I lived about 7 years in Thailand and once traveled with 1 day tour train from Bangkok to River Kwai. loved this video. and I love how Thais respected the soldiers by creating a big nice cemetry for them to remember them forever.
While you and Don were watching and whistling, so were Joey and I and much earlier your Dad was with us too. The movie came out in 1957. Both Joey and your Dad are smiling down at you as you discover and rediscover moments that made their lives seem magical. JaYoe
Just to add some insight, the movie was actually shot In Sri Lanka over the river in "Kitulgala" . Other locations like the Head quarters and offices shown in the movie were also in Sri Lanka, such as the Mount Lavinia Hotel, Paradeniya Botanical Gardens. The bridge was later blown up for real for the movie.
Thank you for this wonderful short film. This is extremely insightful and fantastically made. I’m sure you going there would have triggered all of the old memories of the films for you dad. Great work Matt.
Thank you Matt, I watched the movie when I was a kid, now I learned that the true story is not as the movie, I did not visit the site when I was in Thailand, but I will notify you hat when you are in Taiwan, I don't remember whether you visited the "jiu fen" 九份 and "jin gua shi" 金瓜石， there is big gold mine at that area, there are may be close to 1,000, British POW was working at the gold mine, there are old pictures of them working at the site. since it is not important as the movie of" bridge of river Kwai". no one even knew about it.
I just recently saw this classic! It’s one is such a classic. I can see why the older generation is smart and better grounded! I need to visit that place one day too! If possible!
Little artistic license made for a great movie with great actors. Just like you I have wonderful memories of watching this and other David Lean masterpieces (Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago) with my parents, who are both in the next life now. It’s nice to know other people have similar life stories and maybe why I always check your channel. Well done and keep them coming!
The film is based on the southern area of the Thai Burma Railway. The very first visual thing I notice is that these prisoners were wearing clothes and that was probably true to life. However, the area further north in the camps around Hellfire Pass such as Hintok , Kanyu, Kinsayok, Tonchan etc are deep in virgin jungle and hundreds of kilometres away from civilisation. Here prisoners’ clothes had rotted and they were naked apart from a rag that was used to cover their genitals and had no protection against the burning sun or monsoons. They then had to endure atrocities, cruelty, starvation and torture. They were given a cup of rice twice a day. The international Red Cross couldn’t get to them. My father weighed only 80 pounds after spending 3years 8 months as a Japanese Prisoner of War. He was lucky to have survived.
@@antonioacevedo5200 Dad rarely spoke about his treatment on the Death Railway but it’s a curious thing that when he did say anything I listened intently and could tell by his short comment afterwards that he had already re-lived some dreadful incident or other in his mind. I’ll give you an example. On one occasion and quite out of the blue he turned to speak to me and said, “You know, the Japs wanted a railway; we’d have built their railway….they just didn’t NEED to have been so cruel”. I think that Dad didn’t want to offload his burden on to us. Most of the things he related to me were in this manner. He died when I was in my mid twenties and I’d learnt to appreciate that Dad’s ‘nuggets’ of information were spasmodic but heartfelt. I was always ready to listen out for any little story he had and, gradually, I’d ask for specifics. I’m glad now that I do have a collection of my modest Dad’s eye witness accounts to pass on to my children and grandchildren. Did Dad feel animosity towards the Japanese race? I must say that he did speak of those evil men doing those evil deeds in that time. BUT absolutely and in all honesty, I never heard him express a general hatred of the Japanese as a race. SPEAKING FOR MYSELF, I feel that with the sudden devastating end of the War in the Far East in August 1945 when homeland Japanese lives were lost, the world should also acknowledge in commemorations that there were even more thousands of lives that were saved, including my emaciated POW father’s life and the lives of his skeletal comrades. Add to that number, the civilian Asian victims who were used by the Jap military as forced labour, as were those surviving Asians, who had also been slaves on the Thai Burma Railway. Also God bless and remember those who did not survive the Japanese brutality but agonisingly died from starvation, beatings, overwork, disease, torture and even execution.
yeah.....I watch the movie when I was a kid........but have no chance yet to travel to Knchaburi to walk tru the Bridge on River Kwai........greetings from Malaysia
Glad that you pointed out the film's fictitious story, but another fiction is fact that the bridge is actually on the Maeklong River, not the real River Kwae. Soon after the film came out, early tourists to the area would wonder why there was no bridge on the actual River Kwae (which runs into the Maeklong a couple of miles south of bridge). Shrewdly, the locals renamed this section of the Maeklong river (north of the Kwae junction) to become Kwae Yai - in contrast to the actual Kwae Noi which the railway parallels for much of its route beyond the bridge. Had this bridge been called the "River Maeklong Bridge" there would be far fewer tourists today. Also, the Japanese built the bridge using the curved steel truss sections which were transported from a Java railway. The angled centre sections are the replacement trusses when it was rebuilt following war damage.
