Chonk Kai War Cemetery, Kanchanaburi
Located five kilometres west of the town of Kanchanaburi lies the Chonk-kai War Cemetery. Similar to the nearby Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, the Chonk-kai War Cemetery holds the remains of the prisoners of war who worked on the Thai-Burma Railway during World War II. Stretching 424 kilometres long, the railway line took 14 months to finish and upon completion transported up to 220,000 tons of military supplies from one end to the other.
Chonk-kai was originally a base camp for prisoners working on the railway. Allied soldiers housed in the camp constructed a church and a hospital on the site, and in turn, a hospital cemetery for those who succumbed to their illnesses. Post-war, it was this burial ground that evolved into what we now call the Chonk-kai War Cemetery. Most of the men buried in the cemetery are those who died in the hospital, however, at the conclusion of the war other remains were brought to the site from other temporary gravesites along the railway line. As of today, the Chonk-kai War Cemetery has 1,426 Commonwealth graves, including men from Britain, Australia, Malaysia and India, as well as 313 Dutch graves.