#electrical torture

[needhealing]

A few more seconds, that's all. Then the pain will be over. I'll go to sleep. Finally.

Oh, oh, no. No, not him. Anyone but him. What's he going to do? What's that in his hand.

I'm behaving. I'm behaving, I'm behaving, I'mbehavingbehavingbehavebehave....

"Bite down on this. I don't want you to hurt yourself."

O..okay? This isn't so...

"That's a mild electric shock I just hit you with. Not enough to stop your heart, but enough that it hurts. Keep pushing me and I'll have to remember how to give CPR. Do NOT push me."

Yes, yes, yes, okay. I won't push. I won't push.

"Good pet."

[scripttorture]

In my sci fi world there is a small device that, when injected into someone’s blood, cancels out special abilities/superpowers. It’s used in prisons by the government the protagonists are rebelling against. I was thinking about making it also be used to cause physical pain in to punish prisoners who step out of line, possibly controlled by remote, but I’m not sure how that would work. What would a chip in someone’s bloodstream need to do to cause pain? Would that even be possible?

I can think of several ways it would be possible. My instinct was that it would have a high mortality rate but then I realised that I actually have no way of knowing because this is pretty far from modern torture.

 I can see the appeal in this sort of fictional idea. However that comes with the proviso that torture is generally very very low tech. We live in a world where you can literally 3D print an oesophagus and the most common form of torture globally is hitting people.

 There is a really strong tendency in fiction to show these incredibly complicated, high tech torture devices: often implying that torture is complicated, ‘skilled’ and can be ‘improved’ with technology. None of these things are true.

 Personally I feel like these tropes feed in to torture apologia. They’re not the worst form of it out there, but they’re false and they function in a way that supports what torturers say over what survivors say.

 I think that you can probably write this kind of remote control press-button-for-pain scenario without tripping in to that. But only if you’re aware it’s a possible problem in the first place.

 As for how it could work- My first thought as a chemist was ‘by releasing something into the blood’ but I don’t think that would work as you’ve described. I think it would require a much larger implant then you’re implying in order to release a sufficient quantity of anything.

 Which is possible, arm implants along these lines exist. They’re bulky enough to feel through the skin and they need to be replaced periodically to keep functioning. I’ve never had one and I’m not a medic so I don’t know any more then that.

 If you’re willing to research medical implants and adjust the idea a little… Well we often use capsaicin as a way to test an animal still has the capacity to feel pain*.

 The LD50 in mice (lethal dose for 50% of the tested population) is 47.2mg/kg. It is possible to be poisoned by capsaicin although I do not have much information on what that looks like in humans. There’d be risk of poisoning from repeated abuse by the guards in this story. There’d also be a risk of poisoning if the device itself malfunctioned or was damaged and say… burst.

 Something smaller (I think the word ‘chip’ implies something quite small) would work differently because it wouldn’t have the space to hold a significant amount of any chemical.

 I think that electric shocks are probably the most likely method with a smaller device. Which also comes with a significant risk of killing someone.

 I’ll be honest I have no idea what kind of difference it would make if the electricity was applied underneath someone’s skin. It isn’t something I’ve seen before. I suspect the heat generation might cause problems. It could damage tissues and cause blood clots which would increase the chance of lethal heart attacks or strokes.

 If the heat killed a lot of tissue around the device I think that could lead to… serious problems, possibly death. Having a lot of dead, rotting tissue in the body is pretty dangerous.

 Generally repeated electric shocks kill, sometimes from heart failure, sometimes from things like falling injuries.

 It’s also (unsurprisingly) incredibly painful. Alleg has a pretty good description of his experience of electrical torture in The Question. You can also find descriptions online as the use of Tasers and stun guns has become more common globally.

 I’m finding it difficult to judge this one because my instinct is that delivering an electric shock internally would cause additional damage. But I’m not sure what that would look like.

 Again I think this sort of device could easily malfunction and kill someone. Or malfunction and just stop ‘working’.

 There’s also a chance of the immune system attacking the implant. Which- I don’t know a lot about because I’m not a medic. I think it could be an important factor though.