Just an add on. You might like to know that yes, the wooden bridge you describe was destroyed but it was before the bridge that you are walking on. My father, a British artillery soldier, was a POW in that camp and it was called Tamarkan Camp not Kwai. In February 1945 he witnessed the bombing of that metal Bridge. If you google the date you will find the photo.
The actual movie is filmed in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). They build the entire bridge near kukulagala and blow it up for real for the movie. Very beautiful place; you will like that place 🙂
I visited the Kwai bridge and rode the train on the Death Railway in April 2022. Even though I enjoyed being at this historic location, knowing some of the actual history I felt sadness the entire time as well.
The Film was shot in Celon and is nothing like the real area. I understand that the rail bridge was transported by the Japanese from Indonesia and rebuilt. It is a very pretty place and the War Cemeteries are very well maintained. Lest We Forget.
So if the bridge you crossed was built after the war, how about visiting the real location and show pictures of the wooden bridge over the river Kwai. Thanks for an interesting showed, still loved it. Thumbs up. Best Wishes & Blessings. Keith Noneya
You did a good job. I'm the daughter of one of the prisoners. He survived but did not wish to talk about it. Recently, my brothers and I have been trying to put together some facts before we too start to die off. There is a good web site "cofepow" for Children of Far East POWs.
My wife who is thai and from Kanchanaburi told me her aunt would have to make food parcels for the japanese soldiers on the trains going through the station
there was a colonel there... that Nicholson was based on... but he was orchestrating sabotage... not helping the Japanese in any way... Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey
Look how meticulously they care for the graveyards. I have never seen a graveyard in the USA with such beautiful plants and so well groomed. Different culture for sure.
The land was originally given to Britain out of gratitude by the Thai government. It was managed by the Imperial war graves commission, In 1960 that became the Commonwealth War grave’s Commission, and graves managed by the British gradually became managed by the Commonwealth. When I went in the 1990’s the area looked very different, a lot less built up, the cemetery had almost no buildings near it, but even then was an oasis surrounded by dry and dusty roads and countryside. I’m not sure if Britain still owns the land or if they managed to also transfer ownership to the commonwealth (I imagine legal and diplomatic issues affect that given that it was a gift) I was always so touched as one part of the cemetery when I went was for British soldiers, then there was another area for soldiers that had fought for and with Britain, with a plaque stating the area was in memory of those that sacrificed their lives fighting for Britain, and that this was a debt that could never be repaid by the British people.
There is so much more to tell about the building of this bridge. Actually three bridges were built. The first low-level bridge was constructed to allow work parties to cross the river and commence construction of the concrete pilons and bridge support structures, from both sides of the river. The first bridge was washed away in a flood snd had to be reconstructed. This reconstructed temporary bridge, was the second bridge. Australian POW engineers constructed the concrete bridge pilings together with many other POW's being put to forced work up and down the line. The concrete works in the fast flowing river, was arduous and dangerous job that required underwater diving in zero visibility with primitive diving equipment. The steel bridge that can be seen today, had been identified by the Japanese prior to the commencement of the War during pre-war surveys. The steel bridge was in fact an operational railway bridge in Java/Indonesia. After the Japanese invaded Java, a Japanese railway battalion dismantled the bridge and transported it to Kanchanaburi, Thailand, where it was reassembled and attached to the concrete pillons that the POW'd had already constructed. Amazingly the measurements were correct and the bridge fitted. The US Airforce were very much aware of the bridge having been constructed, and thereafter attempted to bomb this bridge out of commission many times. Each time the bombers arrived, the Japanese forced the POW's onto the bridge in a failed attempt to discourage the US bombing. Finally the US Air force did blow-up two spans of the bridge, thus putting the railway out of action for the remainder of the war. Many POW's (human shields) who were forced onto the bridge by their Japanese captors, were killed during the bombing that day. It is reported that it took three days for the human remains and blood of those POW's killed in the bombing, to be washed down stream, and the river cleansed. The death toll attributed to building the Thai-Burma railway is 280,000 to 250,000 civilian labourers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war. This death toll equates to one death for each railway sleeper laid during construction of the TB-railway. Read also of the atrocities committed upon the POW's further up the line by the Japanese, at Hell Fire Pass. A number of Japanese soldiers who were in charge of building the TB-railway, were subsequently convicted of War Crimes and executed. History records say that "no US service men (POW's) died building the Thai-Burma railway". For the record, the US soldiers were fighting the Japanese elsewhere in the Pacific, at this time. "Lest we forget". After the war, a number of civilian Japanese self-funded the construction of the Kanchanburi Peace Park. A remorseful recognition of the pain and suffering that their Japanese soldiers had inflicted on the POW's and civilian population. Sadly the Japanese post-War government elected not to contribute any funds towards the construction and upkeep of the Peace Park.
