Across the Three Pagodas Pass

This is a translation of the only detailed account of the building of the notorious 262-mile long Thai-Burma railway by one of the Japanese professional engineers who was involved in its construction, thereby providing an invaluable new source of historical and technical reference to the large body of literature on this subject - the first account, in English, in fact, giving a Japanese perspective. Futamatsu's memoir also includes wide-ranging reflections on the course and conduct of 'his' war as well as his engineering experiences. The bridge took eighteen months to build and cost the lives of some 90,000 people (mostly British, Australian, Dutch and American PoWs, as well as great numbers of Indians and local labourers) out of a total of over 200,000, including some 12-15,000 Japanese, who were engaged in the enterprise. The 'Three Pagodas Pass' was located at the Thai-Burma frontier. The translator, Ewart Escritt was a PoW and worked on the railway and post-war came to know Futamatsu. In the 1980s, Peter N. Davies, a leading scholar in shipping history at the University of Liverpool wrote the biography of the British camp commander, Philip Toosey (the film Bridge on the River Kwai - factually wrong in so many respects - was based on his story), having previously met Toosey who post-war had become an agent for Baring Brothers in Liverpool with links to merchant shipping industry, and subsequently wrote his biography. The introductory matter includes translator Escritt's detailed account of his own PoW experience and reflections on the war; editor Davies sets the record straight regarding the story of this book and the key people involved (including Louis Allen). Many contemporary original drawings, maps and photographs appear in the plate section.