Thanbyuzayat, 40 miles south of Mawlamyine, was the western terminus of the infamous Burma–Siam Railway, dubbed the ‘Death Railway’ by the thousands of Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and Asian labourers who were forced by the Japanese military to build it. Half a mile west of town lies the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, containing 3771 graves of Allied POWs who died building the railway.
Most of those buried here were British, but there are also markers for American, Australian and Dutch soldiers. As you walk around this simple memorial, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, reading the heart-rending words inscribed on the gravestones, it’s impossible not to be moved to the brink of tears.