My grandfather who was a British soldier acted in this movie, I still remember when we were kids he used to tell us all the second WW stories. The movie was actually shot in Sri Lanka.
Yes, not just population-wise; Japan was remarkably industrialized, especially given their late start taking on Western ways only in the1800s. Also @8:00 he (at least) corrects his earlier remark re: a steel bridge.
Yes, there were two bridges. The first was made of wood. This concrete bridge was built a few months later, and reconstructed after the war as part of Japanese war reparations. Both bridges were built by POWs. (Commonwealth, Dutch, and American POWs)
It is my understanding there is a very small section of the original timber bridge, it is on the Kanchanaburi side of the river and to the left of today's steel bridge
I live over here. I have taken friends there and to hell fire pass . I can honestly say when I went there last time about 10 years ago I can't remember the railway track being wide enough to take a large train. The track was small narrow gauge and a small train took tourists back and forth..is this new ?
Sawaddee krub, there is one thing I'd like to explain ... the real name of the river is not "Kwai" but "Yai"!!. The word Kwai in thai means river and that river named Yai ... When we call the river we say Kwai Yai or river Yai ...then shortly became kwai or river only. So when people saying river kwai it will mean river river. Anyway we had accepted the name river kwai already coz it is so famous and all the people arround the world recognize it.
In the province of Kanchanaburi the Mae Klong meets the confluence of the River Kwai Noi. (Noi meaning small) And the River Kwai Yai, (Yai meaning big) There was no bridge's built over the River Kwai Noi.
The movie was a complete work of fiction and was condemned by many ex POW's. The wooden bridge was actually based on the bridge constructed at Songkurai. 😉
Watching this on the 11th of the 11th and enjoyed it SADLY. I grew up in the 1960s knowing one of mothers friends who lost her husband in Burma. 2 of my hobbies covered at 9.10 I teased my Chinese Wife and my main hobby at 1.23 lovingly preserved. I have a book A Life for every Sleeper which is very powerful. With modern scanning which can remove the trees they discovered an embankment 60 feet high and estimating just how many people it needed to build it? They were far short of the number known! Then someone mentioned the masses dragged from India who disappeared and there was the answer the scary real number of deaths to build it. David and Lily. I also do sit on models that you can drive and enjoy steam of course 5 inch gauge.
Get you facts correct before posting videos I live in khanchanaburi and have studied the history of the Thai to Burma railway, go to the local museum it shows you locations of all of the camps
You must know that at the time the "Colonel Bogey March" was also known as the “Hitler Has Only Got One Ball" song. Have a look at Wikipedia. The words were conjured by the British in defiance to the Germans … Hitler has only got one ball, Göring has two but very small, Himmler is rather sim'lar, But poor old Goebbels has no balls at all. Etc
Nobody seems to consider the thousands of Asians that died during the construction of this railroad! Hundreds of bodies still remain lying in the jungles alongside this railroad!
That is true. However, I do remember the Asians as my father, as a Japanese Prisoner of War on that railway always remembered them. So I do too and have made my children aware of their plight too.