 With both of these ideas it’s worth questioning whether this would be worth the effort. I’ve found a lot of authors don’t quite think this through so let me try and break it down.

 This is what has to happen before it can be used:

it needs to be designed

a prototype needs to be created

it needs to be tested

several iterations of redesign and new prototypes

parts need to be sourced

the whole thing needs to be assembled on a larger scale

it all needs to be paid for

the people who are supposed to be using it need to find it easy to use

 Tasers very nearly didn’t make it off the ground. It took decades of concerted work and funding from their manufactures to make them a ‘success’. Rejali does a pretty interesting run down of the way it happened if you want more information.

 The question you need to ask yourself is: would all of this have any advantage for the abusers compared to using pepper spray, Tasers or a stick?

 Because unless you’re really sure the answer is ‘yes’ then I think this sort of thing is really really unlikely. And when it comes to writing torture simpler is usually better.

 Like I said I can see how the base of this idea could add to your story. So I don’t want to dismiss it out of hand. But the existence of a device like this says a lot about the society you’re writing. Do the implications fit with the world you’re building?

 Torturers are… generally incredibly lazy and pretty dumb. Which makes the use of high tech devices less likely. Because the competition is a slap. For something to take off it needs to be as easy, quick and reliable as that. And probably also robust enough to be stamped on, vomited over etc.

 So: is there enough drive in this world to add torture to the functionality of this device? Is there the money to fund it? Is there the time to design and create it? And is it going to be reliable and tough enough to actually be used?

 If there was a rush to make something that blocked super powers adding more things (that might interfere with that main function) to the device probably wouldn’t have been a priority.

 Basically if you want this kind of device make it fit with the world you’ve built and think about whether it’s actually adding anything that a more typical torture wouldn’t.

 Aaaand I’m going to leave it there cos I think I’m talking in circles. I hope that helps :)

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*This is something that’s done with genetically modified fruit flies. It’s a way to test whether a genetic modification has had an unexpected effects on the insect’s nervous system.

[wolfeyedwitch]

It's not so fun hurt Devin with hit things, he is too used to it, so nothing like electricity to solve this problem.

He is already soaked anyway.

Devin isn't looking when Kim leaves the room; he's too busy catching his breath now that he's not being pushed underwater. So he doesn't see what it is she brings back with her when she returns.

All he knows is that it hurts.

He's used to heat, after living with Marcus, and being hit. His parents weren't above smacking him around a little (or a lot), and Marcus definitely believed in hitting to make a lesson stick.

But this? Whatever it is that Kim brought?

It's an entirely new type of agony.

It's like he hit his funny bone, but all over. His muscles twitch and spasm involuntarily, and it feels like lightning is traveling down every nerve in his body.

He might be screaming; he isn't sure. His lungs are seizing up too much for him to have much control of what sounds he makes.

[scripttorture]

Hey there! I'm writing a scene where my character gets electrocuted as torture, but I don’t know how to describe what's happening because I don't know what he's actually being electrocuted with. What is the "safest" way to electrocute someone? Something that produces a high voltage, but not enough to kill them. Is it better to use a car battery with jumper cables? Electrodes? And where is the best place to put them on the body? The only thing I know is that the current can't cross the heart.

Well nowadays the most common way this is done is by repeated use of a Taser or stun gun. It’s also worth noting that most people use the term ‘electrocuted’ to mean a lethal amount of electricity. You might want to use something like ‘electric shock’ instead to avoid confusion.

 There is still a significant death rate but I can’t really say whether it’s higher or lower then for older electrical tortures (like using a car battery or more commonly a telephone magneto) because there aren’t any statistics on death rates for those older tortures.

 If you’re writing a story set anywhere in the last… I’d say roughly four decades (possibly a bit longer in some countries) then a Taser or stun gun is mostly likely. Older then that, or in particular places, a field telephone magneto could also be possible. And if you’re talking about say early 1900s, World War 2 or the wars in African and Asian countries to secure independence from colonialists: field telephone magnetos.

