Sumatra Railway

Muarakalaban–Muaro–Pekanbaru railway is an inactive railway section in Sumatra, Indonesia. It was a railway project of two parties in two different times, Staatsspoorwegen ter Sumatra's Westkust in the Dutch East Indies era and Rikuyu Sokyuku of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second World War.

Muarakalaban–Muaro–Pekanbaru railway
Sumatra Railway
Locomotive remains along the railway near Lipat Kain, Riau. This site is near the location of POW camp 7.[1]
Overview
LocaleMuaro to Pekanbaru, Indonesia
Dates of operation1924–2014 (Muarakalaban–Muaro), 1945–1945 (Muaro–Pekanbaru)
Technical
Length246 kilometres (153 mi)
Sumatra Railway Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, England

Of the 246 km long railway, the 220 km Muaro–Pekanbaru segment (also referred to as the Sumatra Railway or Pekanbaru Death Railway) was actually came into reality by the Japanese to connect Pekanbaru (now in Riau) to Muaro (now in West Sumatra) in an effort to strengthen the military and logistical infrastructure for coal and troop shipments. It would connect the Strait of Malacca, via the Siak River in Pekanbaru, to Padang (with its Padang Station) via an existing railway from Muaro. The railway was completed on Victory over Japan Day, 15 August 1945. It was only ever used to transport prisoners of war out of the area but quickly became overgrown by the jungle.[2][3]

Currently only Muarakalaban–Muaro portion of the railway that still exist, though the line and stations are inactive; those assets were owned by Regional Division II West Sumatra of Kereta Api Indonesia. There is plan by Ministry of Transportation to rebuilt the railway as part of Trans-Sumatra railway project,[4] which would connect four separate railway tracks across Sumatra island.

History

The railway section is originally connect Muarakalaban in West Sumatra to Tembilahan in Riau. The two initial segments in construction was Muarakalaban–Padang Sibusuk and Padang Sibusuk–Muaro, which was inaugurated on 1 March 1924.[5] The railway segments from Muaro was canceled because of Great Depression effect in 1933, and remain unbuilt until World War II.

World War II

The railway construction from Muaro was only built during Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies. Over 120,000 Indonesian, mostly Javanese, forced workers called romusha were put to work by the Japanese army in addition to 6,500 Dutch prisoners of war, mostly Indo-Europeans, 1000 British prisoners of war, and a combined 300 prisoners of war from the United States, Australia and New Zealand. By the time the work was completed in August 1945 almost a third of the European POWs had died and only around 16,000 of the 120,000 Indonesian romusha had survived.[3]

George Duffy, one of the 15 Americans there and survivor of the sinking of the MS American Leader recounted life and death for the POW workers on MemoryArchive: malaria, dysentery, pellagra, and malnutrition/"beri-beri" were the principal maladies compounded by overwork and mistreatment. "The average age at death of the 700 POWs who perished on that railway was 37 years and 3 months."[3]

Legacy and memorial

The Muaro–Pekanbaru railway was never fully utilised and remains unused and in an advanced state of decay.[6] The Japanese also directed construction of the Burma Railway and Kra Isthmus Railway (from Chumphon to Kra Buri).

The Sumatra Railway Memorial was unveiled on VJ Day in 2001 at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, England near Lichfield, Staffordshire. The memorial commemorates the approximately 5,000 prisoners of war and 30,000 locals who were forced to work on the 140-mile (230 km) Sumatra railway project and is located next to the Far East Prisoners of War Memorial Building.[2] The memorial's unveiling was attended by former prisoners of war, the Japanese ambassador to Britain (Sadayuki Hayashi) and included a peace stone and the planting of flowering trees to symbolise reconciliation.[2]

See also

References
  1. "Pekanbaru Death Railway", A page dedicated to the history and preservation of knowledge surrounding the Pekanbaru Death railway built by the Japanese and POWs during World War 2
  2. Memorial to Sumatra railway dead 15 August 2001 BBC News
  3. Duffy, George (5 January 2006). "The Death Railway, April 1945". MemoryArchive. Archived from the original on 18 June 2008. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  4. "Kereta Api Sumbar-Riau Diaktifkan". JPNN.com (in Indonesian). 2014. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  5. Bijlagen van der Verslag van de handelingen der Staten-Generaal. (1925–1928). Den Haag: Staatsdrukkerij- en Uitgeverijbedrijf.
  6. Hovinga, Henk (2010). The Sumatra Railroad: Final Destination Pakan Baroe 1943-45. Leiden: KITLV Press. ISBN 9789067183284.
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