We always know Hollywood portrays real life drama with a slant of unrealistic license, in this movie, so what that they glorified the BRITISH or underplayed the conditions of the camp, hospital or even the Japanese engineers etc or for that matter added a little sex to the movie, the important thing is so many men lost their lives to the building of this railroad, bridge included and the war as well, and anyone thinks otherwise is very naïve. Please also don't think that America wasn't guilty of certain aspects of cruelty as in the slaughter millions of innocent people of 2 cities to revenge the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It took Pearl only 6 months to recover, Japanese people lost their lives well after the 2 cities were destroyed
such a deeply moving and conflicting place, I've visited a few times, the first time i spent hours wandering amongst the graves in floods of tears. the cemetery is much larger than it appears in this video. , the development near the bridge is really upsetting and totally out of place . gold and jewellery stores right where the original hospital camp was located and a real lack of sensitivity from the Thais , who have managed to rewrite history and only mention the very very small number of locals who tried to help and not the vast majority who were complicit in war crimes and mass murder. There are so many stories that have been lost to time in this place . please go and pay your respects if you happen to go to Thailand . its a very short train ride from Bangkok
One of my favourite places in Thailand, great video.. one thing I need to point out to us westerners is how the pronounce Kwai we are basically say F@£k, Penis or buffalo ! Oh I'm a thai resident and as we know how Laid back they are most just laugh.. try kw- oh ! Lol
You never said where the steel came from nor you had said where all power tools like rivet drivers, cranes, concrete, rebars and aloke came from???????????????????????
I am so glad you went there and tell the story. Good job.
I lived about 7 years in Thailand and once traveled with 1 day tour train from Bangkok to River Kwai.
loved this video. and I love how Thais respected the soldiers by creating a big nice cemetry for them to remember them forever.
While you and Don were watching and whistling, so were Joey and I and much earlier your Dad was with us too. The movie came out in 1957. Both Joey and your Dad are smiling down at you as you discover and rediscover moments that made their lives seem magical. JaYoe
crazy world.
Crazy and interested! B
Just to add some insight, the movie was actually shot In Sri Lanka over the river in "Kitulgala" . Other locations like the Head quarters and offices shown in the movie were also in Sri Lanka, such as the Mount Lavinia Hotel, Paradeniya Botanical Gardens. The bridge was later blown up for real for the movie.
Thank you for this wonderful short film. This is extremely insightful and fantastically made. I’m sure you going there would have triggered all of the old memories of the films for you dad. Great work Matt.
I finished the movie and immediately came here thanks for this it is a great video.
Yay your back. Great video. I remember watching the movie with my father too, must be a father and son thing.
You're a good story teller Matt, this episode was awesome 👍
glad you liked it!
A classic film, a great Vlogg and always interesting and informative Podcasts....your back on form ....JaYoe
Great video!! Loved all the effort that went into making this. ^^
Thank you Matt, I watched the movie when I was a kid, now I learned that the true story is not as the movie, I did not visit the site when I was in Thailand, but I will notify you hat when you are in Taiwan, I don't remember whether you visited the "jiu fen" 九份 and "jin gua shi" 金瓜石， there is big gold mine at that area, there are may be close to 1,000, British POW was working at the gold mine, there are old pictures of them working at the site. since it is not important as the movie of" bridge of river Kwai". no one even knew about it.
wow.... i think i was very close to that gold mine....
I was there in 1973 when it was hardly disturbed. USAF Tahkli RTAFB 72-74
wow.. i wonder what differences you saw
I just recently saw this classic! It’s one is such a classic. I can see why the older generation is smart and better grounded! I need to visit that place one day too! If possible!
Little artistic license made for a great movie with great actors. Just like you I have wonderful memories of watching this and other David Lean masterpieces (Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago) with my parents, who are both in the next life now. It’s nice to know other people have similar life stories and maybe why I always check your channel. Well done and keep them coming!
The film is based on the southern area of the Thai Burma Railway. The very first visual thing I notice is that these prisoners were wearing clothes and that was probably true to life. However, the area further north in the camps around Hellfire Pass such as Hintok , Kanyu, Kinsayok, Tonchan etc are deep in virgin jungle and hundreds of kilometres away from civilisation. Here prisoners’ clothes had rotted and they were naked apart from a rag that was used to cover their genitals and had no protection against the burning sun or monsoons. They then had to endure atrocities, cruelty, starvation and torture. They were given a cup of rice twice a day. The international Red Cross couldn’t get to them. My father weighed only 80 pounds after spending 3years 8 months as a Japanese Prisoner of War. He was lucky to have survived.
