Railwaymen in the War Also by Kazuo Tamayama:

BURMA 1942, JAPANESE INVASION TALES BY JAPANESE SOLDIERS OF THE BURMA CAMPAIGN 1942–45 Railwaymen in the War Tales by Japanese Railway Soldiers in Burma and 1941–47

Kazuo Tamayama © Kazuo Tamayama 2005 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-3224-2 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-51590-5 ISBN 978-0-230-28826-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230288263 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Railwaymen in the war : tales by Japanese railway soldiers in Burma and Thailand, 1941–1947/[edited by] Kazuo Tamayama. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Burma—Siam Railroad—History. 2. Japan. Rikugun—Military construction operations. 3. Japan. Rikugun—Biography. 4. Nihon Kokuyu Tetsudo—Employees—Biography. 5. World War, 1939–1945— Regimental histories—Japan. 6. World War, 1939–1945—Personal narratives, Japanese. 7. Oral history. I. Tamayama, Kazuo. D767.47.R35 2004 940.54′2591—dc22 2004048578 10987654321 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 Contents

List of Maps and Illustrations ix Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii

Introduction 1

Part 1 The Training of Railway Soldiers 26 1.1 A new conscript 26 Eiji Shibata 1.2 A military civilian 36 Sanzou Tomii 1.3 The British view: Railways in the Burma campaign 37 Ian Lyall Grant Part 2 Advance in Burma 40 2.1 Assault landing on Singora 40 Jiro Sakai 2.2 The first battle 45 Toru Hozomi 2.3 Advance to Malaya 48 Yoshiharu Ukai 2.4 Advance to Moulmein 60 Tadao Fujihashi 2.5 Advance to Rangoon 63 Yoshiharu Ugai 2.6 Start the train service 67 Shigehiro Asakura 2.7 Diary of a company commander 69 Zyoichi Saito 2.8 The British view: British railway demolitions in Burma, 1942 74 Ian Lyall Grant

v vi Contents

Part 3 Construction of the Burma–Thailand Railway 77 3.1 The zero mile post 77 Norihiko Futamatu 3.2 The Volga boat-song and the bridge 81 Masaru Tsuruta 3.3 My touchstone – the Chungkai Cutting 91 Juji Tarumoto 3.4 The Painter 108 Yuuji Wakatsuki 3.5 A new company commander at Konyu and Hintok 110 Shuji Otuki 3.6 The Konyu Cutting 111 Takumi Kamuro 3.7 Cholera 119 Tatsuo Morohoshi 3.8 The Hirota platoon at Hintok 120 Jiro Sakai 3.9 Lt-Colonel Banno and the PoWs 124 Saburo Hasegawa 3.10 A hard struggle in the remote jungle 131 Kazufumi Kamiya 3.11 Matoma, the hardest time of all 137 Juji Tarumoto 3.12 Celebrating the completion of the Railway 147 Saburo Hasegawa 3.13 A thief of tins 151 Yukichi Ishii 3.14 A private and prisoners 153 Tokuzo Sato 3.15 Korean guards 156 Lee Han-ne 3.16 The relationship between the Railway Regiment and the PoW camps 160 Kazuo Tamayama 3.17 View of the PoWs 164 3.18 Extract from History of ‘F’ Force 165 S. W. Harris 3.19 The Featherston Incident and its effect on PoWs 169 Kazuo Tamayama Contents vii

Part 4 Struggle at the Myitkyina Line 174 4.1 Myitkyina Line 174 Saburo Hasegawa 4.2 Fight with Chindits at Mawlu 177 Bun-ichiro Asazuma 4.3 The battle near Ponchan 181 Shigehiro Asakura 4.4 Keep the trains running 183 Saburo Hasegawa 4.5 Transportation of provisions 187 Kenji Hamazaki 4.6 Annihilated at Myitkyina 188 Takao Yoshikawa 4.7 The retreat from the Myitkyina line 195 Kenji Koshikawa 4.8 Maintenance of locomotives 199 Hideo Hattori 4.9 The British view: the battle at White City (Henu) on 17 March 1944 203 Kazuo Tamayama

