TOKYO, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- A group of Japanese World War II veterans are calling for the infamous Burma railway to be designated a World Heritage Site.
Veteran Takashi Nagase, 87, is heading to Thailand with Kumiko Hashimoto, wife of former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, to present the idea to Thai members of parliament, The Australian reported Monday.
The railway, which runs between Thailand and Myanmar, formerly Burma, was an important supply line to Japanese forces fighting in British India.
Nagase, who served as an interpreter for Allied prisoners of war during interrogations by Japanese forces, will visit Kanchanaburi, 75 miles west of Bangkok, the closest town to the railway and the famous bridge over the River Kwai. Some 7,000 Allied troops are buried there.
The railway was mostly built by prisoners of war and slave laborers.
Of the 60,000 POWs who worked on the 250-mile railway in 1942 and 1943, some 12,400 died of disease and malnutrition, including 2,800 Australians.
About half of the 200,000 Asian laborers recruited to work on the railway also died.
Japanese news reports quoted Nagase as saying he wanted the railway remembered as a symbol against war, to remind the Japanese to reflect on their past conduct.
