Well there is no railway line west of Bangkok. At least there wasn't before the war.

How do you know, Lomax?

Well you see, the British... they thought about building a railway that would run all the way from where we are here in Thailand into Burma. It would complete a line running all the way from China to India. If they'd managed it, it would have taken it's place alongside the great railway journeys of the world. Canadian Pacific. Trans-Siberian. The Orient Express.

Yeah? Well why didn't they build it?

Well... building a railway, is a hard, miserable job. It's usually done by poor immigrant workers. The great American railways were built by Chinese peasants. And even the British railways, they were built by Irish navvies fleeing from famine. But sometimes, a railway is simply too difficult to build. Well it's hundred of Miles to Burma... through mountains and jungle. The British decided, that to build such a railway, it would be an act not of engineering, but of extreme barbarity... and cruelty. The conditions would be such that... those who did not die, might well wish that they had. To build such a railway you would need more than just poor immigrants. You'd need an army... of slaves. And we've just become that army. We are not slaves. We are soldiers. You remember that. And we are going to do our best for those poor bastards up the line.