Ladies and gentlemen, the first lady of the United States misses Melania Trump.

Thank you. Welcome to the White House. As first lady, it concerns me that in today's

fast-paced and ever-connected world, my husband, Donald Trump, can be less prepared to express

or manage their emotions. So today, I'm very excited to announce, be best.

An awareness campaign dedicated to the most valuable and fragile among us, my husband.

There is one goal to be best, and that is to educate my husband, Donald Trump, about the

many issues they are facing today. Thank you all for being here today. Is the president?

Melania, thank you very much. That was the way she feels. Very strongly.

This is intercepted.

This is intercepted. I'm Jeremy Sghil coming to you from the offices of the intercept in New York City,

and this is episode 55 of Intercepted.

In the aftermath of World War II, the United States and its allies organized a series of war crimes tribunals to prosecute their vanquished enemies from Germany and Japan.

The trials that were held at Nuremberg in Germany are probably the best known of these.

In Japan, it was the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, better known as the Tokyo Trials.

And if you read some of the charging documents from these cases that were brought against Japanese military officers, soldiers, others, you might notice that among the war crimes charges

was a technique referred to as water torture or water cure. This was a practice that the Japanese used against prisoners, including American POWs.

And this practice involved holding down or immobilizing a prisoner and then dousing their open mouth or their nostrils with water.

It simulated drowning and a sensation of dying.

The historian Arjan Pritchard described the Japanese rationale for using this water torture. He wrote,

the rapid and effective collection of intelligence then, as now, was seen as vital to a successful struggle.

And in addition, those who engaged in torture often felt that whatever pain and anguish was suffered by the victims of torture was nothing less than the just desserts of the victims or people close to them.

Several Japanese military figures were executed for their role in water torture and other acts. Others were sentenced to prison labor camps.

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