King Hui by Jonathan Chamberlain

Author:Jonathan Chamberlain
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789881613837
Publisher: Blacksmith Books

Torture

IDID SEE THE JAPANESE torture people twice. Both times it was at the old Supreme Court building, which was the gendarmes’ headquarters. The first time I saw it I was with Kakei-san. We passed a room where I saw a man stripped naked. A piece of string was tied to his big toes and he was hung upside down on the wall. Then he was whipped. I also saw them turn on a water hose and push the end into the victim’s mouth. Naturally no one can stand this for very long. You can’t breathe. If you try to breathe you will choke. Naturally the man struggled and then he fainted very quickly.

I can say it disturbed me to see this. I turned to Kakei-san: ‘Is this really necessary?’

He saw the effect it had on me. He took my arm and we walked on.

‘Not now. Not here. I will explain this to you later.’

It was some days or weeks later that I got an invitation from him to have lunch.

I was a bit nervous. He was a very powerful man. He had never invited me so formally before and he seemed very serious. We had our lunch and then went up to his room.

‘Mr Hui, the other day, you were upset to see us torture a man.’

I nodded.

‘I must explain to you something. We belong to the political branch. If we find something suspicious we must do everything we can to get all the information we can. If this means we must torture people then we must torture them. This is our training. This is our discipline. If we show any sympathy for our victims it would not be good for us. When we were being trained it was made very clear to us. We must be prepared to torture anyone. Our friends, our relatives, even our fathers and mothers if necessary, even our loved ones. That is our training.’

I nodded. There was nothing for me to say. If I protested too much he might turn against me. I naturally didn’t wish to provoke his anger. I had power only because he was behind me. But torture was not something I could accept.

‘But still,’ I said to him, ‘It is not so good. It’s not so human.’

He understood that I was a gentleman. I had no experience of military matters or politics.

‘In times of war, we must do many things that are not so human.’

This also was true. We never discussed this subject again.

I saw torture another time. I heard the screams. I turned my head and hurried past the room. These were cruel times.

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