Japanese plan of the Burma–Thailand Railway

While working as a forced labourer on the notorious Burma–Thailand Railway, Private James Fraser, an Australian prisoner of war from the 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, noticed some Japanese officers intensely studying a plan. He watched them place it in a leather case which they then hung up in a hut. Intrigued, Fraser reached in and took the plan without realising precisely what it was he was stealing. It turned out to be part of the plan for the railway itself. He realised the plan was important to the Japanese the next day when an announcement was made that any Japanese papers found were to be returned. Knowing the consequences of discovery, Fraser successfully managed to conceal the plan throughout his captivity. Regular searches made it necessary to change its hiding place on several occasions. This led to some damage and deterioration of the map.
The Burma–Thailand Railway was built by the Japanese using the forced labour of 60,000 Allied prisoners of war and 270,000 Asian labourers. It stretched 420 kilometres through mountainous jungle, connecting Bampong in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat in Burma. During the railway’s construction, prisoners were worked gruelling hours of forced labour on inadequate rations. They slept in unsanitary and overcrowded camps, experienced violent and brutal treatment from the guards, and worked in a hostile jungle environment. By the time the railway was completed, 2,646 Australians, along with 10,000 other Allied prisoners of war and possibly as many as 70,000 labourers, had lost their lives.
Fraser donated the plan to the Australian War Memorial in 1946. In a letter to the Memorial he revealed he had acquired the plan at Kilo-75 camp and that the theft had hindered the building of the railway. He recalled that in one section, for example, the prisoners had dug a 30-metre cutting instead of building a 30-metre embankment.
Fraser’s brave and defiant action reveals the spirit of Australian prisoners of war in the face of enormous hardship.