Susan, God bless your dad for all he went through. He is a hero.
Did he ever express resentment toward the Japanese?
@@antonioacevedo5200 Dad rarely spoke about his treatment on the Death Railway but it’s a curious thing that when he did say anything I listened intently and could tell by his short comment afterwards that he had already re-lived some dreadful incident or other in his mind. I’ll give you an example. On one occasion and quite out of the blue he turned to speak to me and said, “You know, the Japs wanted a railway; we’d have built their railway….they just didn’t NEED to have been so cruel”. I think that Dad didn’t want to offload his burden on to us. Most of the things he related to me were in this manner. He died when I was in my mid twenties and I’d learnt to appreciate that Dad’s ‘nuggets’ of information were spasmodic but heartfelt. I was always ready to listen out for any little story he had and, gradually, I’d ask for specifics. I’m glad now that I do have a collection of my modest Dad’s eye witness accounts to pass on to my children and grandchildren.
Did Dad feel animosity towards the Japanese race? I must say that he did speak of those evil men doing those evil deeds in that time. BUT absolutely and in all honesty, I never heard him express a general hatred of the Japanese as a race.
SPEAKING FOR MYSELF, I feel that with the sudden devastating end of the War in the Far East in August 1945 when homeland Japanese lives were lost, the world should also acknowledge in commemorations that there were even more thousands of lives that were saved, including my emaciated POW father’s life and the lives of his skeletal comrades. Add to that number, the civilian Asian victims who were used by the Jap military as forced labour, as were those surviving Asians, who had also been slaves on the Thai Burma Railway. Also God bless and remember those who did not survive the Japanese brutality but agonisingly died from starvation, beatings, overwork, disease, torture and even execution.
yeah.....I watch the movie when I was a kid........but have no chance yet to travel to Knchaburi to walk tru the Bridge on River Kwai........greetings from Malaysia
Quite a production you did! Great job and I know it was a lot of work! Thanks! Look forward to watching your journey. See you in Alaska....
Interesting story, great video Matt, thanks
We lived there in the early 70's and as a boy scout did the death March with my dad it different then but was interesting
wow.... thats quite an experience to share with your father.
I liked your little window into the Bridge Over the River Kwai. Please do more of these if you have time in your travels.
This is undoubtedly the most interesting video that I have watched that actually compelled me to comment ❤️🤩
I still think in the film it was a shame to blow up that wooden bridge wherever in the world it was. It looked like some fine craftsmanship.
🤦🏻♂️
It was built in Sri Lanka, stil there are some remains
Good Vlog back. Looking forward to the Trike travels. Can't believe it's been a few years after your father passing.
I really enjoyed this, thanks for sharing
Really enjoyed this. You have a special gift!
Thank you, Matt!
Glad that you pointed out the film's fictitious story, but another fiction is fact that the bridge is actually on the Maeklong River, not the real River Kwae. Soon after the film came out, early tourists to the area would wonder why there was no bridge on the actual River Kwae (which runs into the Maeklong a couple of miles south of bridge). Shrewdly, the locals renamed this section of the Maeklong river (north of the Kwae junction) to become Kwae Yai - in contrast to the actual Kwae Noi which the railway parallels for much of its route beyond the bridge. Had this bridge been called the "River Maeklong Bridge" there would be far fewer tourists today.
Also, the Japanese built the bridge using the curved steel truss sections which were transported from a Java railway. The angled centre sections are the replacement trusses when it was rebuilt following war damage.
Excellent comment there is so much misinformation posted in comments it's always good to read one with facts.
Beautiful narration
Watched that movie first time with my dad too!! and remember that tune whistle to this day!
Just an add on. You might like to know that yes, the wooden bridge you describe was destroyed but it was before the bridge that you are walking on. My father, a British artillery soldier, was a POW in that camp and it was called Tamarkan Camp not Kwai. In February 1945 he witnessed the bombing of that metal Bridge. If you google the date you will find the photo.