 This isn’t so much to do with the death rate as it is to do with what’s readily available. Even if a magneto was ‘safer’ you don’t really find them lying around anymore. Whereas a lot of places sell Tasers and stun guns, many police forces issue them as standard equipment.

 A lot of the deaths and serious injuries from Tasers and stun guns come from falling injuries. Basically; the victim is shocked while standing, they fall and because they can’t move to protect themselves they hit their head. Which can cause brain damage and death in worst case scenarios.

 I appreciate what you mean as a writer asking ‘what’s the safest way to do this to my character’ but you do have to accept that torture of any kind is not safe. All of these practices come with a chance of death. That doesn’t mean you have to kill off the character.

 Personally I think that as long as the character surviving doesn’t imply a torture is ‘harmless’ (or much less harmful then it is) then there’s nothing wrong with deciding a character got lucky.

 And while there have been a lot or deaths, far more then people tend to think, many many people have survived electrical torture. There’s nothing wrong with deciding your character is one of them.

 If you’re set on using something with electrodes in your story then uh… think about why the characters have a magneto? I mean even the portable ones are pretty heavy. And they’re huge by today’s standards. And they’re not really useful anymore. Unless you have also experienced the joys of staying somewhere where blowing up the local powerstation is practically a national sport. (Visiting my grandparents was always fun and, as my yaiyai would say, if the power is off go play outside.)

 Even then there isn’t really research I can point to that says shocking particular areas is ‘safer’. Shocks above the heart, whether they’re from a Taser, magneto or anything else, can cause heart attacks. But plenty of people get hit with a Taser in the chest and do not have a heart attack. Conversely there are cases where people have been shocked in the back, in the legs, in the side and ended up dead.

 There isn’t proper research on this: because the experiment would involve killing people.

 My impression from what I’ve read about Taser fatalities is that it is repeated shocks, rather then the specific area, that are more likely to cause death.

 In torture scenarios, most torturers avoid the face and head because it’s more likely to leave obvious marks. Torturers commonly target the genitals, hands and torso, including the chest.

 I’m going to leave you with a couple of links that I suggest you read.

 The first is the masterpost on the common psychological effects of torture. Next is the post on common misconceptions (to be clear there’s nothing in this ask that strikes me as ‘bad’ but it’s better to be aware of the common pitfalls especially if you’ve not written this before.)

 The third is Alleg’s The Question which is an account of his torture by French forces during the Franco-Algerian war. It contains a lot of descriptions of electrical torture using a magneto. It’s an old book and available in a lot of languages fairly cheaply. (If you absolutely can’t access it message me and I’ll copy over some relevant passages I typed up, but I think you’d get a lot from the book.)

 Finally you might want to take a look at Reuter’s piece on Tasers, mostly because it’s relevant, free and shorter then Rejali.

 I hope that helps. :)

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[scripttorture]

I know that tasers are very dangerous because they mess with the body and can cause heart issues, but have you found any research for a localized application of electricity? Like say, a band around the wrist that sent shocks only to the hands to prevent the prisoner from being able to hold on to a weapon? Would repeated use likely still cause issues like nerve damage or possible broken bones?

With electrical torture the potential for damage depends on the device and it sounds like what you’re doing is trying to create a fictional device. Which isn’t a bad idea at all, but it does limit how much I can help you.

 Rejali’s Torture and Democracy discusses the invention, use, misuse and global spread of Tasers at length. Reuters has an indepth series of articles which you can access here.

 I have never come across a case where an electrical device that produced localised shocks was used to torture. This does not necessarily mean it has never happened, just that it’s not common practice.

 With the exception of Tasers and stun guns most of the electrical devices that have been used are… crude. A lot of them were things like attaching a crocodile clip to a hand cranked magneto or a car battery.

 The effect that Tasers and stun guns have on muscles is unusual. Most of the older electrical torture devices cause/d muscle spasms. Tasers essentially cause muscles to relax for a short time throughout the body.

 I am not sure if this muscle-relaxing effect could be achieved in a small area. From the perspective of the designers making the whole body of the victim relax was probably seen as a good feature. So I don’t know if there’s been any research on limiting the area it effects.

