Symposium: The Second World War in Asia: Justice Efforts, War Memory, and Reparations
Remembering the Thai-Myanmar Death Railway:
In Conversation with Chandra Sekaran, Chairman of the Death Railway Interest Group
Published on 3 April 2023
Chandra Sekaran is the Chairman of Death Railway Interest Group.
Andre Kwok is final year Asian Studies and Laws (Honours) student at the Australian National University. He undertook a semester exchange at the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Law as a Westpac Asian Exchange Scholar.
Photo Credit : © Vyacheslav Argenberg / http://www.vascoplanet.com/. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Andre: Before we kick off, could you tell me about your background before you started the Death Railway Interest Group (DRIG)?
Chandra: I was born in the generation just after World War II, 15 years to be precise. I am from Malaysia, and my family is third or fourth-generation Tamil Malaysian.
Andre: Thank you for sharing your background, Mr. Chandra. Can you tell me how you started the Death Railway Interest Group? How did it come about?
Chandra: Well, you see, my late father’s name is Ponnusamy Arunachalam, and he worked in the Malayan railways. Before he retired, he signed a statutory declaration that stated that he worked for the Death Railway in Thailand. When I found this declaration, I asked him about it but he never spoke about it until many years later.
I still remember when he sat me down and told me about life on the Death Railway. I didn’t know the word ‘oral history’ at the time, but I felt like I had to record his story. This project is a legacy for my family.
And after that, I sought out people my father’s age who lived through the Japanese occupation. I wanted to learn about their experiences of being taken away to work on the Death Railway. When DRIG started public events in 2012, I realised many researchers had done work on the Death Railway. However, there was practically nothing in the public domain about Asian workers of the Death Railway.
Andre: Based on DRIG’s work with Asian survivors, what do survivors want? What are the main activities of DRIG?
Chandra: When DRIG started, we had about six or seven people. The team was on an ad-hoc basis, and I was spearheading the initiative. The others help when they are free. Before every DRIG public event, I always caution audiences that we are not looking for compensation. We got several children of victims coming forward and sharing their parents’ stories of being workers on the brutal Death Railway. We heard, recorded, and compiled these rich inter-generational stories. From there, DRIG’s work grew, and our bank of stories of survivors gradually expanded.
Andre: When you interviewed survivors or descendants, did you notice much anti-Japanese resentment
Chandra: I have seen various responses. For example, I spoke to one descendant of a victim who lost nine members of his family to the Japanese military. This descendant shared that Japanese soldiers inhumanely overworked and murdered multiple direct family members on the Death Railway. Naturally, this descendent had a lot of resentment against the Japanese government. On the other side of the spectrum, I also know descendants who have very faint recollections, including one person whose father was taken away to work on the railway when he was only two years old. Although they still feel sadness, I wouldn’t describe it as strong resentment.
While the emotional responses and modern-day political outlook significantly varies within victim communities, there is an overarching sense of loss. The sense of loss is very deep.
Andre: I understand that you spoke at an event in New Zealand. Could you tell me a bit more about this meeting?
Chandra: This happened on 13 December 2022, only three months ago. I spoke at an event organised by a New Zealand-based humanitarian organization.
The event was very high-level program which was well-organised. It had a great turn out with approximately 100 people in attendance, including several prominent representatives from the New Zealand government. Apart from MPs, a few people from the diplomatic corps were present including the Malaysian and Singaporean ambassadors.
And the closing remarks were given by Tatsushi Nishioka, the Minister and Deputy Head of Mission from the Japanese Embassy in New Zealand.
As is to be expected, the Japanese Embassy’s representative was a little reluctant to accept the invitation initially. He met me prior to the event and decided to speak at our event. He even shared his anecdote of his grandfather, a member of the Japanese Imperial Army who had served in the Far East near Papua New Guinea. As a young child, Nishioka looked up to his grandfather. Interestingly, he noticed that his grandfather never said a word about his work in Papua New Guinea and was tight-lipped about it.
Now, after learning more about what happened during the war, he thinks he understands why his grandfather was tight-lipped about his work during the war. Though he doesn’t know the truth, he generally accepts that a lot of wrongs occurred.
