1. Pakan Baroe
The Other Death
Railway
Amanda Farrell
2005

2. The Railway Through The Jungle
• When the Japanese decided that they wanted a railway
linking the two coasts of Sumatra, they got one
• The question was, who would they use to build it? The
solution? Simple. Captured allied prisoners and Romushas
• This began two years of tortuous living for 120,000 people.
Living in a total of 12 crude camps along the way they were
to build a 215km line through the Sumatran jungle

3. The Labourers
POW’s Romusha’s
• Mainly Dutch, also • Javanese who had
included American, been promised good
Australian, British and food and wages
New Zealanders • In reality they were
• Around 5,100 treated worse than
enslaved the POW’s
• Approximately 704 • Approximately
lost their lives 120,000 enslaved
• 80,000 died

4. The Years
It took 2 years and four months for the railway to be
completed – from April 1943 until 15th August 1945
– The day the Japanese surrendered

5. The Place
• The Railway was built
through the dense,
dangerous Sumatran
jungle
• The Dutch had
previously looked at
building the track, but
had decided against it
– they decided it would
be too hard, and that
too many lives would
be lost

6. The Reasons
The Japanese needed to have a way to
transfer troops to the West Coast in case of
invasion. They decided the most direct route
was a railway linking with the existing line
the Dutch had previously built

7. Survival
There were lots of things the prisoners had
to contend with in order to survive. These
included:
– Japanese Guards
– Lack of food and malnutrition
– Poor living conditions and shelter
– Tropical diseases like beri beri, malaria,
dysentery and tropical ulcers
– Animals
• Tigers
• Snakes
• Scorpions
• Leeches

8. Liberation
On 15 August 1945 the
Japanese capitulated.
However, the last POW’s
did not leave Pakan
Baroe until November
25th, this being mainly
due to nobody knowing
the railway existed. The
Romushas were left
behind - their
descendants are still
there today

9. Aftermath
The track was never used after the end of the war,
other than to transport prisoners to Pakan Baroe
from the camps they had been in. Governments have
refused to admit that this railway was ever built, and
so these ex-POW’s have had no one to tell their
stories to. Most Japanese guards did not receive
sentencing for what occurred. The Javanese
Romushas were forgotten.
‘100,000 people died during those years and all
we can say is that it didn’t happen’

10. Today
• Little is known about the
railway locally - people are
not taught about history pre
Indonesian Independence
Day in schools. They do not
think it is important
• The tracks are no longer
there – they have been
ripped up for scrap. There
are some trains still
remaining, but they have
been pulled apart, are in the
middle of the bush, or have
had houses built around
them.

11. Acknowledgements
- George W Duffy
Survivor
- Henk Hovinga
Author
- Frans Taminiau
Child of a Survivor