How long could individual work shifts on the Burma Railway last?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Map showing the height of Japanese territorial expansion in 1942 during World War II, with a large hatched area covering much of East and Southeast Asia and the western Pacific, including parts of China, Korea, Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and numerous Pacific islands. Japan's home islands are shaded in solid red, while the expansion area stretches from India and Burma in the west to the Aleut — Burma Railway In World War II Japanese military forces quickly took advantage of their success at Pearl Harbor to expand their holdings throughout the Pacific and westward toward India. This expansion continued relatively unchecked until mid-1942. Then, after losing the Battle of Midway, Japan was forced on the defensive.

During the construction of the Burma Railway, the Japanese military forced Allied prisoners of war and civilian labourers to work under brutal conditions to meet construction deadlines. As the project fell behind schedule, the pace of labor was intensified, and prisoners were forced to work around the clock, with individual shifts lasting as long as 18 hours.1