Pai Bridge

The Pai River bridge is often cited as the most visible evidence of the presence of Japan's Army in Northern Thailand during WWII.
But the bridge was actually built after the war. This website attempts to correct both that misconception and others about the period.

Lanna-ww2

Japan in Northwest Thailand during World War II

N19°21.50 E99°30.30[1] Pa Pao (Th: ป่าเป้า / Jp: パパオ )
Williams-Hunt (W-H) Aerial Photomosaics
Page 1 of 1

Route 0118
Station 00d[2]

 

Text Notes

 

This page discusses World War II aerial photos taken by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and provided on-line by the Geo-spatial Digital Archive Project (GDAP) in its Williams-Hunt Aerial Photograph Digital Collection.[2a]


The Williams-Hunt collection has a single set of aerial photos for Pa Pao dated 25 October 1944:[3]

Pa Pao location map

 

The two-photo aerial photomosaic:[4]

Pa Pao two photo mosaic

A higher resolution image is available for download here.

The following GDAP images were used in the above photomosaic:[5]

02575.jpg
02576.jpg

and assembled approximately like this, using Microsoft ICE:[6]

Pa Pao photomosaic assembly

 

 


GDAP, the source of these photos, has asked that the following information be included regarding the aerial imagery shown above:

  • Williams-Hunt Aerial Photos Collection
  • Original from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
  • Digital Data from Center for Southeast Asia Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University
  • Digital Archive from Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy (CRMA), Thailand

 

Revision List
Rev
Date
Description
0
2012 Oct 05
First published on Internet

 

 

 

See Key for interpreting page content.

Revision list. See bottom of Text column on this page.

Bibliography supports notes.

1.^ Source: Google Earth fix on apparent center of town.

2.^ Stationing needed.

2a.^ The collection and its origin are described in detail in:

Lertlum, PhD, Col Surat, and Dr Elizabeth Moore, Williams-Hunt Aerial Photograph Collection, (undated); available as here linked.

Moore, Elizabeth, The Williams-Hunt Collection, Sari - International Journal of the Malay World and Civilisation, 27(2)(2009), pp 265-284.

Periasamy, Makeswary, "A View from the Top",  biblioasia, 5(1) (Apr 2009), pp 38-42.

3.^ "Terrain" map from  Nations Online Project: Searchable Map and Satellite View of Thailand using Google Earth Data. Annotation (red & blue colored items) were placed by author using Microsoft Publisher.

4.^ Photos were assembled using Microsoft ICE (Image Composition Editor).

The mosaic is oriented so that its north is to the top of the page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.^ The files used here are 1024 KB. Downloading the files which are designated    "[full size]" requires a special request form to be emailed to the Head, GDAP.

6.^ Drawn by author with Microsoft Publisher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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