Burma Road was built between 1937 and 1938 to carry war supplies to China for its war against Japan. The road served as a “back door” to China, and avoided Japan’s blockade of the Chinese coast.
About 200,000 Chinese and Burmese laborers built the Burma Road under great hardship. The road had a base of large rocks, filled with crushed stone, and topped by mud. The road wound about 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) across mountains and through thick jungle from Lashio, Burma (now Myanmar), to Kunming, China.
Japanese troops captured the Burmese part of the road and closed it in 1942. In 1944, General Joseph Stilwell led a campaign that liberated Burma from Japan. During this campaign, Allied forces built a new road, the Ledo Road, from Ledo, India. This road joined the Burma Road near Lashio. The combined route, about 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) long, provided supplies from India to China. It played an important part in Japan’s defeat in Burma. In 1945, the road was renamed the Stilwell Road.
