On Jan. 21, 1968, The Washington Post published a front-page photograph of a U.S. soldier supervising the questioning of a captured North Vietnamese soldier who is being held down as water was poured on his face while his nose and mouth were covered by a cloth. The picture, taken four days earlier near Da Nang, had a caption that said the technique induced "a flooding sense of suffocation and drowning, meant to make him talk."

The article said the practice was "fairly common" in part because "those who practice it say it combines the advantages of being unpleasant enough to make people talk while still not causing permanent injury."

The picture reportedly led to an Army investigation. [according to ABC News he was court marshaled within a month -mith]

Twenty-one years earlier, in 1947, the United States charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for carrying out another form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian. The subject was strapped on a stretcher that was tilted so that his feet were in the air and head near the floor, and small amounts of water were poured over his face, leaving him gasping for air until he agreed to talk.

"Asano was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) told his colleagues last Thursday during the debate on military commissions legislation. "We punished people with 15 years of hard labor when waterboarding was used against Americans in World War II," he said.

Drop by Drop: Forgetting The History of Water Torture in U.S. Courts1

By

Evan Wallach2

Q: Did the questioners threaten you with any other treatment while you were

being questioned

A: Yes, I was given several types of torture.... I was given what they call the water

cure.* * *

Q: What was your sensation when they were pouring water..., what did you

physically feel?

A: Well, I felt more or less like I was drowning, just gasping between life and

death..

Excerpts from testimony of CPT Chase Jay Nielsen, p. 55, Record of Trial, United States v.

Shigeru Sawada et al, (1946) Record of National Archives, Suitland, Maryland

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United States of America v. Hideji Nakamura, Yukio Asano, Seitara Hata, and Takeo
Kita, U.S. Military Commission, Yokohama, 1-28 May, 1947. NARA Records, NND 735027
RG 153, Entry 143 Box 1025
57The charge and specifications against Hata were:
Charge: That the following member of the Imperial Japanese Army with his then known title:
Seitaro Hata, Surgeon First Lieutenant,, at the times and places set forth in the specifications
hereto attached, and during a time of war between the United States of America and its Allies
and Dependencies, and Japan, did violate the Laws and Customs of War.
Specification 3. That in or about July or August, 1943, at Fukoka Prisoner of War Branch Camp
Number Three, Fukuoka ken, Kyushu, Japan, the accused Seitaro Hata, did willfully and
unlawfully, brutally mistreat and torture Morris O. Killough, an American Prisoner of War, by
beating and kicking him; by fastening him on a stretcher and pouring water up his nostrils.
Specification 5. That on or about 15 May, 1944, at Fukoka Prisoner of War Branch Camp
Number Three, Fukuoka ken, Kyushu, Japan, the accused Seitaro Hata, did, willfully and
unlawfully, brutally mistreat and torture Thomas B. Armitage, William O Cash and Munroe
Dave Woodall, American Prisoners of War by beating and kicking them; by forcing water into
their mouths and noses; and by pressing lighted cigarettes against their bodies.
58The charge and specifications against Asano were:
Charge: That between 1 April, 1943 and 31 August, 1944, , at Fukoka Prisoner of War Branch
Camp Number 3, Kyushu, Japan, the accused Yukio Asana, then a civilian serving as an
interpreter with the Armed Forces of Japan, a nation then at war with the United States of
America and its Allies, did violate the Laws and Customs of War.
Specification 1: That in or about July or August, 1943, the accused Yukio Asano, did willfully
and unlawfully, brutally mistreat and torture Morris O. Killough, an American Prisoner of War,
by beating and kicking him; by fastening him on a stretcher and pouring water up his nostrils.
Specification 2: That on or about 15 May, 1944, at Fukoka Prisoner of War Branch Camp
Number 3, Kyushu, Japan, the accused Yukio Asano, did, willfully and unlawfully, brutally
mistreat and torture Thomas B. Armitage, William O Cash and Munroe Dave Woodall,
American Prisoners of War by beating and kicking them, by forcing water into their mouths and
noses; and by pressing lighted cigarettes against their bodies.
against the various defendants, and it loomed large in the evidence presented against them.56
The four defendants, Hata,57 Asano,58 Kita59, and Nakamura60 were respectively, the camp
Specification 5. That between 1 April, 1943 and 31 December, 1943, the accused Yukio Asano,
did, willfully and unlawfully, brutally mistreat and torture John Henry Burton, an American
Prisoner of War, by beating him; and by fastening him head downward on a stretcher and forcing
water into his nose.
59The charge and specifications against Kita were:
Charge: That the following member of the Imperial Japanese Army with his the known title:
Takeo Kita, Sergeant Major, at the times and places set forth in the specifications hereto
attached, and during a time of war between the United States.... and Japan, did violate the Laws
and Customs of War.
Specification 2: That between 1 April, 1943 and 31 August, 1944, at Fukoka Prisoner of War
Branch Camp Number 3, Kyushu, Japan, the accused Takeo Kita, did, willfully and unlawfully,
brutally mistreat and torture John Henry Burton, an American Prisoner of War, by beating him
and by forcing water into his nose.
Specification 4: That on or about 15 May, 1944, at Fukoka Prisoner of War Branch Camp
Number 3, Kyushu, Japan, the accused Takeo Kita, did, willfully and unlawfully, brutally
mistreat and torture Thomas B. Armitage, William O Cash and Munroe Dave Woodall,
American Prisoners of War by beating them, forcing water into their mouths and noses, and by
pressing lighted cigarettes against their bodies.
60The charge and specifications against Nakamura were less specifically related to water
torture per se, but still dealt with forced dunking:
Charge: That the following member of the Imperial Japanese Army, with his then known title,
Hideji Nakamura, at the times and places set forth in the specifications hereto attached, and
during a time of war between the United States of America, its Allies and Dependencies, and
Japan, did violate the Laws and Customs of War.