The Burma Railway was a 258-mile track built by the Empire of Japan to supply its forces in the Burma Campaign. It is infamously known as the 'Death Railway' because of the horrific conditions under which it was built. Approximately 60,000 Allied prisoners of war and 200,000 forced Asian laborers (romusha) were used as slave labor. They worked in dense jungle with minimal food, no medicine, and under brutal treatment. An estimated 12,000 POWs and over 90,000 civilians died from disease, exhaustion, and violence during construction. The 'Bridge on the River Kwai' is the most famous part of this railway, though the actual history is far more tragic than the fictionalized film.