 There could be- transmission issues if you will; a shock big enough to have the desired effect on the hand might need to big be enough to effect other parts of the body.

 If you’re picturing something that ‘just’ causes pain then that would not necessarily make everyone drop a weapon, or stop what they were doing. I’m also unsure if electricity can be used in a way that never effects the muscles.

 Given what you’ve said you want the device to do I’m getting the impression you want it to effect the muscles. But the trouble with that is that the effects on muscle contraction cause the things you’re trying to prevent. Muscle spasms throughout the body are what ultimately causes the broken bones and heart attacks in older devices. Muscle relaxation throughout the body cause the problems you see with Taser use (falling injuries, heart attacks etc).

 Honestly Anon? I’m not sure this could work the way you’re picturing but I don’t see anything wrong with you inventing a fictional device like this for your story. If that’s what you want to do I’d suggest the following:

Try to make it clear the device is fictional and not possible in reality

Make it clear that the device is simple to make

Make it clear that the device is simple to use

Consider how the device might be misused

Consider whether the device is normalised, as Tasers are today

 I hope that helps. :)

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[scripttorture]

I have a situation in which torture is faked but has to appear real to others. What I need is how can the victim appear to look more hurt than they really are, both mentally and physically. The actual "torture" is not at all witnessed by eye so they can do whatever they actually want in there but it does have to sound real through the door.

Well that is possible but how convincing it is could vary a lot and it wouldn’t necessarily protect someone from torture.

 Before I go any further I think it’s important to say that stories where any traumatic event or atrocity are faked need to be handled carefully: far too many survivors are dismissed as ‘faking it’ or ‘lying’. Try not to add to that.

 And if you haven’t already take a quick look at this page which is there to help people who are getting started.

 Torturers are competitive and incredibly undisciplined. So the ‘fact’ that this character has already been tortured by someone else wouldn’t stop another torturer from abusing this character as well.

 Torturers often continue their abuse when there is no obvious ‘point’. They often target victims in front of other torturers as a way of showing off to each other.

 So if the idea behind this charade is to protect the ‘victim’ character I’d suggest coming up with something else as well. Because otherwise the most likely thing is that the faked torture is convincing but other torturers decide to have a go later anyway.

 I think that putting together a convincing (to the torturers) charade, should be possible especially if you put together a well thought through, fictional National Style.

 National Style is a term Rejali uses to describe the most common tortures practiced in a region. Because we do see broad patterns that break down more or less by country.

 If you put together a ‘National Style’ for your fictional world that is mostly based on ‘clean’ tortures then what you want should be relatively straight forward.

 Clean torture is another term I borrowed from Rejali and other people in the field can use different terms. It means the types of torture which don’t (usually) leave obvious external marks or scars.

 So for instance a punch in the face, which might leave a black eye or a split lip, probably wouldn’t be classed as a clean torture. But a slap to a fatty area of the body, which might redden but is unlikely to bruise or cut, is more likely to be ‘clean’.

 Most torture nowadays is clean. Rejali puts forward a very convincing argument that this is because of increased investigation and torture trials: essentially Rejali thinks it’s torturers trying to hide the evidence.

 In a fictional scenario like this one that can be played against the torturers. Because they would not expect to find any lasting marks or scars.

 The easiest torture to ‘fake’ in these circumstances would be using a Taser or stun gun. These rarely leave any form of mark even on victims who are tortured to death. It makes torture by Taser one of the hardest forms to prove.

 But it also means that if your false-torturer goes into a cell with a Taser, there’s a loud thump, like a body hitting the floor and screams- Well then that’s pretty much all the ‘evidence’ the other torturers would expect.

 Some victims do piss or shit themselves during electrical torture. But I think the lack of this could be ‘explained’ with a loud charade of the ‘guard’ forcing the ‘victim’ to clean it up.

 A clean form of falaka would also fit with this idea. Falaka is beating the soles of the feet and depending on the implement used it can be lethal, maiming, scarring or clean. Nowadays the clean form is generally done using soft, rounded implements like hosepipes.

