500 men were wanted at Wun Lun for maintenance work and these were selected from the fittest at Chungkai, it meant a six kilometre journey which the men were dreading, but they travelled in the light diesel trains which were converted from diesel lorries. The light trains travelled over the twenty-five kilometres of line which Group II had built in the last four months. The country between Chungkai and Wun Lun was a kind of common land with bamboo jungle and attractive areas.

The station was a raised earth bank with an atap hut, there were two sidings each about 100 yards long.Wun Lun camp had held two to three thousand prisoners, when the group arrived there were less then 100. The huts were built by the Japanese, therefore the entrance door was very small in height, about 5ft 4in.

Wun Lun had a busy market, to reach it the square was crossed, this was always muddy, and the road through the Kapok Plantation was followed to the Japanese engineers camp by the river. Bearing right went straight into the 100yard busy market stalls.

The kapok plantation had the trees planted in rows and the silver coloured trunks grew straight up to a height of 30 feet. The light green leaves grew only at the ends of the rigid branches, the fruit of the tree was in pods, like the seeds of sweet corn.

The cookhouse was about a quarter of a mile from the camp over a swaying plank bridge which had a single hand rail, the food arrived cold most days.

White Egrets used the River Mee Kong and were often seen just skimming its surface, the Thais fished the river at night with a torch in one hand and a speer in the other, the fish attracted by the light came to the surface and were then speered.

Mangoes and hen eggs, were delecasies to buy off the Thais, although the Thais also grew papayas and bannanas in their small gardens

Information from Railway of Death by John Coast

At approximately ten o’clock on 22nd November 1942 we marched out of Chun Kai to a destination known only to the guards. The sun was hot as we marched along a narrow path with the river below us to our left. Not far from Chun Kai some POW’s were cutting their way through a hill with pick and shovel. In due course we arrived at Wun Lun. The huts already erected looked reasonable and the location near the river favourable. During the day we were allocated the atap roofed huts and had our first good night’s sleep for a week.

At Wun Lun we were formed into a labour battalion of 790 officers and men. To begin with we were doing labouring jobs about the camp. The camp was a flat plateau above the river, close to a small Thai village. There was insufficient accommodation so additional huts had to built and we were the labour force. Large rafts of bamboo were floated down the river and it was our job to carry the bamboo from the river to the construction site.

After carrying the bamboo to the building site came the task of cutting to size and erecting the framework of these huts. The frames were joined together with material obtained from local trees. The outer bark was removed and the pliable inner bark pulled off in strips. These strips made excellent binding material for tying the horizontal struts to the vertical posts.

Bamboo was cut in approximately six foot lengths and then split until we were left with pieces of bamboo six foot long by approximately one to one and a half inches wide. Long atap leaves approximately  three feet long were doubled in two and positioned over the bamboo strips. By sewing along the atap leaves, where it was bent over the bamboo strips, we had sections six feet by one and a half feet wide, ready to tie on to the roof. Starting at the bamboo and overlapping each section we made our way to the apex. Beds were formed by constructing a frame about two feet from the ground. Bamboo was cut to size then split and flattened to the best of our ability. We washed in the river at night.

Tobacco and peanuts were grown local, the surprise was the monkey nuts (peanuts) grew like potatoes and not in trees, these were considered fair game.

The large tobacco leaves were dried in the sun and then the veins removed, they were then soaked in a solution of nam tam (palm sugar) and water, then formed into tight rolls until the tobacco matured, they were then smoked.

Japanese engineers planned the route of the railway track, erecting large bamboo poles as markers. The shrub was then cleared and the trees dug up or blasted from the ground. Four miles on each side of the camp was prepared in this way before we were ready for stage two. Two lines of bamboo were driven vertically in to the soil, these were the width of the trace or embankment.  The engineers then tied a bamboo pole sloping outwards, this formed the shape of the embankment. Stretches were used to carry the soil, they were constructed by slipping bamboo poles inside canvas sacks.

Every morning we were paraded at 8.00 am. The Japanese worked out the cubic capacity of each section then allocated the men to complete the task within six days, allowing the seventh day as our rest day, no allowance was made for being sick. Each night the Japanese judged if we were up to schedule, if not the working day was extended.

To begin with the officers claimed their right not to work but the Japanese fired bursts of machine gun fire over their heads with the threat of lowering the sights the officers gave in. Shortly after they started working a small bridge was constructed, the framework was built from hardwood from the forest. The wood being cut in eighteen foot lengths, marked and drilled then bolted together.

There were kappock trees nearby and in the trees pods was cotton wool, this was used to make pillows. The women from the nearby Thai village chewed betel nut which rotted their teeth and made their lips red from the juice.

We marched out of Wun Lun near February 15th 1943, destination Tarki Len (Tha Kilen).

Information from Unknown to the Emperor by J.R. Hill

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