Which diseases caused the most deaths on the Burma Railway?

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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.

During the construction of the Burma Railway, prisoners of war and forced labourers faced brutal conditions, including malnutrition, dehydration, and a lack of sanitation, which made them highly susceptible to illness.

Dysentery and diarrhea were the most lethal, accounting for more than one-third of all deaths on the railway. Other prevalent diseases that contributed to the high mortality rate included cholera, malaria, and tropical ulcers.1