Wow. A real witness to history
My father claimed he had to stand at attention for the entire movie; the tune they whistle was his school song. :)
I remember seeing that movie with my dad too when I was 11 or 12
The actual movie is filmed in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). They build the entire bridge near kukulagala and blow it up for real for the movie. Very beautiful place; you will like that place 🙂
Great video Matt. It's funny I was QCing that movie last week working on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Love History.
I visited the Kwai bridge and rode the train on the Death Railway in April 2022. Even though I enjoyed being at this historic location, knowing some of the actual history I felt sadness the entire time as well.
Last week, after spending three nights in Kanchanaburi, I likewise rode the Death Railway train back to Bangkok.
The Film was shot in Celon and is nothing like the real area. I understand that the rail bridge was transported by the Japanese from Indonesia and rebuilt. It is a very pretty place and the War Cemeteries are very well maintained. Lest We Forget.
Very well put together! Super cool vid 👍🏻
So if the bridge you crossed was built after the war, how about visiting the real location and show pictures of the wooden bridge over the river Kwai. Thanks for an interesting showed, still loved it. Thumbs up. Best Wishes & Blessings. Keith Noneya
You did a good job. I'm the daughter of one of the prisoners. He survived but did not wish to talk about it. Recently, my brothers and I have been trying to put together some facts before we too start to die off. There is a good web site "cofepow" for Children of Far East POWs.
Great job Matt.
Nice video. Love the narration 😊
I'm bad at history so this is the first time I learned about what happened at the bridge...
wow... im glad i could tell you about it.
I've saw this movie, also with my Dad and I still whistle that song........
My wife who is thai and from Kanchanaburi told me her aunt would have to make food parcels for the japanese soldiers on the trains going through the station
Great insight. Jayoe 👍
👍👍👍 Thanks a lot of this interesting video 🙏. I visited the bridge on the river Kwai on March 2021.
Nice video matt well put together and very interesting. 👍🏻
there was a colonel there... that Nicholson was based on... but he was orchestrating sabotage... not helping the Japanese in any way... Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey
Indeed! I visited the Burma Railway Museum a week ago and the very same day I checked the relevant English wikipedia article which explains this fact.
Look how meticulously they care for the graveyards. I have never seen a graveyard in the USA with such beautiful plants and so well groomed. Different culture for sure.
I have. Arlington
The land was originally given to Britain out of gratitude by the Thai government. It was managed by the Imperial war graves commission, In 1960 that became the Commonwealth War grave’s Commission, and graves managed by the British gradually became managed by the Commonwealth. When I went in the 1990’s the area looked very different, a lot less built up, the cemetery had almost no buildings near it, but even then was an oasis surrounded by dry and dusty roads and countryside. I’m not sure if Britain still owns the land or if they managed to also transfer ownership to the commonwealth (I imagine legal and diplomatic issues affect that given that it was a gift) I was always so touched as one part of the cemetery when I went was for British soldiers, then there was another area for soldiers that had fought for and with Britain, with a plaque stating the area was in memory of those that sacrificed their lives fighting for Britain, and that this was a debt that could never be repaid by the British people.
There is so much more to tell about the building of this bridge. Actually three bridges were built. The first low-level bridge was constructed to allow work parties to cross the river and commence construction of the concrete pilons and bridge support structures, from both sides of the river. The first bridge was washed away in a flood snd had to be reconstructed. This reconstructed temporary bridge, was the second bridge. Australian POW engineers constructed the concrete bridge pilings together with many other POW's being put to forced work up and down the line. The concrete works in the fast flowing river, was arduous and dangerous job that required underwater diving in zero visibility with primitive diving equipment. The steel bridge that can be seen today, had been identified by the Japanese prior to the commencement of the War during pre-war surveys. The steel bridge was in fact an operational railway bridge in Java/Indonesia. After the Japanese invaded Java, a Japanese railway battalion dismantled the bridge and transported it to Kanchanaburi, Thailand, where it was reassembled and attached to the concrete pillons that the POW'd had already constructed. Amazingly the measurements were correct and the bridge fitted. The US Airforce were very much aware of the bridge having been constructed, and thereafter attempted to bomb this bridge out of commission many times. Each time the bombers arrived, the Japanese forced the POW's onto the bridge in a failed attempt to discourage the US bombing. Finally the US Air force did blow-up two spans of the bridge, thus putting the railway out of action for the remainder of the war. Many POW's (human shields) who were forced onto the bridge by their Japanese captors, were killed during the bombing that day. It is reported that it took three days for the human remains and blood of those POW's killed in the bombing, to be washed down stream, and the river cleansed. The death toll attributed to building the Thai-Burma railway is 280,000 to 250,000 civilian labourers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war. This death toll equates to one death for each railway sleeper laid during construction of the TB-railway. Read also of the atrocities committed upon the POW's further up the line by the Japanese, at Hell Fire Pass. A number of Japanese soldiers who were in charge of building the TB-railway, were subsequently convicted of War Crimes and executed. History records say that "no US service men (POW's) died building the Thai-Burma railway". For the record, the US soldiers were fighting the Japanese elsewhere in the Pacific, at this time. "Lest we forget". After the war, a number of civilian Japanese self-funded the construction of the Kanchanburi Peace Park. A remorseful recognition of the pain and suffering that their Japanese soldiers had inflicted on the POW's and civilian population. Sadly the Japanese post-War government elected not to contribute any funds towards the construction and upkeep of the Peace Park.
