Drop by Drop: Forgetting the History of Water Torture in U.S. Courts
![handle is hein.journals/cjtl45 and id is 474 raw text is: Essays
Drop by Drop: Forgetting the History of
Water Torture in U.S. Courts
EVAN WALLACH*
Historical analysis demonstrates that U.S. courts have
consistently held that artificial drowning interrogation
is torture, which, by its nature, violates U.S. statutory
prohibitions.
I. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 469
II. JAPAN'S USE OF WATER TORTURE AGAINST ALLIED POWs
AND THE SUBSEQUENT TRIALS OF THE JAPANESE ................... 477
A. United States v. Sawada: Water Torture of the
D oolittle R aiders ............................................................ 478
B. Water Torture Prosecutions Before Other U.S.
T ribunals ........................................................................ 482
C. The International Tribunal ............................................. 490
III. THE PHILIPPIN ES ..................................................................... 494
A. The Water Cure During the U.S. Occupation of the
P hilippines ..................................................................... 496
B. The Marcos Regime's Conduct on Trial ........................ 501
IV. THE TEXAS WATER TORTURE CASE ....................................... 502
V . C ONCLUSION .......................................................................... 504
* Judge, United States Court of International Trade. Adjunct Professor, Law of War,
Brooklyn Law School, George Mason Law School, New York Law School. Visiting
Professor, Law of War, University of Muenster. Web master and author,
www.lawofwar.org. Any views expressed in this article are only those of the author. The
author wishes to express gratitude for the research assistance of Daniel Molina of Stanford
University Law School.
This article is respectfully dedicated in general to the Judge Advocate General
Corps of the United States Army, of which the author was a proud member, and specifically,
to M.G. Thomas J. Romig, who so clearly exemplifies the vision which the Corps has of
itself as committed to justice [and] grounded in values. Judge Advocate General Corps
Strategic Plan FY 2004-2010: Judge Advocate General's Corps Transformation 3 (2004),
available at https://www.jagcnet.army.mil/JAGCNETIntranet/JAGCStra.nsf/(JAGCNetDoc
ID)/I COBA360376A958485257050006754B8/$FILE/JAGCStratPlanO4.pdf.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/cjtl45&div=17&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Drop by Drop: Forgetting the History of Water Torture in U.S. Courts
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