Japan must clarify the RM207bil ‘Death Railway’ controversy

During a recent visit to the Kanchanaburi JEATH War Museum in Thailand, I met with two men whose grandfathers were victims of the infamous “Death Railway”.

The victims were among thousands of Malaysians forcibly taken by the Japanese to work as labourers to build a railway track from there to Burma (now Myanmar) during World War II.

They had come to see if the graves of their ancestors were among 6,982 victims buried in tombstones bearing their names in the special Kanchanaburi War Cemetery dedicated to their memory. Unfortunately for the duo, only soldiers and prisoners of war who perished while working on the project were given a resting place there.

The soldiers were from Australia, the Netherlands and the UK. According to records, these countries are still providing funds to local authorities and certain NGOs to maintain the well-kept graveyard.

The two men were disappointed not to find any trace of their grandfathers who were enslaved by Japanese soldiers after they were cruelly captured from their homes circa 1943.

The lack of a cemetery or monument to visit and pray at only adds to the despair of the victims’ families at not receiving compensation from the Japanese government for the loss of lives. Even survivors tell of how each one of them was just waiting to die.

Photographs and other evidence of the cruelty inflicted on the victims by the Japanese regime then only add to the pain felt by the families they have left behind. One wonders what could lead to one human being torturing another in such atrocious ways.

Historical data show that up to 42,000 Malayans perished during the construction of the railway tracks from Kanchanaburi to the fringes of the Myanmar border. Parts of the “Death Railway” route have now been turned into war museums and monuments in honour of the victims.

“Death Railway” activist P Chandrasekaran, who has devoted several decades of work to the cause, was reported as saying that some 100,000 Malayans were forcibly taken, 80% of whom were of Indian descent. His father was among the unfortunate ones.

In recent years, the mainstream and social media have reported claims that the Japanese government had paid Malaysia RM207 billion in the nineties, when Dr Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister.

However, in a TV interview with the Tamil news site Vannakam Malaysia as recently as on May 23, Mahathir flatly denied receiving any compensation on behalf of the Malaysian victims or their families as suggested.

Ten years earlier, Anwar Ibrahim, then the opposition leader, claimed that both Japanese and Malaysian officials were in possession of “evidence” that the money was sent to the government but did not go through the treasury.

He said he was sure of this since he was finance minister then. He said Mahathir needed to explain what happened to the funds and called on Najib Razak, the prime minister at the time, to institute a probe to find out what happened to the “missing RM207 billion”.

Now that he is the prime minister and the finance minister, all powers are at his disposal to order the treasury to investigate and get to the truth of the matter. So, will he do this? Will he also take the matter up with the Japanese government?

Or is he going to allow it to fall into the scrapheap of political promises made by Malaysia’s prime ministers over the years?

The family members of the many victims deserve an explanation. They also deserve a memorial built somewhere in the country to honour their loved ones who laboured as slaves and gave up their lives in vain.

Surely this is not too big a request for the prime minister to fulfil, especially since it was a matter he took a keen interest in during his time in the opposition.

The Japanese government also owes it to Malaysians to put this controversy to rest once and for all. Just tell us the truth: Was there compensation paid? And if so, how much?

The last official report on this issue was an email from the Japanese embassy to Jejak, a group formed to trace the allegedly missing RM207 billion, which addressed several claims on the matter.

The embassy said it was not aware of any other compensation paid to Malaysia other than the 1967 agreement between Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur. However, it did not give any details on the pact.

The prime minister would do well to address this issue once and for all. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.