Thailand Guide
The central plains
The Kanchanaburi War Cemetery (Don Rak)
Opening time: Daily 8am–4pm
Price: Free
Address: Thanon Saeng Chuto
Thirty-eight Allied POWs died for each kilometre of track laid on the Thailand– Burma Railway, and many of them are buried in Kanchanaburi's two war cemeteries. Of all the region's World War II sights, the cemeteries are the only places to have remained untouched by commercial enterprise. The Kanchanaburi War Cemetery (Don Rak), is the bigger of the two, with 6982 POW graves laid out in straight lines amid immaculately kept lawns and flowering shrubs. It was established after the war, on a plot adjacent to the town's Chinese cemetery, as the final resting place for the remains that had been hurriedly interred at dozens of makeshift POW-camp gravesites all the way up the course of the railway line. Many of the identical stone memorial slabs in Don Rak state simply, "A man who died for his country"; others, inscribed with names, dates and regiments, indicate that the overwhelming majority of the dead were under 25 years old. A commemorative service is held here every year on April 25, Anzac Day.