Criminal indictment against Yukio Asano for waterboarding

[kristopher]

http://www.2008electionprocon.org/pdf/asano_case.pdf

“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 15May, 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.


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.”


Source:
Wallach, Evan. “Drop By Drop: Forgetting The History of Water Torture In U.S.
Courts,” The Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, 2007

[Traveling_Home]

1. War Crimes Study Center

The Center houses over 1 million microfilmed pages of records of WWII era trials of Japanese war criminals. These national-level trials of Japanese were held by several different countries, including the U.S., China, Britain and Australia; and in many different locations, including Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, and China
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~warcrime/PT-archive.htm

Asano's Record
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~warcrime/Japan/Yokohama/Reviews/Yokohama_Review_Asano.htm

[virgogal]

2. Why on earth was this guy scapegoated? The brutality

of the Japanese military was widespread.

Why him? Because he was a civilian?

[Trajan]

3. Each instance is a crime ...

Each person is responsible for their own behavior ....

Whether or not others committed similar acts should not preclude justice in his case.

I dont see this as scapegoating, but as one possible criminal prosecution of many ...

[Pachamama]

4. Judge Evan Wallach, a knowledgable expert on the history of the use of waterboarding as torture and

of the violations of military and constitutional law, should be appointed as special prosecutor or to head up a commission to investigate the crimes.

Seriously...google this guy and see his vast experience on this matter....including the following opinion piece in the Washington Post from 2007:

"We know that U.S. military tribunals and U.S. judges have examined certain types of water-based interrogation and found that they constituted torture. That's a lesson worth learning. The study of law is, after all, largely the study of history. The law of war is no different. This history should be of value to those who seek to understand what the law is -- as well as what it ought to be"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201170.html