Railwaymen in the War Also by Kazuo Tamayama
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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 Thailand 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, United Kingdom 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-Sumatra Railway 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, Singapore, 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 Kanchanaburi 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 October 1943 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.