What tools did prisoners use to excavate the cuttings at Hellfire Pass?

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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.

At Hellfire Pass, prisoners of war were forced to excavate the mountain cuttings using only inadequate hand tools. Due to the extreme difficulty of the terrain and the Japanese military's demand for rapid progress, the work was performed under brutal conditions, often around the clock during the period known as "speedo".1