© Dot Schwenke, 2007

The Kanchanaburi War Cemetery is located 4km from the bridge over the River Kwai. It sums up the tragedy and cost of the Thai-Burma Rail and each headstone documents a sacrifice and our loss.

I read it on a headstone,
It was on the Burma rail,
And it touched my heart so deeply
That I felt myself turn pale.

It asked for those who did return
To tell of them and say,
“We gave our own tomorrows,
So you could have today.”

Now as I count the years that pass,
Those many days gone by,
When I think of how we used that gift
It makes me want to cry.

So might was their sacrifice,
Their life the gift they gave.
You ask, “How can we thank them?
Those who lie in foreign grave.”

We can count each day as precious,
We can know it as a gift,
We can do a turn for others,
We can give some heart a lift.

We can truly value freedom
For our country and each man,
We can love life and each other,
Those men died for such a plan.