Part 5 Retreat 205 5.1 Move to Lashio Line 205 Saburo Hasegawa 5.2 Defending Mandalay 208 Kazushi Omori 5.3 Retreat on the Mandalay line 209 Saburo Hasegawa 5.4 Destroy the C56 locomotive 213 Hyogo Ito 5.5 Evacuation from Rangoon 214 Shohichi Imagawa 5.6 The last train from Rangoon 215 Hidekichi Shimada 5.7 Over the Burma–Thailand Railway to Malaya 218 Yonezo Tomita 5.8 To Sumatra 221 Akira Kani 5.9 The Trans- 223 Tatsuo Morohoshi 5.10 The British view: advance to Rangoon 226 Ian Lyall Grant viii Contents

Part 6 Japanese Surrendered Personnel and the Military Court 228 6.1 We were defeated 228 Ken Iwai 6.2 Days without pride 233 Tatsuo Morohoshi 6.3 Report to the jail 238 Juji Tarumoto 6.4 A Korean war criminal and a Japanese officer 254 Lee Han-ne 6.5 Sacrificed men 260 Honryu Tanaka 6.6 Petition asking for a reduced penalty 265 Masaki Mori 6.7 The British View: ‘March to the Scaffold’ (Editorial, Straits Times, , 6 February 1947) 270

Appendix 1 The Influence of Bushido: Why Japanese officers drove PoWs to work unreasonably hard 273 Appendix 2 Treatment of Japanese Surrendered Personnel (JSP) 275 Index 277 List of Maps and Illustrations

Map 1 Five routes for the Burma–Thailand Railway 9 I.1 Gradient profile of the Burma–Thailand Railway 19 Map 2 The Burma–Thailand Railway 20 I.2 The remains of the Burma–Thailand Railway 23 1.1.1 (A) Barracks of 5th Railway Regiment (aerial photo) 28 (B) Barracks of 5th Railway Regiment (plan) 29 1.1.2 New recruits laying rails 34 1.1.3 Bridge-building exercise 35 2.3.1 Perak bridge supported by sleepers piled crosswise 50 2.3.2 Temporary walkway attached to demolished Perak bridge 51 2.3.3 Derailed train left by the British 52 2.3.4 A part of the repaired Perak bridge 53 2.3.5 Gemas bridge demolished 54 2.3.6 Japanese soldiers crossing the demolished bridge carrying bicycles 55 2.3.7 Japanese trains arriving at Johore Bahru. In the background, burning oil tanks in Singapore 56 2.3.8 First train to cross the repaired causeway into Singapore 57 2.3.9 Rail-tractor type 100 at Ipoh, January 1942 58 2.3.10 Wooden bridge over the River Sittang 59 3.2.1 The bridge being built over the River Mac Khlong 87 3.2.3 The central part of the completed steel bridge over the Mac Khlong 88 3.2.3 Aerial view of the two bridges, steel and wooden, over the River Mac Khlong near 89 3.3.1 Preparing the cutting for rail-laying 96 3.3.2 Prisoners of war laying rails 102 3.3.3 A train laying ballast 103 3.6.1 Barracks for PoWs and Japanese soldiers 114 3.6.2 Barracks at Takunun (218 km) 115 3.6.3 The cutting at Konyu (152 km) 117 3.6.4 Wooden viaduct near Konyu 118 3.9.1 PoWs being transported using type C56 engines 129

ix x List of Maps and Illustrations

3.9.2 PoWs walking to Banno PoW camp 130 3.10.1 Transport in the rainy season 133 3.10.2 Elephant transport 134 3.10.3 The base for boat transportation at Takunun 135 3.11.1 Temporary wooden viaduct used for transportation of supplies 144 3.11.2 Curved viaduct at Kuriankurai (250 km), 17 metres high 145 3.12.1 The completion ceremony of the railway at Konkoita (262 km) on 25 149 3.12.3 Locomotive no. C5631 150 3.16.1 Organisation of the Southern Army 162 5.1.1 Rail-destroyer attached to rails 211 5.1.2 Track smashed by the rail-destroyer 212 Preface

