Water cure (torture) facts for kids
Water cure is a form of torture in which the victim is forced to drink large quantities of water in a short time, resulting in gastric distension, water intoxication, and possibly death.
While this use of water is documented back to at least the 15th century, the first use of the phrase water cure in this sense is indirectly dated to around 1898, by U.S. soldiers in the Spanish–American War, after the phrase had been introduced to America in the mid-19th century in the therapeutic sense, which was in widespread use. Indeed, while the torture sense of the phrase water cure was by 1900–1902 established in the U.S. Army, with a conscious sense of irony, this sense was not in widespread use. Webster's 1913 dictionary cited only the therapeutic sense.
Torture that makes use of water still exists under the name of waterboarding. In this variation, emphasis is placed on inducing the sensation of drowning rather than forcing the individual to consume, and subsequently regurgitate, large quantities of water.
Contents
Historical uses
East Indies
The use of the water cure by the Dutch in the East-Indies is documented by the English merchants of the East India Company after the Amboyna massacre in February 1623 (O. S.).
France
Water torture was used extensively and legally by the courts of France from the Middle Ages to the 17th and 18th centuries. It was known as being put to "the question", with the ordinary question involving the forcing of one gallon (eight pints or approximately 3.6 litres) of water into the stomach and the extraordinary question involving the forcing of two gallons (sixteen pints or approximately 7.3 litres).
The French poet and criminal François Villon was subjected to this torture in 1461. Jean Calas suffered this torture in 1762. The true case of the Marquise of Brinvilliers was reported in fiction by Arthur Conan Doyle in "The Leather Funnel", by Alexandre Dumas, père, in The Marquise de Brinvilliers and by Émile Gaboriau in Intrigues of a Poisoner.
Germany
A form of water cure known as the Swedish drink was used by various international troops against the German population during the Thirty Years' War.
Spain
Water cure was among the forms of torture used by the Spanish Inquisition. The Inquisition at Málaga subjected the Scottish traveller William Lithgow to it, among other methods, in 1620.
United States
The water cure was brought to the Philippines during Spanish colonial rule, and passed on to Americans by Filipinos in 1899.
Philippine–American War
The water cure was among the forms of torture used by American soldiers on Filipinos during the Philippine–American War. President Theodore Roosevelt privately assured a friend that the water cure was "an old Filipino method of mild torture. Nobody was seriously damaged whereas the Filipinos had inflicted incredible tortures on our people." The president went further, stating, "Nevertheless, torture is not a thing that we can tolerate." However, a report at the time noted its lethality.
Police
The use of "third-degree interrogation" techniques in order to compel confession, ranging from "psychological duress such as prolonged confinement to extreme violence and torture", was widespread in early American policing as late as the 1930s. Such techniques were classified as "'covert' third degree torture" since they left no signs of physical abuse, and became popular after 1910 when the direct application of physical violence in order to force a confession became a media issue and some courts began to deny obviously compelled confessions. The publication of this information in 1931 as part of the Wickersham Commission's "Report on Lawlessness in Law Enforcement" led to a decline in the use of third degree police interrogation techniques in the 1930s and 1940s.
Japan
During World War II, water cure was among the forms of torture used by Japanese troops (especially the Kenpeitai) in occupied territory.
Philippines
The water cure has had a long history of use during Philippines' colonial history, having been used during the Spanish, American, and Japanese occupations. After Philippine Independence in 1945, the most notable instances of its use by the Philippine government was by the dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos.
The Marcos regime
The water cure was one of the torture methods most used frequently by the Marcos regime in the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. The practice was widely documented by organizations such as the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, the World Council of Churches, the International Commission of Jurists, among others. Notable survivors of the torture include Loretta Ann Rosales, who eventually became the Chair of the Philippines' Commission on Human Rights, and Maria Elena Ang, who was a 23-year-old journalism student of the University of the Philippines at the time of her torture.
See also
- Waterboarding
- Water intoxication
- Water torture
