0656 THAILAND (Kanchanaburi) - The Bridge on the River Kwai

Until 1957, when was released the film The Bridge on the River Kwai, world public opinion didn't know much about how was built the Burma Railway. The largely fictional film plot is loosely based on the building in 1943 of one of the railway bridges over the Mae Klong - renamed Khwae Yai in the 1960s - at a place called Tha Ma Kham, 5km from the town of Kanchanaburi. This railway, also known as the Death Railway, was a 415km railway between Bangkok, Thailand, and Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar), built by the Empire of Japan during WWII, to support its forces in the Burma campaign.

In its construction was used forced labour. About 180,000 Asian labourers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war worked on the railway, of these around 90,000 Asian and 13,000 Allied prisoners died as a direct result of the project (6,318 British, 2,815 Australians, 2,490 Dutch, 356 Americans and a smaller number of Canadians and New Zealanders). The most famous portion of the railway is Bridge 277, 'the bridge over the River Kwai', which was built over a stretch of river which was then known as part of the Mae Klong.

About the stamps
The stamp is part of the series Tourist Spots in Thailand (Seaside 2nd series), issued on July 5, 2012, and containing (as also the 1st series) ten stamps, all with the same face value (15 THB). The ten stamps are grouped two by two, each group completing a picture of a site:
• Phromthep Cape 1
• Phromthep Cape 2 - it's on this postcard
• Muko Ang Thong National Park 1 - it's on other postcard
• Muko Ang Thong National Park 2
• Rai Le Bay Krabi 1
• Rai Le Bay Krabi 2
• Hong Island Krabi 1
• Hong Island Krabi 2
• Panyi Island Phang-nga 1
• Panyi Island Phang-nga 2

References
Burma Railway - Wikipedia

Sender: Pitcha Chongkul (direct swap)
Sent from Kanchanaburi (Kanchanaburi / Thailand), on 15.05.2013
Photo: Pinit Srimuangkao