, criticisms and reservations I commend Ewart Escritt’s translation of Futamatsu’s work in the belief that it will make a significant contribution to our knowledge of the real events and consequences of the building of the Thai-Burma Railway during the Second World War.

      Peter N. Davies

      School of History

      University of Liverpool

      December 2012

      INTRODUCTION

      Ewart Escritt

      A horror story of brutality, inefficiency and inhumanity may be described by a writer from a totally different culture in terms which we in a Christian society must find inadequate. It is fascinating to uncover, so far as we can, the reasons lurking behind such apparent inhumanity and to describe the actual situation in which these things took place.

      Futamatsu himself was a dedicated professional railway engineer and also, like his CO, fair-minded, always ready to see both sides of an argument. During the Pacific War he was not greatly affected by the militaristic propaganda with which the Army flooded the nation in ‘the dark valley’ of the 1930s. His commander had read engineering at Tokyo Imperial University, but of course, as a regular soldier, he had to comply with superior orders which in theory emanated from an Emperor who was still divine.⁷² I suspect that Futamatsu heroworshipped his Colonel, and the Colonel certainly recognized his subordinate’s professional skill. Their association ripened into warm friendship.

      The Thai-Burma Railway was a necessary concomitant in the Japanese Army’s assault through Burma into India, one which came to the fore as a result of the US Navy’s successful action off Midway Island in the Pacific in 1942 when most of Japan’s aircraft-carriers were sunk or damaged. The British Far East Naval Squadron took control of the Indian Ocean, in particular of the Andaman Sea off the coasts of Malaya and Burma, so it became vitally necessary for the Japanese Army to develop an overland trucking route across the Three Pagodas Pass and on to Moulmein in Burma, to facilitate their invasion of India.

      Looking ahead to the possibility of some such eventuality, Imperial Japanese Army General Headquarters in Tokyo had taken on a civilian railway engineering expert in 1939. Using Thai maps, Kuwabara proposed the building of a railway to connect Thailand with Burma. He calculated that it would take two years to complete. Officially ‘The Railway to link Thailand with Burma’, it became known as the Thai-Burma Railway.

      Plans for a railway from Thailand through to Burma had previously been investigated by German engineers working for the Thai government in the 1890s, and independently by the British early in the twentieth

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