By Miya Tanaka

HIROSHIMA, Aug. 6 Kyodo, The mayor of the Thai city of Kanchanaburi, known for the railway built by prisoners of the Japanese during World War II, reiterated his hopes for world peace on Sunday while attending a ceremony in Hiroshima to mark the 61st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city.

"I offered my condolences for the bereaved families, and feel that war will not produce a single good thing," said Mayor Prasit Ophattiphakorn, who is visiting Hiroshima for the first time.

Hiroshima and the city in the western Thai province bordering Myanmar have recently been strengthening their ties, as they are both sites of famous war relics -- Hiroshima with the A-Bomb Dome and Kanchanaburi with the notorious Thailand-Burma railway.

Prasit also said he will boost efforts to spread the message of peace to the people of Kanchanaburi, a city of about 30,000, and especially to children.

In July, Prasit became a member of the "Mayors for Peace" -- an organization of about 1,400 cities from 119 countries that has expressed support for the abolition of nuclear weapons. The body is headed by Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba.

The idea to link the two cities came from 88-year-old Takashi Nagase, a former Japanese military interpreter involved in interrogations of POWs during the construction of the Thai-Burmese railway.

Nagase witnessed Japanese troops torture POWs in Kanchanaburi in the last years of the war. Shortly after the war he was deployed by the Allied Forces on a mission to search for the bodies of Allied soldiers who perished while building the railroad and confirmed the remains of more than 130,000 POWs.

The railway is commonly known as the "Death Railway" as about 16,000 POWs, including British, Dutch and Australian nationals, as well as 80,000 to 100,000 Asians perished while being forced to build it.

The 415-kilometer line was built between June 1942 and October 1943 to carry supplies into Burma where the Japanese were preparing an invasion of India.

But most of it was abandoned due partly to high maintenance costs after the war and currently the railway operates along a portion of only about 130 km in Thailand.

Nagase, now engaged in anti-war activities, has been offering scholarships to children in Kanchanaburi for more than 20 years funded by a foundation he set up.

"I felt ashamed and wanted to do something to make up for the wartime atrocities conducted by the Japanese," Nagase said.

Nagase has also proposed that the Thai government have the railway designated as a World Heritage site so it can become a place where people will "renew their hopes of peace," like the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima which is a World Heritage site.

Prasit, who is in favor of the plan, talked with Akiba during his visit to Hiroshima and quoted the Hiroshima mayor as saying he would like to offer support to realize the plan.

"The difference between Hiroshima and Kanchanaburi is that Hiroshima saw many citizens die, while Kanchanaburi saw many military personnel die," Prasit said.

"But I want to tell people that war, which causes the death of human beings, is not good."

2006-08-06 19:30:02JST