Monument to victims of forced labor

[tun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Asahi Evening News 
Tuesday, September 13, 1994 
Around Japan
 
MONUMENT TO VICTIMS OF FORCED LABOR
 
A Buddhist priest in Shimane Prefecture aims to raise money, by 
walking around Japan, to build a pagoda to commemorate the more than 
100,000 Asians and prisoners of war who died in forced labor during the 
construction of a 450-kilometer railway linking Thailand and Burma 
during the World War II. 
 
Jonen Sugawara, 55, a resident priest of Sennenji Temple in Ota City, 
Shimane Prefecture, began his walk at the start of September. 
 
The Burmese government will assist by providing a site to build the 
planned 10- 15 meter high pagoda, where a statue of Amitabha 
Tathagata will be enshrined. 
 
Sugawara hopes to raise 2 or 3 million yen for the project. 
 
He thought up the plan when visiting Thailand in 1991, when he first 
learned about the many lives lost during the railway construction. 
Thailand has a monument dedicated to the victims of forced labor but 
Burma has not. 
 
The Thai-Burmese railway construction began in 1942 and was 
completed in 15 months, much shorter than the projected five years. 
 
A total of 200,000 workers from neighboring Asian countries and 60,000 
war prisoners were engaged in construction work, and approximately 
116,000 of them died because of the hard conditions and disease. 
 
 
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BURMESE RELIEF CENTER--JAPAN
 
266-27 Ozuku-cho, Kashihara-shi, Nara-ken 634, Japan
Tel: xx81 (7442) 2-8236 -- Fax: xx81 (7442) 4-6254
 
Friends,
 
Burmese Relief Center--Japan suggests people contact Rev. Sugawara 
by phone, letter, or fax. Let him know that now is not the time to carry 
out this sort of project in Burma. In 1991 he learned about the victims of 
forced labor during the war. Ask him if in 1994 he has heard about the 
victims of forced labor in Burma today. It is offensive that the current 
Burmese regime, SLORC, internationally condemned for its policy of 
human rights abuses, wants to assist by providing a site for the planned 
pagoda to commemorate human rights abuses by the Japanese fifty 
years ago. 
 
Tell him about the Ye-Tavoy railway now under construction and the 
proposed gas pipeline from the Gulf of Martaban to Thailand. Let him 
know that because of these projects entire villages are being uprooted, 
thousands of people are being forced by the SLORC army to work 
without compensation, and many refugees are fleeing to Thailand. 
 
Please write call, or fax: 
 
Rev. Jonen Sugawara
Sennenji
312-2 Kanbara
Tomiyama-cho
Ota-shi, Shimane-ken 699-22
JAPAN 
 
Tel /fax: xx81 (8548) 8-0040
 
 
Thanks for your cooperation.