The 48th session of the World Heritage Committee was recently held in South Korea. The meeting reviewed 30 new World Heritage nominations and assessed the conservation status of 147 existing sites, marking a significant milestone in the global World Heritage nomination process for 2026.
Meanwhile, Thailand is actively preparing to apply for World Heritage status for a section of railway in Kanchanaburi province. This railway, built during World War II by forced Allied prisoners of war and Asian laborers by the Japanese army, was completed in 1943. However, due to the immense labor intensity and rampant infectious diseases, 13,000 Allied soldiers and tens of thousands of laborers perished during its construction, earning it the nickname “Death Railway”. The project, possessing both historical significance from World War II and natural conservation value, has received official support from the Thai Ministry of Culture and the National Parks Authority.
Athapol Charoenshunsa, Director of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation at the Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, stated in an interview that Kanchanaburi Province is a historical site from Thailand’s World War era, and this initiative aims to promote tourism in western Thailand. Because the “Death Railway” is located within a national park, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment should jointly oversee this matter. Athapol stated that the Death Railway connects important nature reserves such as Sai Yok National Park, Thong Pha Phum National Park, and Sangkhla Buri area, and that its elevation to a World Heritage Site would bring overall benefits to the surrounding conservation areas. The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment also serves as the secretariat to the World Heritage Committee.
Europe also takes a keen interest in the history of Thailand’s Death Railway. Count Cyril Saint-Irian, President of the French Club for UNESCO who has long supported cultural exchange between Europe and Asia, stated upon learning of the Thai government’s intention to apply for World Heritage status: “The application process for World Heritage status is very rigorous. After an application is submitted to the World Heritage Committee, it must first be placed on the tentative list as a candidate site. Afterwards, the relevant institutions must submit a comprehensive research report outlining the significant value of the heritage site and future management, conservation, and community engagement plans.” He noted that the Death Railway meets important World Heritage criteria, including well-preserved historical remains, a clear historical context, and internationally significant wartime memories. These factors all contribute to increasing the likelihood of a successful application.
Dr. Dominiek Dendooven, a Belgian war historian and former director of the Flanders Field Museum, particularly supports Thailand’s formal application for World Heritage status. Firstly, he argues that the construction of the Burma-Thailand “Death Railway” was one of the most serious and representative transnational war crimes and humanitarian disasters of World War II. Mr Dendooven points out that after Japan’s defeats in the Guadalcanal campaign and the Battle of Midway in 1942, its maritime supply lines were severely threatened by the Allies. To sustain operations on the Burma front, the Japanese General Staff began to rely excessively on land supplies. Lacking heavy machinery, facing extremely treacherous terrain, and vulnerable to monsoon winds, they forcibly implemented the so-called “rapid advance plan.” This severe logistical failure directly escalated into a systematic atrocity, exploiting prisoners of war through extreme torture, deprivation of food and medicine, and other means.
Furthermore, in traditional Western narratives, the suffering of Allied prisoners of war (such as British, Australian, Dutch, and American soldiers) often occupies a central position. However, recent research by modern historians confirms that the actual number of Asian laborers who died (estimated at over 90,000) far exceeded the number of Allied prisoners of war (approximately 12,000 to 16,000). Lacking military organization and medical records, they faced significant difficulties obtaining transnational reparations and national-level historical recognition after the war, a stark contrast to the situation of Allied prisoners of war. This is known as “structural inequality in historical memory.” Therefore, Dr.Dendooven, strongly supports and praises the Thai government’s application for World Heritage status for this historically significant railway, hoping to encourage people to oppose militarism and remember the cruelty of war and the hard-won peace.
