Bridges over battlefields and bridges over peace

I went to Thilawa special economic zone, suburbs of Yangon.

Dagon bridge is the huge bridge in-between Yangon and Thaketa townships started building from 2015 and completed in August this year. The surrounding roads are paved, with new dark asphalt roads and large bridges linking the area separated by the river.

The bridge supported by Japanese ODA has more than the connecting between domestic districts. The East-West corridor, which start from Da Nang in Vietnam and passes directly through Laos and Thailand to Myanmar, and connects the country by land, however, it is hard to say that it still connects to Yangon, the center of Myanmar. This is because the large river up to Yangon has forced a detour to a narrow road. The Dabong Bridge, and the Bago Bridge to be constructed, will extend the East-West Economic Corridor to Yangon. This is a bridge that serves as the end point of the corridor connecting countries.

In the past, the Thai-Burma Railway was launched by the Japanese army. The bridge, built by forcing POWs to work in poor conditions, was quickly exposed to American bombing or destroyed due to structural defects. Right now the railway just run a little on the outskirts of Thailand. Former Japanese troops who tried to rule Asia by force under the ideal name of the Great East Asia Mutual Prosperity Zone could not realize their ambitions in the end.

Now, Asian countries are developing various industries and become more dependent on each other.

The ambitions that Japan once aimed at with armed forces are naturally occurring due to the development of the Internet and the maturity of society.

With the development of the Internet, information can be obtained quickly by anyone. Still, physical distance exists as a concrete barrier. But at the same time, even such physical barriers are getting closer.

Can the development of technology create society, each nation coexists while maintaining its own identities, or not? I would like to continue thinking that  from here, Yangon.