 The outward signs of this would be a temporary redness and a slight swelling in the feet. The swelling could be mimicked by soaking the feet in water. I’m not sure how the redness could be ‘faked’ but it can vanish very quickly, sometimes within minutes.

 ‘Pepper’ is another one that would be very easy to act. This is putting irritants, such as chilli and pepper, into a mucous membrane, like the mouth, nose, eyes, genitals and anus. There’s actually a pretty good account of faking this in Hafner’s I was Never Here and This Never Happened, she describes pretending to be abused in this way in order to avoid the real thing in her school.

 Some common clean tortures that I don’t think could be ‘faked’ are sleep deprivation and starvation. Essentially because studies that talk about the way people look after they haven’t eaten for a long period or haven’t had enough sleep show that we can tell.

 We can’t necessarily consciously say ‘oh yes that person didn’t get enough sleep’, but there is a visual difference. Which means that people looking at this fake-victim would be able to tell something was ‘off’ compared to real victims, even if they couldn’t identify exactly what was different.

 I also don’t think that stress positions would be easy to fake. Because while the swelling they cause goes down quickly and the ulcers heal over this takes hours or days. What makes stress positions isn’t a total lack of visible signs but the fact that these signs can be symptoms of other things, such as disease or malnutrition.

 This is probably a good time to state that while I think what I’ve described could fool a guard or a torturer I do not think it could fool a doctor, trauma specialist or a lawyer who’d dealt with torture cases before.

 Torturers are notoriously terrible at conducting investigations or paying attention to evidence. So I don’t think that it would be particularly difficult to fool them. Dangerous, yes, but not difficult.

 From the point of view of the ‘victim’ they’d need to act as if they were exhausted and in a lot of pain, with the exhaustion perhaps as the key point. Falaka makes walking difficult and painful. Electrical torture can cause lasting muscular pain and temporary difficulty with coordination and fine motor control as a result.

 As for psychological symptoms, it’s hard to estimate what torturers see and what they recognise.

 Victims describe anxiety, depression and hypervigilance around torturers and guards. But they also describe defiance, resistance (non-violent and violent) and even baiting behaviour.

 Victims describe a range of behaviours and responses. Torturers on the other hand describe their victims as if everyone responds in a consistent and controlled way.

 The evidence overwhelmingly shows that the torturers are wrong but it is difficult to say whether they are deliberately misrepresenting what happened or if this behaviour is a result of memory problems or if they’re just plain delusional.

 What I’m driving at here is that because we don’t know enough about torturers it’s difficult to say how accurate and convincing this ‘victim’ character’s acting would need to be.

 Especially since there’s considerable variety in how people respond to and express pain.

 In general acting incredibly tired and as if it is difficult to do everyday activities would go a long way. Acting scared would pander to what torturers seem to want and expect but would not represent all victims.

 Catatonia, hallucinations, psychosis and movie-style-amnesia are all (barring very unusual circumstances or solitary confinement particularly) incredibly unlikely.

 Wrapping up, I’d suggest thinking carefully about how you present this plot line and any real torture survivors in the story. Because a lot of torture apologia today works by saying that some victims don’t count. That they’re liars or that the abuse they suffered is somehow not ‘bad enough’ to count.

 I don’t think the scenario that you’ve presented is apologia but I do think you should be aware of how and when it brushes up against similar ideas. You might find this post on clean torture useful, and I think this post on the definition of torture could also be beneficial.

 I hope that helps. :)

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[scripttorture]

I have a MC in modern France jail cell. I wanted to have her go through an acute glaucoma attack that causes severe eye pain, vomiting. MC will be unable to see much and speaking/sitting up will be difficult. Would neglecting the prisoner’s severe pain be enough realistically or would tortures probably want to do something extra if they acknowledge the pain at all? Unsure what to use that won’t cause passing out (ex: forced exercise) so MC can overhear something for plot reasons. Thanks!