My grandfather who was a British soldier acted in this movie, I still remember when we were kids he used to tell us all the second WW stories. The movie was actually shot in Sri Lanka.
Full credit to those taking care of the graves.
My friend Frank Bird was an extra in that film shot in Ceylon marching and whistling colonel bogey!
Great video, I will be walking over that bridge tomorrow, December 31 2022
wow thats cool... it was an interesting neighborhood.. i think you will like it.
4:22 “Japan such a small country”.
Ermm. You’re talking about a nation having more population than British and France combined.
Yes, not just population-wise; Japan was remarkably industrialized, especially given their late start taking on Western ways only in the1800s.
Also @8:00 he (at least) corrects his earlier remark re: a steel bridge.
Nice production Matt!
Great video, well done!
I can tell you enjoyed that quite a bit. Ja Yoe!
Intresting, been there many a times but never seen the movie..
Seen the movie a few times never been there.
Liked this video as I’m a WW2 buff. BKK to Rangoon is what the Chinese are building now. With new construction tech is a since to build a short bridge
Yes, there were two bridges.
The first was made of wood.
This concrete bridge was built a few months later, and reconstructed after the war as part of Japanese war reparations.
Both bridges were built by POWs.
(Commonwealth, Dutch, and American POWs)
What about ALL THE BRITS THAT DIED BUILDING THIS BRIDGE ????
It is my understanding there is a very small section of the original timber bridge, it is on the Kanchanaburi side of the river and to the left of today's steel bridge
I live over here. I have taken friends there and to hell fire pass . I can honestly say when I went there last time about 10 years ago I can't remember the railway track being wide enough to take a large train. The track was small narrow gauge and a small train took tourists back and forth..is this new ?
there was a large train on the tracks when i was there.... it was full
@@JaYoeNation Less than a week ago I took the Death Railway train from Kanchanaburi to Bangkok and it did not cross that bridge...
Wow..... thanks for such an informative video ! 5 stars
Sawaddee krub, there is one thing I'd like to explain ... the real name of the river is not "Kwai" but "Yai"!!. The word Kwai in thai means river and that river named Yai ... When we call the river we say Kwai Yai or river Yai ...then shortly became kwai or river only. So when people saying river kwai it will mean river river. Anyway we had accepted the name river kwai already coz it is so famous and all the people arround the world recognize it.
In the province of Kanchanaburi the Mae Klong meets the confluence of the River Kwai Noi.
(Noi meaning small)
And the River Kwai Yai, (Yai meaning big) There was no bridge's built over the River Kwai Noi.
Video is well crafted
Thank you! very informative..
The movie was a complete work of fiction and was condemned by many ex POW's. The wooden bridge was actually based on the bridge constructed at Songkurai. 😉
Great video. What camera have you used for this shoot?
Canon g7x mark 3
This is a nice video. shame it's only got 3 thousand views
Graves are funded by the British war graves commission
I believe the Bridge the film talks about was at Upper Konkoita.
I enjoyed your vlog. I saw the movie when i was in my teens.but it was shot in Ceylon (sri lanka).
Thailand is a very friendly neighbor country of China.
The film "Bridge over the river Kwai" was actually filmed in Sri Lanka not in Thailand nowhere near the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery
It was filmed in shrilanker....went to the bridge a few weeks ago
what country is that river in?