When he spoke at the event, he didn’t use the term “apologising” but used “we regret”; something along those lines. Not really saying sorry, but still, he touched many people’s hearts because we could see his genuineness. He was not making a political statement, but we could tell he genuinely tried to say sorry in the way he could express it.
Andre: Since the victims of the Death Railway come from all parts of our region, can you tell me a bit more about how you interact with different communities?
Chandra: DRIG has confined its activities only to Malaysia. Most of the survivors I interviewed are Tamils, except one. I interviewed one Malay gentleman. I believe he’s still alive today. I also interviewed about three Chinese survivors who were children on the Death Railway. Within Malaysia, DRIG has focused on Tamil survivors because when we distribute our press statements saying that we want to meet survivors, most who turn up are Indians. As our press releases have been largely published by the Tamil press, naturally, the people who turn up at our gatherings are Tamils as well. Almost all donations we have received are from Indians.
Andre: From your activism, why do you think Southeast Asian victims are overly underrepresented in memories of the Death Railway?
Chandra: Asian victims were the largest group that died during the Death Railway. During the recovery missions, Allied soldiers certainly passed by mass graves of Asian workers, which they ignored. They probably moved on to the next grave to recover their own soldiers. At some point, they should have done something for these people, but they did nothing. I feel very disappointed. This selective effort shows that Allied governments were more interested in their soldiers. A Commonwealth War Graves Commission oversaw these graves, not just those in Kanchanaburi but throughout the world with a sizeable budget. Still, the plight of Asian victims was overlooked.
Andre: Theoretically speaking, let’s say in the next few years, would an official apology and compensation from the Japanese government mark the conclusion of DRIG? Or is the endgame more focused on public education and storytelling for future generations? Or both?
Chandra: The second. It must be a lasting story. I feel it is too late to advocate for compensation. Whom are we going to compensate? Most of the victims are dead anyway. Those who are alive, they are in their late 90s. What are they going to do with the compensation? I’m not saying they don’t deserve compensation. Of course, everybody does deserve compensation, including the children. But even the children of the victims are already in their 80s now. So whatever compensation should have come, it should have done so about 50 years ago.
Right now, it is more important to preserve the oral histories of the victims because the stories of the Death Railway are in the collective memory. Last time, I would say about only a handful knew about the plight of Asian workers, but we are running of time. Not everybody transmits their story to their children and grandchildren and very soon, the stories will be forgotten.
Andre: DRIG seems focused on ensuring the endurance of these stories through intergenerational storytelling rather than seeking compensation. For DRIG, would you say preserving memories is a way of obtaining justice?
Chandra: Absolutely. It’s almost 80 years since the war ended. At some point, we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the end of World War II. We will talk about the Holocaust and the Death Railway. When we do so, we will inevitably remember Allied soldiers who suffered so much, but we don’t talk about the plight of the Asians at all.
Who’s going to tell their story? That’s what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to collect what we can preserve so that when I’m not around, future generations can remember the plight of Asian workers. We are working with local temple authorities in Kanchanaburi to upgrade an existing Pagoda where tens of thousands are entombed. We understand from the Buddhist temple custodians that these nameless persons were Asian workers who worked on the Death Railway. Those who worked on the Thai side of the railway were largely from Malaya. Coming more than three-quarters of a century later, it will stand as a physical testament to the thousands of Asian workers who died building that railway.
Andre: Before we end our discussion, what would your message be to the historians and international lawyers today on the importance of the storytelling of the Death Railway?
Chandra: I would like to see everybody do their part to see justice done. As you mentioned, justice has been very selective, as Asian workers are overlooked in historical memory.
I would like to see more academics encourage their students to focus on this topic through more academic research and workshops because whatever I do and put up in DRIG doesn’t carry as much weight as something from a university.
I would like to see research looking at who succeeded in the claim? Was there any unclaimed money? What happened to it? There is a lot of information we just don’t know, and researching this is beyond DRIG. I’d like to see the findings to be made public, so we can learn what really happened.
If you are a survivor or family member of a Asian worker of the Death Railway, or if you wish to donate to the efforts of DRIG, please contact: deathrailwayinterestgroup@gmail.com