-

Alright so, beyond a quick look at wikipedia I have no idea what acute galucoma is. The medical side; how this condition progresses and what it looks like, I’m going to have to leave to you.

I’ve read about a couple of cases from France recently, but not enough to build up a consistent pattern (ie confirm a National Style). So keep in mind that when I’m describing things that seem to be a pattern in France my information is about ten years old. This probably won’t effect your story and it’s only fair to say that part of the reason the information is 10 years old is that France was visited by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture in 2006. Which may have resulted in increased reporting afterwards.

The prevailing picture was that racism was a huge factor; with ethnic minorities and asylum seekers being targetted more often. The number of cases of torture targetting pregnant black women are particularly worrying.

Ten years ago there was a culture of impunity among French police officers and police would commonly cover up each other’s crimes. I haven’t found any follow up studies confirming that this is still the case but I haven’t seen anything describing sweeping structural changes either. If anything more recent changes in the law are likely to increase incidents of torture by providing more opportunities for it.

This does not mean an increase in torture was the intended effect. However I think it’s likely that the lengths of time suspects can be held, vagueness in the definition of some charges, lack of personnel/support in asylum cases, forced eviction and the police culture would combine in a way that puts more people at risk of torture.

The most common kinds of attacks I’ve read about are beatings, excessive use of restraint and tear gas.

I haven’t read a lot of recent reports involving victims with disabilities or medical conditions. But those that I have found all involved delays accessing medical treatment and neglect which put disabled victims at risk.

I think whether neglect is ‘enough’ depends on what kind of scenario you’re picturing exactly.

If the character has recently been arrested and is brought in then she’s going to be passed between several different groups of police officers. Which means that she could have been treated abusively during arrest and then be more or less ignored by the officers responsible for her in jail. Or conversely she could be arrested in a way that’s reasonable and proportionate to her actions then mistreated in custody.

If she’s actually been sentenced on the other hand then the same group of people are going to be consistently responsible for her care.

Essentially if she’s consistently in the hands of torturers I think it’s unlikely that they would show restraint. In that scenario it’s highly likely that she’d be subjected to other forms of abuse.

But if she’s being passed from torturers to non-torturers (possibly torture apologists), then it’s less likely she’d be actively abused. In that scenario her suffering is more likely to come from these officers trying to cover up the abuses their comrades have committed. Which would essentially amount to ignoring her medical condition and denying access to a doctor or medication.

I think the most helpful thing for me to do now is suggest a few torture techniques that might fit, in case that’s the kind of scenario you’d like to write. :)

Based on more recent French cases I think the most common tortures seem to be beatings. Going back a little further the use of Tasers and stun guns has been quite widespread in France. Waterboarding has also been very common in France and French colonies for a long time.

I’d agree with your assessment that forced exercise doesn’t fit your story. However it’s not particularly common in the French police. I’ve only ever read about it occurring in military environments in France.

I’d suggest avoiding waterboarding for a combination of reasons. It can make victims pass out very easily. It’s- got quite a high chance of killing or causing brain damage. And if it made your character pass out I think it would be more likely the police would notice her becoming conscious again.

Now Tasers and stun guns can make people fall unconscious. But the lack of choking, spluttering, coughing and vomiting means that I think it would be much easier for your character to fake unconsciousness.

And that could fit with your idea of having the character overhear something.

Electrical torture is extremely dangerous. When Tasers are used correctly there are no obvious external marks but that doesn’t mean they can’t cause death in a variety of ways.

Heart attacks are common. So are lethal falling injuries (ie the victim loses control of their muscles, falls and hits their head). Seizures are also pretty common and can be lethal.

It may also be useful to know that people can pass out due to pain and that hearing is often the first sense they are conscious of regaining.

Rounding this off- The torture and neglect of people with disabilities or health conditions is common and a lot of victims report being targetted specifically for being disabled. A lot of people in these circumstances die.

Every torture is potentially lethal and many are more likely to kill disabled people in particular.

Yes I think that it’s realistic a character like this would be tortured as well as neglected if she’s in the hands of torturers.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best thing for your story. If you want to focus on neglect and torture is an unnecessary complication to the story; then you can decide that she isn’t tortured.