This book tells the stories of a group of men who were devoted to their duty of moving the trains and constructing the railways even under the hardest conditions of war. They were the Japanese railway soldiers, a unique branch of the army that specialised in the operation and con- struction of railways, and the employees of the Japanese National Railways conscripted into the army. The first Japanese army unit of railway engineers was established in 1896, as the result of the bitter experiences in the Sino-Japanese war (1894–5) of supplying the fronts in the vast expanse of Manchuria all by inefficient horse-drawn cart. During the Russo-Japanese war (1904–5), a Japanese railway battalion built a narrow-gauge railway between Antung on the Yalu River and Mukden (296 kilometres) following the advancing Japanese army. In 1918 two railway regiments were formed, and during the war with China (1937–1945) four more railway regiments were added. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and Malaya on 8 December 1941, she had seven railway regiments, of which two (the 5th and 9th) went to Malaya and then to Burma. The 5th Railway Regiment was formed at Chiba in April 1938, and went to China, and to French Indo-China. When the war broke out in December 1941, it moved to Malaya via Thailand, together with the 9th Railway Regiment which had been mobilized two months before. Five thousand employees of the Japanese National Railways (JNR) were conscripted and were sent to Burma as the 4th and 5th Special JNR groups. The JNR had an outstanding performance record, as the employees had received strict training emphasizing obedience to regulations, responsibility and discipline. JNR employees performed their difficult duties as faithfully as the soldiers of the railway regiments. The two railway regiments then moved to Burma and repaired the railways that had been demolished by the retreating British. After the Special JNR units were transferred to the operations in Burma, the two regiments played the key role in the construction of the Burma–Thailand railway, a very arduous task deep in rugged mountains where cholera, and tropical diseases were rife. The 415 kilometre railway was built within 15 months, which was a remarkable engineering achievement, but one accomplished at the cost of the deaths of 12,626 prisoners of war (British, Dutch and Australian), more than 15,000 local workers (Burmese,

xi xii Preface

Thais, Tamils etc.) and 1,000 Japanese. The extreme hardships of the PoWs engaged in the construction work, which resulted in the high death rate of 25 per cent, have been well documented in various publications. After its completion, the two regiments worked to keep the trains running on the Myitkyina line and on the Burma–Thailand line in the face of the persistent demolition of the bridges and facilities by British and US war planes, and to transport Japanese troops and their essential supplies to the terminal stations. After the devastating defeat of the Japanese 15th Army in the Imphal area, the 5th Railway Regiment retreated from the Myitkyina line to Mandalay and then south to the Sittang River, fighting rearguard actions. After the Japanese surrender on 15 August 1945, the railway regiments restored the badly damaged railways in Burma, working under British orders as ‘Japanese Surrendered Personnel’ (JSP) – not as prisoners of war under the Geneva convention – and operated the Thailand–Burma railway. Then more than one thousand railway officers and soldiers were arrested on suspicion of being war criminals and were put in prison at Changi and Rangoon, where they were treated harshly with starvation rations for a year. Seven railway officers and eight JNR men were prosecuted in the military war crimes courts, and Major-General Sasa, who commanded the construction of the railway, and Captain Hirota, a platoon leader, were hanged. Also 89 officers, guards and military police in charge of PoW camps were prosecuted and 43 of them were hanged. Apart from those who were sentenced to imprisonment, most of the men of the railway regiments had been sent back to Japan by October 1947. This book tells the stories of the railway soldiers and JNR men during their training, their working experiences in Burma, their brave engage- ments with the allied armies, and their life as JSP after the surrender. Readers will understand that they were people who really liked the railways and carried out their duties faithfully at all costs. From another viewpoint, the book tells the history of the two railway regiments and two Special JNR units from their formation until their official termination. As the book takes the form of an oral history, it was not possible to get stories from those guards and soldiers who were extremely cruel to PoWs, since these had either been sentenced to death in the war crimes courts, committed suicide, or escaped to become Burmese residents in anticipation of their arrest. The extreme sufferings of the prisoners who were subjected to hunger and to cruel torture by the Korean guards and Japanese soldiers have been recorded in many writings of ex-PoWs, so only the titles of these records and a summary of an official report are given in this book. Acknowledgements

