KANCHANABURI, Thailand: A depot on the infamous World War II "Death Railway" has reappeared after being underwater for decades, as a reservoir level dropped, prompting researchers to rush to western Thailand to study what remains of Nithe Station.

Thousands of Allied prisoners of war and Asian laborers worked under harsh conditions to build the railway, which was used by Japanese forces as a supply route across mainland Southeast Asia. Many of them died during its construction.

Thailand's Electricity Generating Authority recently lowered water levels at the Vajiralongkorn Dam for maintenance, exposing the station. Historians are now using this rare chance to examine the site in Kanchanaburi province for artifacts and to confirm historical details.

However, the opportunity is short, as the dam repairs are expected to finish in August and the rainy season in Southeast Asia could soon refill the reservoir.

Nithe was an important station along the 415-kilometer railway linking Thailand, then called Siam, with Myanmar, then known as Burma.

Around 60,000 Allied prisoners of war, mostly from Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies), were forced to build the railway, along with hundreds of thousands of Asian laborers, known by the Japanese as römusha.

More than 12,500 prisoners of war and about 75,000 laborers died during construction, which is why it became known as the "Death Railway."

The railway was shown in the famous 1957 film "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and the 2013 movie "The Railway Man." It was also the subject of the award-winning novel "The Narrow Road to the Deep North," which was turned into a 2025 miniseries starring Australian actor Jacob Elordi.

Australian researcher Martyn Fryer traveled from Perth to visit the site. His grandfather had died as a prisoner of war while working on the railway after being captured in Singapore in 1942.

Fryer walked through muddy ground in the intense heat of 38°C (100°F) to better understand the suffering endured by those who worked there and the difficult environment they faced.

He used a metal detector to scan old railway embankments and found items such as iron spikes, bridge parts, and other wartime objects.

Fryer said he had visited Nithe Station three times before, but water levels had always been too high to see and understand the remaining structures and layout properly.

To identify prisoner-of-war camps nearby, Fryer compared old aerial photos of Nithe from the National Archives in London with hand-drawn maps brought by Andrew Snow, a researcher at the Thailand–Burma Railway Center.

Like Fryer's grandfather, Snow's father was also captured in Singapore and forced to work on the railway.

Parts of the station are sometimes visible during Southeast Asia's dry season, but this year the water dropped unusually low and quickly, and plants have not yet grown back, making it easier to study the site, Snow explained.

He said this provides a good opportunity to conduct surveys and helps relatives of those who worked on the railway see where their family members may have been.

Hundreds of Thai visitors have come to see this rare sight, according to resident Kitti Laokham, whose social media posts about Nithe have gained 32 million views.

Channarong Noimala traveled 350 kilometers by motorbike from Bangkok after seeing the videos online to visit the exposed station.

He said that visiting the site helps people remember those who died there, whether they were laborers or prisoners of war.

About 100 kilometers southwest of Nithe, along winding mountain roads, is Hellfire Pass, a harsh section of the railway where hundreds of prisoners of war died.

The Hellfire Pass Interpretive Center, funded by the Australian government, had a record 169,000 visitors last year, a year that also marked 80 years since the end of World War II.