The Jeath Museum

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The Jeath Museum

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The Jeath Museum Reviews

LeighTravelClub LeighTra…
40 reviews
1 / 1 TravBuddies found this review helpful
Dec 22, 2007
There is a very moving side to Kanchanaburi. JEATH stands for Japan, England, Australia, Thailand and Holland - the five nations who lived and died on the 'Death Railway'. The town contains two cemeteries to the dead, which number over 100,000, and are just as much part of Kanchanaburi as the bridge and houseboat guesthouses.

The best of these and the most moving is the JEATH museum. This is a little way out of town, to the south, along the Pak Praek Road. It can be easily walked or cycled and opposite, is the gaudy Wat Chakkadan, a fully fledged Buddhist monastery. The abbot of Wat Chakkadan opened the museum twenty years ago to remind future generations of what happened in the war. Following the fall of Singapore in 1942, 60,000 POWs were marched north to the River Kwai. The Japanese wanted to build a railway for quick access for the troops to reach Burma. Their experts told them 3 years, but the Japanese were going to use slave labour to do it in 16 months. Over 50,000 POW's died of malnutrition, disease and abuse in the most terrible conditions.

The museum itself is on the banks of the river Kwai, consisting of a war memorial based around a bodhi tree and a replica of one of the huts. Inside are photos harking back to that era, which really bring the horrors home to you. There are pictures of Japanese soldiers standing beside the bridge, newspaper cuttings of those who were liberated, and a map showing the forty or more camps that were strung along the River Kwai.

More harrowing were the portraits: the British prisoner, Jack Walker, managed to make etchings on pieces of smuggled paper of what he had witnessed. These were elaborated when he was released and hung in the museum. They are not for the faint of heart. There are pictures of cadaverous men with skin afflictions and diseases being herded through the thick jungle, hollow eyed prisoners being beaten, and those in the cholera tent being laid out to die. But the worse were the tortures inflicted by the Japanese guards including crucifixions with barbed wire. This was very shocking stuff and I emerged from the museum very thoughtful and looking at Kanchanaburi in a different light.

In town there is the Chukei war cemetery so if you want to pay your respects you may do so. But I believe that every visitor who comes to Kanchanaburi must visit the JEATH museum, they will come away a different person.
The Jeath Museum
technofiend says:
It is definitely a sad and tragic tale sometimes terrifying and very brutal.This was the "backdrop" of the 1940's and the story that I shied away from writing.Sometimes I think the Allies might of been better off not surrendering at Singapore!If they knew what was in store for them maybe they would of
carried on fighting.It is a moot point but I think,Churchill ordered them to stand and fight?
Great article anyway,John.Glad that the World has moved on since then...
Posted on: Apr 20, 2008
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The Jeath Museum Blogs

Jul 23, 2009
:)I had read about the JEATH museum and wanted to visited that one. Especially after the day before, we were very interested in finding out more about the Thai-Birma Railroad. The trip with the bike to JEATH was great, you see so many more than in a taxi or a tuk tuk! The JEATHDay 3 Kanchanaburi
Feb 18, 2006
Close to this there is an outdoor museum (JEATH Museum) to help you understand and experience the conditions of the railway workers, and it is grim, again its difficult to have the moments of solitude you need to appreciate these sights on a tour and my preference is to not burden myself… Kanchanaburi, Re-incarnation and the King
Apr 07, 2009
Next, we went to the JEATH Museum which is named after soldiers from Japan, England, Australia, Thailand and Holland. The museum recreates the huts used to jail prisoners of war during WWII. Inside, pictures of the soldiers, bunks, and personal affects bring to life a sobering picture of the prisoners… Tiger Temple and Bridge Over the River Kwai
Oct 12, 2008
Slightly out of town, the Jeath War Museum was small, and set up in a bamboo hut similar to how they would have been at the POW camp, very hot and cramped. It was called 'JEATH' to represent the initials of the countries affected, and also because it sounds nicer… The River Kwai
Oct 12, 2008
We also visited the Jeath War museum. The building it is in is a recreation of the wooden huts prisoners had to live and sleep in, basic bamboo structures that were as hot as hell and full of creepy crawlies. There were rows of newspaper cuttings about the bridge… Bridge over the river Kwai

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