Much of the material in the book is based on soldiers’ recollections recorded in battalion or regimental memoirs or other publications. Some stories were abstracted from interviews. Details of these sources are given below. I am grateful to Mr Masanari Tazawa of the former 5th Railway Regiment, and Mr Ren-ichi Sugano of the former 9th Railway Regiment, who kindly agreed to let us use various parts of the relevant memoirs and photographs, and gave us various kinds of information on the railway engineers. I would also like to acknowledge the extensive help and advice of Dr Caroline Rose in the writing of the introduction. My warm thanks are extended to Major-General Ian H. Lyall Grant for advice on the British view, contributing three chapters; to Mr John Nunneley, Mr Peter Dekkers, Mr Tatsuo Morohoshi, Mr Kazuya Tsukamoto and Mr Satoru Inazawa for their useful advice in many fields; to Mr Hugh E. Wilkinson for editing and revising my English writing; and to my wife Sazanami for the untiring support and encouragement she has given me.

Photo credits

Illustrations 1.1.1, 5.1.1 and 5.1.2 were offered by Mr Masanori Tazawa representative of veterans association of the 5th railway regiment. Illus- tration 3.16.1 was prepared by the author. Cover photography of the railway was taken by the author near Arrowhill in 1999 (see also page 23). All other illustrations were offered by Mr Ren-ichi Sugano who brought back the photographs hidden between the backplate of his waistbag smug- gling through the rigid inspection of the Allied forces. After the surrender, Japanese were not allowed to take back any papers nor photographs by the order of the Allied forces. Thus all valuable records were destroyed.

Sources used

R indicates Railway Regiment, Bn battalion, J Special JNR unit; for example: 2Bn9R is the second battalion of the 9th Railway Regiment.