I think that deciding this happens because established torturers are suddenly ‘merciful’ would be- a bad choice, but there are a lot of other options open to you. These can include the guards/police just not believing her when she says she is in sick and in pain.

Which would make them assholes who are discriminating against a disabled woman, but not necessarily torturers. That makes the character’s survival, and her being able to overhear things more likely.

Similarly if you are sure that torture will add something to the story which neglect alone doesn’t you can decide your character survives against the odds. This does happen. People do get very lucky.

I’d just suggest you make it clear that she was very lucky.

Should you wish to use electrical torture in your story Reuters produced a series of reports on tasers recently which you may find useful.

I hope that helps. :)

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[scripttorture]

Hi. I'm working on a story set in the mid 1950s, taking place in Hong Kong, and this is a bit complicated. I am looking for some help on a torture that will not work, and a method of torture that was used in WW2 to various effects. The situation is that my protagonist is a freelance investigator and he is captured by a rich Western idiot who honestly believes in "civilised" torture, which is the bit that I know cannot and will not work 1/HK

2/HK The person holding him prisoner decides to use some sort of clean, civilised, and scientific (all the things that do not work and do not exist) as a form of torture. Basically the type of guy who has watched one too many movies. He has a couple of flunkies to help him, who think he is an idiot too, but he pays well. What is going to happen is that after a few sessions of the unworkable my Protag basically laughs in the antagonists face and it ends up with him just losing his temper and3/HK and just starting beating on the protagonist with a lump of wood. The reason the protagonist not only finds the previous "civilised" torture to be ludicrous is that they were previously a POW of the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in the war. So, having set the scene I am asking if you can please give me some info on what my protagonist may have suffered during those years from Singapore to the time of liberation. And4/HK And also, and I acknowledge you might not be able to help here, maybe some ideas for what the antagonist might use as a form of civilised and scientific torture. The sort of thing that is ineffective and which is something that someone raised on the idea of being above such inelegant matters as just trying to beat information out of someone with a lump of wood, until they lose their temper. The antagonist is in their mid 20s and Upper Class English, my protag is in his mid 40s. Thank you.

Ithink I can help you out here. :)

Sofirst off I think you should look Ronald Searle’s book of wardrawings Tothe Kwai and Back.Searle was captured in Singapore shortly after he’d joined theBritish army and he drew his experience, both of the fall ofSingapore and his time as a Japanese POW. This includes depictions oftorture, mutilation, death and starvation.

Manyof the drawings are available online. Sometimes they’re accompaniedby Searle’s summation of the picture and a date. Sometimes not.

Obviouslythey only record one man’s experience, but as a quick visual primerto the experience of Japanese POWs they work very well.

Oneof the things Searle records is that he was moved about quite a bit.Between both prisons and forced labour projects. Searle ended up inChangi at first, but I’m unsure how many non-Western prisoners wereheld there. He also records that an estimated 20,000 Chinese andMalay civilians were killed when the Japanese invaded Singapore. Someof them were shot, others were beheaded and beatings even outside ofimprisonment seem to have been common.

Idon’t know a lot about the cultural factors behind the racistviolence Japan engaged in at this time. But I do know that ethnicChinese people often seem to have borne the brunt of it. It’spossible that particular targetted abuses were used againstparticular groups of people. From the sources I have at the moment Ihaven’t seen anything as a repeated pattern, at least not alongcultural, linguist, religious, racialor ethnic lines.

Thatsaid I know I could have more detailed sources dealing with thatperiod of history. I could be missing something.

Asit is I’m going to suggest things based on a combination of whathappened to people arrested in Singapore at the time and whathappened to captured troops in Singapore.

Starvationwas widespread. Unsanitary and overcrowded prison conditions werecommon. As a result of this combination disease was rife. Infections,parasites, dysentery, diarrhoeal diseases and diseases ofmalnutrition were particularly common.

Unethicalmedical experimentation occurred in Japanese occupied areas but I’venever seen any mention of it in Singapore.

