Yukio Asano

The producer of Current TV voluntarily underwent waterboarding at the hands of ex-US Special Forces personnel. It's worth watching the whole video clip of 10 minutes. The producer halted the waterboarding after 24 minutes (@7:30 in the video clip).

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Was a Japanese soldier sentenced to '15 years hard labour' for waterboarding a U.S. civilian?
By Antarctic Lemur | 11:07 pm, October 9, 2006

The article 'Waterboarding Historically Controversial' by the Washington Post is rather popular at the moment on various leftist blogs, including No Right Turn.


It claims a Japanese soldier in WW2 was sentenced to 15 years hard labour for 'water boarding' an American civilian: 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.

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here's a summary (source: ShadowDoc) of the actual charges against Yukio Asano:
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~warcrime/Japan/Yokohama/Reviews/Yokohama_Review_Asano.htm
Defendant: Asano, Yukio

Docket Date: 53/ May 1 - 28, 1947, Yokohama, Japan

Charge: Violation of the Laws and Customs of War: 1. Did willfully and unlawfully mistreat and torture PWs. 2. Did unlawfully take and convert to his own use Red Cross packages and supplies intended for PWs.

Specifications:beating using hands, fists, club; kicking; water torture; burning using cigarettes; strapping on a stretcher head downward

Verdict: 15 years CHL

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What is Waterboarding From Wikipedia

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http://www.davidcorn.com/archives/2006/09/this_is_what_wa.php

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Google search for Yukio Asano

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Talk about a double standard... dont do it to us or we will convict you for it... but we can do it to you, because we said it is ok...

You can get the most extraordinary information this way. Trouble is, it always tends to give the interrogators all they might want, and more, in a desperate effort to stop or avert more torture. What it doesn't give is the truth... - Az