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Yes, National Review, We Did Execute Japanese for Waterboarding

Paul Begala

     

Mr. Fleischer, ordinarily the most voluble of men, was tongue-tied. The silence, rare in cable debates, spoke volumes for the vacuity of his position.

Now Mark Hemingway of the National Review Online has asserted that I was wrong. I bookmark NRO and read it frequently. It’s smart and breezy — but on this one it got its facts wrong.

Mr. Hemingway assumed I was citing the case of Yukio Asano, who was convicted of waterboarding and other offenses and sentenced to 15 years hard labor — not death by hanging. Mr. Hemingway made the assumption that I was referring to the Asano case because in 2006 Sen. Edward Kennedy had referred to it. (Sen. Kennedy accurately described the sentence as hard labor and not execution, by the way.)

But I was not referring to Asano, nor was my source Sen. Kennedy. Instead I was referencing the statement of a different member of the Senate: John McCain. On November 29, 2007, Sen. McCain, while campaigning in St. Petersburg, Florida, said, "Following World War II war crime trials were convened. The Japanese were tried and convicted and hung for war crimes committed against American POWs. Among those charges for which they were convicted was waterboarding."

Sen. McCain was right and the National Review Online is wrong. Politifact, the St. Petersburg Times‘ truth-testing project (which this week was awarded a Pulitzer Prize), scrutinized Sen. McCain’s statement and found it to be true. Here’s the money quote from Politifact:

"McCain is referencing the Tokyo Trials, officially known as the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. After World War II, an international coalition convened to prosecute Japanese soldiers charged with torture. At the top of the list of techniques was water-based interrogation, known variously then as ‘water cure,’ ‘water torture’ and ‘waterboarding,’ according to the charging documents. It simulates drowning." Politifact went on to report, "A number of the Japanese soldiers convicted by American judges were hanged, while others received lengthy prison sentences or time in labor camps."

 

The folks at Politifact interviewed R. John Pritchard, the author of The Tokyo War Crimes Trial: The Complete Transcripts of the Proceedings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. They also interviewed Yuma Totani, history professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and consulted the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, which published a law review article entitled, "Drop by Drop: Forgetting the History of Water Torture in U.S. Courts." Bottom line: Sen. McCain was right in 2007 and National Review Online is wrong today. America did execute Japanese war criminals for waterboarding.


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3 Comments for “Yes, National Review, We Did Execute Japanese for Waterboarding”

  1. Thomas Grace, PhD, WWII History

    No, Paul Begala, We Did -NOT- Execute Japanese for Waterboarding.

    We executed them for torture…. ONE OF THE TECHNIQUES they used was similar to what we call waterboarding. (it was actually not the same thing as the CIA does, but that doesn’t even matter for the moment.)

    You make it sound like the ONLY thing they where prosecuted for was waterboarding and for that they where hanged…. That is not the case.

    Their torture included many techniques of which “waterboarding” was but one. Many where much more harsh.

    The Germans made Jews dig their own graves… that evidence was presented at their trials too… but we didn’t prosecute them for making people dig holes in the ground.

    I realize you and James are just political goons who live from talking point to talking point but please stop abusing history, it never did anything to you.

    • Thomas Paine, PhD, Reality

      Way to back up your specious argument with zero fact. You imply that their brand of waterboarding was more dastardly but fail to back that assertion up. You imply that the waterboarding didn’t get them hanged but leave us to take your word for it. Were these other techniques to which you refer but give no details somehow differentiated in the charges against the Japanese as more serious than the waterboarding?
      I would agree that those hanged were hanged for more than just waterboarding but unless you can find an example of the punishment meted out for simply waterboarding, any analysis of its gravity relative to the other ‘techniques’ is speculative.
      Anyone who is in the least bit skilled at logic should have no problem spotting the fallacy in your ridiculous German/Jew hole digging analogy.
      That said, I don’t want to see anyone executed over this, 15 years of hard labor for those who set this in motion seems fine however.
      Lastly, I am not a PhD, Tom, so it seems we have at least one thing in common.

  2. Tom:

    Thanks for laying the facts on the table and telling them for what they are.

    There are way too many individuals on this site who put a spin on history in order to support their own allegations, perceptions or lies. This Begala guy deliberately tries to tie Japanese waterboard testimony with other torture testimony and use one fact to support his debate.

    You are correct in your supposition that he is a political goon with talking points.

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