Rejalidescribes the following as reported in Singapore during World War 2.Burning tortures with cigarettes and heated irons, forced kneeling onsharp objects, pumping with water, beatings, suspension, floggingwith knotted ropes or bamboo and electrical torture using a magneto.All of those were common throughout Japanese occupied territory.Additionally there was the practice of putting needles underfingernails, seated stress positions and ‘twisting of limbs’which I’m guessing was similar to the British practice of ‘dorsalflexing’.

There’salso a description of putting ‘sharp edged wood between fingers’but the description isn’t detailed enough for me to feel confidentI know how this was done.

Someof those probably require a little more explanation.

Asfar as I can tell pumping, kneeling on sharp objects, burningtortures and suspension all had a long history in Japan.

I’mnot confident that suspension was analogous to the Italian practicebut I could do with more native Japanese descriptions of the practiceto confirm that. The impression I get is that in Japan victims werebound with their hands in front of them, hoisted up and left there.In Italy victims were bound with their hands behind their backs,hoisted and dropped which dislocated the shoulders and causes furtherdamage as they were hoisted again.

Themethod I think the Japanese were using would also have dislocated theshoulders but this would have happened more slowly.

Kneelingon sharp objects often occurred with weights placed on the top of thevictim’s legs (the upper line if you picture their legs as a <shape). Most of the references I have refer to sharp stones but I seeno reason why things like glass couldn’t have been used.

Pumpingis forcing a victim to swallow large amounts of liquid. To the pointof causing visible and very painful swelling in the abdomen. Victimswere sometimes beaten around the gut afterwards or had their legsbent in front of their chests and pressure applied. This could cause-basically liquid to come out of just about every orifice. This is amessy, smelly, painful practice that could be done without leavingobvious outward marks or scars.

Searledoesn’t report pumping. Which doesn’t mean it didn’t occuraround him.

Hedescribes (in Singapore) beatings, starvation, summary executions,forced marches, forced labour, forced standing, exposure to theelements and unsanitary conditions. He notes that the jail he was in,Changi, was not run by the Kempei-tai who controlled Outram Road.Searle’s impression was that few people survived Outram Road.

Ihaven’t got anything definite on Outram Road.

Takingthe general practices Rejali and Searle reports I think it’s safeto say that your torturer character probably wouldn’t considerburning, pumping, beatings or flogging, ‘clean, civilised andscientific’.

Butthere’s a few things the Japanese used that your character wouldprobably consider to be these things andoverlap with British torture practices at the time.

Forcedexercise and stress positions have been practiced by the British fora long time. I’vegot a description of some of the more modern variants here.

Electricaltorture isn’tgenerally common British practice, but a character in this timeperiod, with this background may well consider it more ‘advanced’and want to experiment with it. Which could result in him doingexactly the same thing as the Japanese.

Magnetoswere still relatively common in the 50s. They’re… big metalthings with cranks on the side that were used to generate power forfield telephones and other equipment. As a result they were common inpolice stations and any army units during this period.

Magnetotorture was common in France (and used by the French). It was alsopretty common in America. The result is that a British villain whodidn’t know much about Asian history (recent or otherwise) mightthink of magneto’s as a ‘European’ and ‘advanced’ form ofabuse.

Theexact positions the British tend to use for forced standing aredifferent to the Japanese, but the entire thing is similar enoughthat the victim could easily see his attacker’s posturing as acomplete joke.

Thestress positions and forced exercise in particular have a longhistory in the British army. Which is relevant to your characterbecause many members of the ruling classes in Britain do some armytraining which would expose them to these practices. They were often(and unfortunately still are) used against new recruits.

It’sunlikely the character would realise just how old these practices arein the British army. My experience is that most Brits now aresurprised by how old these practices are. History lessons that are….let’s say concerned with a narrative of progression- tend toemphasise the bloodier punishments of the past and gloss over whenexactly they were phased out.

OverallI think you've got the makings of a good scene here. And potential touse the shared points in Japanese and British modernhistorical torture to further support the scene.

Ihope this helps. :)

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