17. Allied POWs were used as slave labor by the Japanese Empire, working 12 hour days under harsh conditions until they succumbed to starvation, illness, or maltreatment
In the course of their imprisonment, Allied POWs were forced to perform labor on behalf of their captors. Employed in mines, shipyards, fields, and factories, these harsh labors exacerbated the conditions of the already malnourished and ill prisoners. Those in Mukden Prison Camp, for example, worked for the Manchurian Tool Company under Mitsubishi, making tools and parts for military aircraft. The most unlucky, however, were sent to work on the Thai-Burma Railway, connecting Bangkok and Rangoon. Constructed between 1942 and 1943, the 415-kilometer railway resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 laborers including, at least, 13,000 Allied prisoners of war.
Known colloquially as the “Death Railway“, more than 60,000 Allied POWs were forced to work from dawn until dusk to expedite the completion of the transportation system. Receiving only one day off in eleven, performing manual labor for an estimated 100 hours per week, these prisoners built bridges, laid track, and cut through mountains until they collapsed from the effort. These prisoners were housed in tiny barracks, measuring just 66 yards long, with 200 POWs to a house, providing each adult man only a two-foot wide space in which to sleep.