We drove to the infamous Death Bridge over the River Kwai. This bridge was part of an overland supply line which avoided a 2000-mile sea route around the Malay Peninsula that would have exposed Japanese ships to Allied submarines.

The movie about the construction of this bridge contained a number of inaccuracies:

• the Japanese had their own corps of engineers who designed the bridge and oversaw its construction

• the wooden bridge was a temporary structure to move men and supplies across the river

• the real bridge had concrete piers and multiple steel spans

• the prisoners of war didn't march about in uniform, whistling a happy tune...most of them had bartered away their shoes and uniforms for food within weeks of their arrival, and wore only loincloths

• the bridge was damaged—but never destroyed, not by prisoner sabotage, but by Royal Australian Air Force B-24 Liberator bombers.

The Jeath (for Japan-England-Australia-America-Thailand-Holland) Museum nearby consists of replicas of the crude huts that housed the prisoners of war, and contains photographs and artifacts depicting the extreme cruelty of their Japanese captors.

Next on our itinerary was the Chungkai War Cemetery, where thousands of American, Australian, British, and Dutch prisoners are buried.

Ray took us to visit an old couple who had worked for the Japanese as children, returning empty baskets to excavation sites, where they were filled with dirt by prisoners. They treated us to fresh fruits from their farm, and told us about the forced labor camps.