Hellfire Pass

About this place

The most moving site on the Death Railway: a deep cutting the prisoners hacked through solid rock with simple hand tools to carry the line, named «Hellfire Pass» because work went on at night by torchlight, and the gaunt prisoners' shadows on the walls looked like a scene from hell. Between 1942 and 1943 the Japanese army forced some sixty thousand Allied prisoners of war and hundreds of thousands of Asian labourers to build a railway about 415 kilometres long between Thailand and Burma; tens of thousands died of starvation, disease and exhaustion, and it became known as the «Death Railway». At the entrance is an interpretive centre built by the Australian government, telling the story through photographs, personal belongings and recorded testimony; visitors then descend to a trail along the old railway bed through the very same rock cutting, with a free audio guide recounting the stories of those who worked here. A longer, harder full trail is there for those who want it. Entry is free and donations are welcome; the centre opens daily from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon. At dawn every 25 April a memorial service is held here, attended by many Australians and New Zealanders. Bring water and comfortable shoes, as the trail is hot and humid. It is usually combined with Sai Yok Noi waterfall and the Tham Krasae viaduct in a single day.