Balan, 79, was sad, yet happy; angry, yet grateful.

Sad because tens of thousands had perished in constructing the Death Railway, officially known as the Burma-Siam Railway. Happy because his father A Kunjamboo had cleverly escaped the clutches of his Japanese captors – otherwise Balan would not be standing there.

Angry because while there were monuments to others – such as the British, Australians, Dutch, Chinese and Japanese – who had died during the construction of the railway, there was none, until this moment, for Indians although they had formed the bulk of the victims.

Yet grateful because finally, after 80 years, the Indians, most of them Tamils who had worked and perished in building the death railway, had been given some recognition through this memorial on the site of mass graves in Kanchanapuri, Thailand.

But soon joy and gratefulness triumphed over sadness and anger as Malaysian Ambassador to Thailand Jojie Samuel and the governor of Kanchanaburi province lt Thotsapon Chaikomin unveiled the “hero stone” at Chedi Niranam within the Wat Thaworn Wararam complex in Kanchanapuri to rapturous applause from those present.

Fittingly, the ceremony was held on May 1 – Labour Day.

Balan recalled his father telling him about his forced work on the death railway about a month before he sat for his Lower Certificate of Education examination.

One day, as Balan was playing with his friends at the Gadek Estate in Tampin, Melaka, his father dragged him away and beat him, asking: “Why aren’t you studying? Do you want to end up as a rubber tapper?”

After impressing upon him the importance of education and a government job, A Kunjamboo told Balan about the suffering he had endured.

Kunjamboo had recruited about 40 relatives and friends from his village of Trikarpur in Kerala and came to the then Malaya in May 1935 as a “kangani” or supervisor under the colonial indentured labour system.

When the Japanese invaded Malaya, the estate management, comprising Europeans, fled to Singapore and the workers were left in limbo.

“My father was in the first batch of workers who were selected by the estate clerks, on behalf of the Japanese, to go to Thailand with the promise of new jobs. He was 32 and a bachelor.”

From Tampin, Kunjamboo and his group went by goods train to Kuala Lumpur where they stayed cramped in make-shift tents on the present Dataran Merdeka for three days before being sent, batch by batch, by goods train to Nong Pladuk, Thailand, where they were set to work.

Balan said: “They were given two meals a day. Their meal consisted mainly of rice and salted fish. Occasionally they would get boiled eggs. There was no breakfast, no coffee or tea. They had to mostly drink river water.”

Indians were mainly made to clear the forests and lay the stone aggregates for the rail lines to be built.

“If they took a rest, the Japanese soldiers would beat them. They had to work constantly. My father said they didn’t know the date, day or time as there were no calendars or clocks at the places they lived and slogged.

“About 6pm every day, they would bathe in the rivers nearby, wash their clothes and come back to makeshift bamboo huts which they had built.

“While clearing the land and laying the track, they had to endure snake bites, animal attacks, malaria, dysentery, injuries from accidents and such.

“My father’s relatives and friends from Gadek estate, who had come with him, started dying one by one and within three months he had lost 26 of them.

“Although my father was not tortured as he was the liaison between the Japanese and the Indians, he knew he would not live long if he stayed there. He was already suffering from skin problems.”

Kunjamboo devised an escape plan with the help of an Indian locomotive engine driver who drove a steam engine train from Malaya to the worksite loaded with sleepers, stone aggregates and other materials almost daily.

One night, the driver slowed the train at an agreed spot, allowing Kunjamboo to leap onto the coach and hide. When the train arrived near Padang Besar, Kunjamboo jumped off and walked or hitched a ride with lorries to reach Tampin.

Fearing he would be recaptured if he went home, he sought refuge in a Malay kampung nearby.

“As kangani, my father had helped Malays in the village get jobs in the estate, so they were grateful. He lived with them for more than a year, doing odd jobs. He was not discovered because the Japanese largely left the Malays alone.

“I’m grateful to the Malay community there for saving my father. When the Second World War ended, my father returned to Gadek estate, started working again, and got married. My father had 10 children and I’m the eldest.”

Kunjamboo died on Jan 2, 1975 due to kidney failure at the age of 75.

His suffering, as that of other Indians, in building the Death Railway is now marked by a granite “hero stone” made possible by a group called Malaysians and Indians in Bangkok, which helps those in need, and its president Dr Silva Kumar Perumal.

Dr Silva Kumar’s father Perumal Ramasamy and uncle Kandsamy Ramasamy were among those tricked into going to Thailand by the Japanese with the promise of good wages.

“I work in Bangkok and this is my 28th year here. The ‘hero stone’ was something I could do to bring a sense of closure to families of all those who had died during or after the Japanese occupation,” Silva told FMT.

He said the “hero stone” was to recognise “the unsung heroes who had died there as labourers” and those who had survived and returned to Malaya.

He said the cost of the three-tonne “hero stone” – which was sculptured in Madurai, India, and air freighted to Kanchanapuri – was shared by Malaysians living in Thailand, the Thailand Tamil Sangam and the Tamil Nadu State government, which gave half of the almost RM90,000 needed.

About 250,000 people built the 415km Burma-Siam Railway – with 62 stops or stations and 688 bridges from Nong Pladuk in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now Myanmar) between October 1942 and October 1943.

It is estimated that more than 100,000 – some say 180,000 – including about 12,000 allied prisoners of war, perished due to the harsh conditions as well as cruel treatment by the Japanese soldiers.

Japan constructed the railway because it needed another supply route from Malaya to Burma as the sea route was patrolled by allied navies.

But, for all the deaths and effort, the Burma-Siam Railway only carried two Japanese divisions and 500,000 tonnes of supplies before Japan surrendered.

The construction of the Death Railway was immortalised on film by the movie “Bridge on the River Kwai.” However, the fictionalised account failed to tell the story of the Asian workers.

Every year, the remains of the Death Railway and the museums in Kanchanapuri dedicated to it, attract millions of visitors.