A total of 6,593 POWs were shipped out or put on transport to work on the railroad. Of these, 1,818 POWs died on or as a result of the torpedo attacks of the 'Harugiku Maru'/'Van Waerwijck' and the 'Junyo Maru' combined. 698 POWs died during the construction of the railroad.
Of the POW's who worked on the railroad, roughly 3,700 had been in the Royal Dutch Indies' Army, 855 were British. approximately 200 Australians and 10 Americans.
According to a Red Cross Report of 26 June 1946 only 23,000 of the original 120,000 'coolies' (Javanese and Chinese) transported to Sumatra were still alive after Japan's surrender (a death rate of 80.83%).
Click on each and every camp on the ENLARGED image to get detailed infomation about that camp, or select from the 'list of camps' menu.
The railroad was completed on the day the Japanese surrendered, 15 August 1945. Read more.
The list of camps contains the distance from camp 1 at Pekanbaru (excluding Camp 14A which displays the distance to Petai)
Source:
DEATH RAILWAY 70 YEARS ON
220 kms Pekanbaru to Muaro 1942-1945
In the footsteps of POW 3951 Sumatra Visit April 2015 - Pekanbaru-Padang-Pekanbaru by: Tim & Phillis Livingstone
©2021 This 'app' has been developed by Martijn Hovinga, the son of Henk Hovinga, author of 'The Sumatra Railroad, 1943-1945'.
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