Central Thailand / Kanchanaburi / JEATH War Museum

Photo: Displays at the War Museum

JEATH stands for Japan, England, America, Australia, Thailand and Holland. The museum on the bank of the Mae Klong River inside Wat Chai Chumphon is a reconstructed prisoners of war camp and has a long thatched detention hut with living quarters inside made of raised bamboo bunks running the length of the hut. One can see how each POW was allotted a scanty living space on the bunks. On the walls of the huts are posted actual, enlarged photos and illustrations of the atrocities against the prisoners and the severe living conditions of the POW's.

To reach the museum, one turns left from the first intersection after entering the town of Kanchanaburi, coming from Bangkok. Then one turns left again to Pak Phraek Road at the waterfront, and follows the road to the left, until one gets to the first big monastery on the river bank, Wat Chai Chumphon. The JEATH War Museum is at the entrance of the monastery.