This plaque is located at footpath level at the
right side of the memorial. The plaque is a modification of the six
large plaques located in Thailand and is significant because Dunlop and
the sculptor fabricated these plaques in 1992. The plaque attempts to
interrelate the role that the medical officers of the Allied forces had
in maintaining the lives of all P.O.W.'s. The annotated map of The
Burma-Thailand Railway exhibits the major topographical and geographical
features of the infamous railway.
Text on plaque
The Burma-Thai Railway was built by Allied Prisoners of War (POW) and
impressed Asian labour between May 1942 and October 1943. This major
engineering feat of World War II ran 415 km from Burma to Thailand,
through steep, densely forested terrain. It provided a land route for
the embattled Japanese forces fighting the Allies in Burma. Despite
terrible loss of life, the POW constructed 14 km of bridges and
displaced 7 million cubic metres of earth and rock, mostly by hand and
with primitive tools.
A handful of Allied medical officers kept thousands alive despite
endemic tropical diseases, starvation and calculated brutality by Korean
and Japanese guards. The devotion of these doctors to the sick and dying
will never be forgotten.
