No.2
Enclosure in kyo No 530.
inkyo
Japan Advertires 29/11/19
READERS IN COUNCIL
Torture in Korea: A Matter for Dr. Midzuna
I believe that a mild sensation was caused in Japan Proper, when a few days ago Japanese citizen declared that be had been tortured while under police examination. It is seemed rather strange to the writer for In the part of Japan in which I live torture is the very stronghold of the police system. Dur-
ing the last two months the torturers have been unusually busy, in some cases having to work over time. As the methods employed are rather interest- ing and possibly unknown to some of your readers I will briefly describe a case or two.
Case 1. Mr. C. is an educated young man about 19 years of age. In July he was arrested in Pyeng Yang with a letter found in his possession which de- finitely involved him in the Korean In- dependence Movement. He was sent to jail, kept there about alx weeks, given 90 blows and then released. In Septem- ber he was again arrested and ques- tioned with regard to the throwing of the bomb at Admiral Saite. The follow- ing le a brief summary of the methods used by the police in obtaining their evidence. The young man waa seven times suspended from the ceiling by a cord tied around his wrists; his head was drawn back and tied to his hands, which had previously been securely tied behind him, on five occassions; plain water was poured into his nostrils of and on during a period of four days; for further period of three days soap and water was substituted for the plain water; pepper tea was the final choice of the torturers, which was so severe In its reaction that the man became comatoso. All these having failed the Japanese police now ordered the toe i nail to be extracted. A Korean was handed the tweezers but refused and instead pulled a piece of flesh from the inner side of the small too. The bleed- ing was profuse, which seemed to satisfy the bloodthirsty appetite of the tor- turer.
Case II. Another young man aged about 18: He was charged with hay- ing printed the Independence News Paper which charge be readily admitted, but he refused to give information with regard to the other members of the. newspaper organization, This man was beaten unconscious three times during six days and burnt with red hot irona. When I saw him, he seemed to be a physical wreck. A few days ago
once.
|I met a young lady who had been besten Bo violently over the head that an ab- scess had formed in one ear. In addi- tion to this her knee and hip joints had been twisted almost to the point of dis- location. She had of COATS, been thoroughly spat upon, but one would hardly call that torture,
Such methods defeat their own ends, as most of the confessions made are falue, with the result that more innocent people are captured, tortured and im- : prisoned.
Until the damnable policy of assimila- tion is changed, there will always be bayonets and bullets ready to silence the cry of Mansai, and popper tea ready for the nostrils of the young patriot who defies the laws and publishes an Inde. pendence newspaper. Is there morality in a policy which makes 17 millions of people hopeless, and at the beat offers exile or jail for Korea's noblest men and women?
Forced assimilation can never succeed because it is contrary to the laws of Inature, whose laws are never, broken, but
sometimes break the one who attempts: to violate them.
FRANK W. SCHOFIELD.
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