101 East
101 East

Siam-Burma death railway

101 East follows the battle for compensation of the forgotten survivors.

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101 East was filmed on location
at the Siam-Burma railway

The story of the Siam-Burma railway is an ugly chapter of World War Two. 

 

But, the rarely told story is that the majority of sweat and blood spilled on the railway belonged to Asian workers forced to work as slaves by the imperial Japanese army.
 
Now for the first time, some of the survivors of that horror have brought their case to court demanding compensation and an apology.
 


101 East follows the battle for compensation of the forgotten survivors of the infamous Siam-Burma Death railway.
 

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We take Loke Wing Yue, an 83-year-old who was taken by the Japanese to Burma to work on the bridge when he was just 17, back to the bridge where he tells us his story and the story of thousands like him who did not survive.

 

In the shadow of the Bridge on the River Kwai we bring together two guests who are intimately involved in both the past and the present of the Siam-Burma railway.
 
Sivarasa Rasiah is a human rights lawyer who is representing a group of about 1500 civilians who survived the horrors of the railway. Jeyathurai is a World War Two historian and the director of the Changi museum.
 
101 East airs at 16.30GMT every Thursday on Al Jazeera English and is repeated during the week.
 


 
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