KURASHIKI, Japan, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- A Japanese World War II interpreter is heading to Thailand to lobby for a railway built by war prisoners to be dedicated as a World Heritage sight.
Takashi Nagase, an English teacher in Kurashiki, said he witnessed Japanese troops abuse prisoners of war while more than 400,000 prisoners build the Thailand-Burma railway.
It is also known as the Death Railway since 100,000 Asians and 16,000 Allied POWs died while building it, the Kyodo news agency reported.
The 258-mile railway linked Thailand to Myanmar but is mostly abandoned.
The railway is also the subject of the 1957 movie The Bridge on the River Kwai.
The 87-year-old Nagase wants the railway to be converted into an anti-war memorial as a reminder to Japanese people of their past and as a warning to any future war plans.
Joined by Kumiko Hashimoto, the wife of former Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, Nagase will meet with Thai members of parliament. He'll also go to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
He wants the site recognized by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