Watching this on the 11th of the 11th and enjoyed it SADLY. I grew up in the 1960s knowing one of mothers friends who lost her husband in Burma. 2 of my hobbies covered at 9.10 I teased my Chinese Wife and my main hobby at 1.23 lovingly preserved. I have a book A Life for every Sleeper which is very powerful. With modern scanning which can remove the trees they discovered an embankment 60 feet high and estimating just how many people it needed to build it?
They were far short of the number known! Then someone mentioned the masses dragged from India who disappeared and there was the answer the scary real number of deaths to build it.
David and Lily. I also do sit on models that you can drive and enjoy steam of course 5 inch gauge.
That girl playing guitar was there last month also.
she was cute... good singer too.
And the movie is in color? Also I like your color camera.
TBOTRK was filmed in Ceylon/Sri Lanka.
The film is not representative of the truth over 100,000 Asian forced labour also died during the construction
That is a beautiful Garden of Stone Cemetery.
Get you facts correct before posting videos I live in khanchanaburi and have studied the history of the Thai to Burma railway, go to the local museum it shows you locations of all of the camps
I visited that museum less than a week ago. So very interesting!
Original location in srilanka ....srilanka kithulgala...
You must know that at the time the "Colonel Bogey March" was also known as the “Hitler Has Only Got One Ball" song.
Have a look at Wikipedia.
The words were conjured by the British in defiance to the Germans …
Hitler has only got one ball,
Göring has two but very small,
Himmler is rather sim'lar,
But poor old Goebbels has no balls at all.
Etc
Please correct the title into "The Bridge on the River Kwai | Compare Movie and Real Life", as that is the correct name of the movie.
theres a little bit of the original bridge just further down but not much
But is it actually the over river kwai? No the river has been "renamed" for tourist purposes
Nobody seems to consider the thousands of Asians that died during the construction of this railroad! Hundreds of bodies still remain lying in the jungles alongside this railroad!
That is true. However, I do remember the Asians as my father, as a Japanese Prisoner of War on that railway always remembered them. So I do too and have made my children aware of their plight too.
We always know Hollywood portrays real life drama with a slant of unrealistic license, in this movie, so what that they glorified the BRITISH or underplayed the conditions of the camp, hospital or even the Japanese engineers etc or for that matter added a little sex to the movie, the important thing is so many men lost their lives to the building of this railroad, bridge included and the war as well, and anyone thinks otherwise is very naïve. Please also don't think that America wasn't guilty of certain aspects of cruelty as in the slaughter millions of innocent people of 2 cities to revenge the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It took Pearl only 6 months to recover, Japanese people lost their lives well after the 2 cities were destroyed
such a deeply moving and conflicting place, I've visited a few times, the first time i spent hours wandering amongst the graves in floods of tears. the cemetery is much larger than it appears in this video. , the development near the bridge is really upsetting and totally out of place . gold and jewellery stores right where the original hospital camp was located and a real lack of sensitivity from the Thais , who have managed to rewrite history and only mention the very very small number of locals who tried to help and not the vast majority who were complicit in war crimes and mass murder. There are so many stories that have been lost to time in this place . please go and pay your respects if you happen to go to Thailand . its a very short train ride from Bangkok
Matt at your intro I think you’ve mixed up the 1st and 2nd clip. The 1st is battle of midway and the 2nd a bridge too far. 😂 anyway great vid
AHHHH... really? ok ok
Hey, Obewan
I used to think the same thing. OVER. But it's actually ON.
Prepositions, basic grammar rules.
“In, on, under, over.”
It’s OVER.
One of my favourite places in Thailand, great video.. one thing I need to point out to us westerners is how the pronounce Kwai we are basically say F@£k, Penis or buffalo ! Oh I'm a thai resident and as we know how Laid back they are most just laugh.. try kw- oh ! Lol
And will never lose a war. Cough.. Vietnam. How's that working out for ya Patton? Mr Tough guy.
On the river not over
feb 17th 2017 i scattered my brothers ashes there he koved this fil
It was entertaining!
A reality would have been
Depressing
Altho eighty percent did survive compared to the asian losses!
You never said where the steel came from nor you had said where all power tools like rivet drivers, cranes, concrete, rebars and aloke came from???????????????????????