A. Publishing committee 2Bn5R, ‘2daitai kakutatakaeri’ (memoir 2Bn5R) Taimenkai, Tokyo 1953

xiii xiv Acknowledgements

B. Publishing committee 4Bn5R, ‘Tetsu5 dai4daitai Tatakainoato’ (memoir 4Bn5R), Senshi-henshu-jimukyoku, Tokyo, 1956 C. Yoshikawa Takao, ‘Miitokiina boueisen ni okeru Tetsudoutai’ (Railway unit at the defence of Myitokyina), 51kai, Tokyo 1977 D. Publishing Committee 4Bn9R, ‘Zanshou’ (The afterglow), 4Bn9R Senyukai, Tokyo, 1958 E. Publishing Committee 4Bn9R, ‘Hikari to Kage’ (Light and Shadow) 4Bn9R Senyukai, Tokyo, 1969 F. Tetsurin kai, ‘Tetsurin’ (Steel wheels, memoir 9R), Tetsurin kai, Tokyo, 1975 G. Publishing Committee 5J, ‘Dai5 Tokusetu Tetsudou Kousakutai’ (The 5th Special JNR Engineering Group), Harashobo, Tokyo, 1976 H. Tarumoto Juji, ‘Arusenpan no Shuki’ (Note of a War Criminal), Gendaishiryoshuppan, Tokyo, 1999 I. Ishida Eiichi, ‘Ishida Eikuma Ikoshu’ (posthumous manuscript of Eikuma Ishii), E. Ishida, Kagoshima, 1999 J. Tetsu5 Ireikai, ‘Eikouno Tetsudoubutai shashinshu’, (Photographs of the glorious railway unit, 5R), Tetu5kai, Tokyo, 1956 K. Hasegawa Saburo, ‘Tetsudouhei no Oitachi’ (Growth of Railway soldiers), Sankousha, Tokyo, 1984 L. ‘Isho-shu’ (last Notes) hand written by Honryu Tanaka, Yasukuni- kaiko Library, Tokyo, (1946) M.Futmatsu Norihiko (ed), ‘Taimen-tetsudou kensetsuki’ (memoir of construction of the Burma-Thailand Railway), Hanazono-shobo, Tokyo, 1955 N. Interview by the author, 2001 & 2002 O. Shimizu Sekito, ‘Tooi Kiteki’ (Distant Whistle), Asao-sha, Takasaki, 1978 P. SEATIC Bulletin No. 246 8 October 1946, (Singapore) Q. Iwai Ken, ‘C56 Nanposensen wo Yuku’ (C56 runs in southern battlefields), Jijitsushinsha, Tokyo, 1978 R. Tsukamoto Kazuya, ‘Miyanma saigono C56’ (The last C56 in ), Tetsudo fuan No 466,467, Tokyo, 2000 S. Takaichi Shozou, ‘Biruma sensen no Kiseki’ (Traces of Burma frontline), supplement, private publication, Kure, 1989

Supplementary references The following materials were also used. a. Ando Toshiro, ‘Keonoi no nagareni’, (On the river Kwai) Nihon Art Centre, Tokyo, 1987 Acknowledgements xv b. Kenmochi Yasuharu, ‘Shito Gunzoku Tetsudoutai’ (Struggle of JNR unit) 5Jotu7, Tokyo, 1958 c. 5Jotu4, ‘Tatakau Biruma Tetsudoutai’ (Fighting railway unit), Otsu3birumakai, Tokyo, 1962 d. Hiroike Toshio, ‘Taimenntetsudo – Senjoni nokoru Hashi’ (Burma- Thailand railway, The Bridge remaining in the battalefield), Yomiuri Shinbunsha, Tokyo, 1971 e. Takahashi Hiroshi, ‘Uingeto teisintai tono tatakai’ (Fight against Wingate force), Kaiko No 111, 1998 p. 24 f. Kamenaga Kentaro, ‘Dai5 Tokusetu Tetudoutai Shimatuki’ (Composition of J5), Kaishi Biruma no.45, ABVAJ, 2001 g. Kamenaga Kentaro, ‘Michinasen Mooruno omoide’ (Recolletion of Mawlu on Myitokyina line), Kaishi Biruma no 49, ABVAJ, 20

References for sections in the book are given in the table below. The number after the letter indicates the page in which the related matter or the major event are described. Supplementary references are listed with- out the numbers.

Section Source & page no.

1.1 A89, K114, 134 1.2 H6, f 2.1 F101, E82 2.2 F111 2.3 A185 2.4 A170 2.5 A185 2.6 A124 2.7 A205 3.1 E110, M 3.2 O42 3.3 I119, G, d 3.4 F167 3.5 E115 3.6 F147 3.7 E149 3.8 F147 3.9 K419 3.10 B292 3.11 I174, G 3.12 K453 3.13 F105 3.14 F163 xvi Acknowledgements

(Continued)

Section Source & page no.

3.15 N 3.18 P 4.1 K461 4.2 K475, e, g 4.3 K485, J 4.4 K488 4.5 K508 4.6 C 4.7 K560 4.8 B369 5.1 K535 5.2 B223 5.3 K530, 560, c 5.4 K572 5.5 H235, R102 5.6 H213, R100 5.7 H240, b 5.8 F172 5.9 N 6.1 Q216 6.2 N 6.3 I231, S164 6.4 N, L 6.5 L 6.7 S