Deputy Defence Minister General Watanachai and Mrs Supawattisiri
General Suntorn (Head, Armed Forces Development Command)
Mr Direck (Governor of Kanchanaburi)
Veterans, ladies and gentlemen.
Memorials throughout the world attest to Australia's achievement in battle. Most stand on the very tracts of earth where once our countrymen struggled and suffered before prevailing over their enemies.
This museum - through its stories, by its message also a Memorial - is no different.
Here also, Australians struggled and suffered and, in the end, prevailed. Here was fought a war within a war - a deeper, darker battle against the very essence of an enemy which sought to enslave the free world. Put simply, in the words of a great man who served at this place, "it was a war against monstrous things".
Our enemies then aimed at the complete submission of those they sought to conquer.
Unconditional surrender of the spirit was demanded - a world created in which the vanquished were to be made dumb and dull-eyed, where all spark of compassion for their own kind was to be extinguished and with it the means to organise, to resist.
This Memorial is dedicated to the memory of every man and woman whose heroism was marked by their survival in the face of outrageous brutality and terror and to every individual who sought to deliver them from servitude.
We can only wonder how they managed to endure and to survive. They existed in a hell where the slightest pause, or misconstrued gesture, could result in appalling retribution - in beatings with rifle butts or bamboo canes or boots. Here alone, at Hellfire Pass, 68 young men were beaten to death for being too exhausted, or too weak, or too sick.
None of us can imagine how men can claw out solid rock with nothing more than their own hands and primitive tools. Let alone imagine how near naked and starving men could build a railway through 420 torturous kilometres of jungle, across rivers and over rugged mountain ranges. Or how survival is possible on a handful of rice each day and living each hour stalked by disease and pain. Or how madness could be kept at bay.
Yet this Memorial does not seek to magnify tragedy but to commemorate triumph.
And celebrate the brilliance of Medical Officers such as Albert Coates, Bruce Hunt, Roy Mills, Weary Dunlop and every one of their colleagues. The compassion of medical orderlies who risked their own lives in cholera wards tending the sick and the dying.
The courage of ordinary soldiers who, haunted by memories of home and happiness, faced the dawn of each new terrible day.
Invested here is every small, unrecorded act of kindness bestowed upon a mate and every act conferred upon a complete stranger. It is a place to represent the shared experience of nations by paying tribute to all those who suffered. The thousands of British, American, Indian and Dutch imprisoned with Australians, enduring the same abuses, dying the same deaths. The estimated quarter of a million romusha, forced labourers from Singapore, Malaya, Java, Vietnam, Burma and Thailand of whom 90,000 are said to have perished - numbers only the brutality of man in foul climate and harsh terrain could seek to camouflage.
It is a place also to recognise the kindness and bravery of the Thai people who attempted to ease the suffering of our men. Who risked their own subjugation for the deliverance of others. Through simple deeds of hard-boiled eggs left anonymously on riverbanks to be found by starving prisoners. And great heart-stopping risks taken to smuggle medicines into workcamps.
At this sacred place, we affirm that Australia will never forget acts of courage made on behalf of its people.
I wish to recognise two extraordinary individuals, Boonpong and his wife Boopa Sirivejaphan, who were shadowed by the threat of torture and even death to smuggle much needed medical supplies, money and other goods to allied prisoners along this railway. The extent of their sacrifice was kept secret from grateful prisoners until 1945 yet their selfless actions sustained life and morale for many Australians throughout their servitude.
On behalf of a thankful nation I present this posthumous award, a certificate of our appreciation, to the grandson of Boonpong and Boopa, Veeravej Subhawat. Let it mark our enduring gratitude for the virtuous deeds of your grandparents and let it symbolise the warmth of our friendship which has grown ever stronger since the war.
As a token of an unrepayable debt, I also wish to announce today the contribution by the Australian Government of a further $50,000 towards the Weary Dunlop/Boonpong Exchange Trust. A trust in memory of all Australian Medical Officers and of every Thai citizen who risked torture and death to provide comfort and hope to our sick. A trust to allow talented young Thai surgeons to travel to Australia to refine their skills.
Out of war, a legacy of peace.
So too, can this museum be claimed as a legacy for the future. Let it exemplify the courage and compassion which are the highest virtues to which our young can aspire. Let it be a prophecy of Australia's commitment to Asia and all its peoples. Of our willingness to stand together during empty years of adversity as well as bountiful years of plenty. Let it warn off any nation who may mistakenly judge that freedom loving countries will every allow tyranny to prevail. And let it promise that the memory of what was done here, lost here, gained here will not be forgotten.
To all those responsible for the vision and reality of this museum, our heartfelt thanks are owed you. On behalf of the Australian people and in memory of those it honours, I declare the Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum open.
Thank you