Of all the horrors that befell the TBR workers, cholera was perhaps the single worst. A British medical officer recorded the first cases at the Nike camp in the first week of May 43. But these were just the recorded cases. The outbreak had undoubtedly begun in the romusha camps, but no one was monitoring them. Before it was over, about 1300 POWs were claimed by this disease. Both the POWs and the IJA cadre had been immunized using the crude vaccine available at the time. Many more POWs were infected but survived. No to in the romusha camps. While the POWs were dying by the dozens, thousands of romusha were falling. POWs tell of being sent to their camps to burn the bodies, some of whom were not quite dead!
Once they recognized the cause of this outbreak, the POW medical officers were able to institute basic measures to try to control the spread. All drinking water was to be boiled, bathing was prohibited, additional fly control measures were instituted. Despite imploring the IJA to isolate the camps, members of F Force continued to arrive and as they passed through the infected camps they took the bacteria away with them.
It must be remembered that these men were not particularly healthy when they departed Singapore and they had just completed a 2-300 kilometer trek from BanPong. Many did not make it and of those who did few were capable of doing the type of labor the Engineers demanded. Work on the TBR ground nearly to a halt during this critical period. But as such outbreaks do, this one ran its course over a few weeks (MAY-JUL). By AUG. POWs and Burmese workers were brought into Thailand to complete the Railway. These included most of the US POWs under the command of CPT Fitzsimmons.
All things considered, calling forth the 7000 man F Force was a debacle. They overburdened the faltering supply system. They arrived less than fit for the work required. The effort to control the spread of cholera took many man-hours away from any construction activities. The death toll for F Force was about 40%, double that of the other POWs.
In another futile effort to control the outbreak, about 300 mostly British medical personnel were brought from Singapore in what were termed the K and L Forces. They were sent into the romusha camps. But with no medical supplies and no ability to communicate, there was little they could do but burn or bury the dead.
Another complicating factor was that these latter four groups (F H K & L Forces) were never actually transferred to the Thai POW authorities. This meant that accountability and logistics were even worse for them.
The overall situation in the POWs camps just inside the Thai border became so bad that for the first time the Engineers in AUG 43 agreed to allow the trains to be used to evacuate to the POWs. They reopened an abandoned camp at Thambaya at Kilo 50 in Burma. Like all the other ‘hospital’ camps, the sickest POWs were sent there to die. But at least their basic needs could be met from Thanbyuzayat.
Eventually, the survivors of these four groups were returned to Singapore and certainly some died there of maladies resulting from their TBR time. But no records were kept that link the Singapore burials to the TBR.