The Kwai is a real river in Thailand, and nearly thirty years ago prisoners of the Japanese – including myself – really did build a bridge across it: actually, two. Anyone who was there knows that Boulle's novel, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and the movie based on it, are both completely fictitious. What is odd is how they combined to create a world-wide myth, and how that myth is largely the result of those very psychological and political delusions which the builders of the real bridges had been forced to put aside.

THE REAL BRIDGES

The origin of the myth can be traced back to two historical realities.

Early in 1942, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, and the Philippines surrendered: and Japan was suddenly left with the task of looking after over two hundred thousand prisoners of war. The normal procedure is to separate the officers from the enlisted men and put them into different camps; but the Japanese hadn't got the staff to spare and left the job of organizing the prison-camps to the prisoners themselves; which in effect meant the usual chain of command. This was one essential basis for Boulle's story: prisoners of war, like other prisoners, don't normally command anyone; and so they don't have anything to negotiate with.

The other main reality behind the myth is the building of that particular bridge. Once their armies started driving towards India, the Japanese realized they needed a railway from Bangkok to Rangoon.