Bamboo huts, faded sketches and handwritten letters: the JEATH War Museum is small, simple and deeply moving. It brings you close to the daily lives of the prisoners who were forced to build the Death Railway in 1942 and 1943.
History
The museum was founded in 1977 by the abbot of Wat Chai Chumphon, the Venerable Phra Theppanyasuthee, to show the conditions the prisoners of war had to endure. It stands in the temple grounds in Kanchanaburi, close to where the Kwai Yai and Kwai Noi rivers meet. Its name stands for the nations involved in building the railway: Japan, England, America and Australia, Thailand and Holland.
What you will see
A replica of the prisoners’ bamboo living quarters houses sketches, photographs, letters and personal testimonies. Other exhibits include tools, relics from the war and an unexploded Allied bomb intended for the bridge. In the temple grounds you can also see a wartime boat recovered from the river by the monks.
Good to know
- The museum is run by the monks of Wat Chai Chumphon; please dress respectfully.
- It complements the larger Thailand–Burma Railway Centre, which you visit on the last day of the cruise.
On these cruises
You visit the JEATH War Museum on the following RV River Kwai cruises:
- 7D/6N River Kwai Heritage Cruise – Day 1 (Monday)
- 4D/3N River Kwai Cruise (upstream) – Day 1 (Monday)
Compare all River Kwai cruises
Also along the way
Kanchanaburi War Cemetery & Railway Centre · Bridge over the River Kwai · Hellfire Pass
