By the Court:  “It would be impossible to hang you by your thumbs.”

Prisoner:  “My great toes scarcely touched the ground.  Under such circumstances I was told to say the same thing at the Public Procurator’s Office, and as I feared that I should be tortured there, too, I said ‘Yes’ to all questions.”

Some variety was introduced into the treatment of Cho Tok-chan, a Presbyterian pastor, at Chong-ju.

“The police asked me how many men took part in the attempt at Sun-chon, saying that as I was a pastor I must know all about it.  They hung, beat and struck me, saying that I had taken part in the plot and was a member of the New People’s Society.  At last I fainted, and afterwards was unable to eat for a number of days.

“A policeman in uniform, with one stripe, twisted my fingers with a wire, so that they were badly swollen for a long time after.  Then a man with two white stripes tortured me, declaring that I had taken part in the Sun-chon affair.  I said that I was too busy with Christmas preparations to go anywhere, on which the policeman severely twisted my fingers with an iron rod.”

Again came one of the dramatic pauses, while the prisoner pointed out a Japanese official sitting behind the judges, Tanaka by name.  “The man who interpreted at that time is sitting behind you,” he declared.  “He knows it very well.”

They extracted his confession.  But it was some time before he had been able to sign it; his fingers were hurt too severely.

It was necessary, after the police examination, for prisoners to repeat their stories or confirm them before the procurator.  This might originally have been intended as a protection for the prisoners.  In Korea police and procurators worked together.  However, steps were taken to prevent any retraction at that point.

“When I was taken to the Public Procurator’s Office,” continued the Presbyterian pastor, “I did not know the nature of the place, and being put in a separate room, I feared that it might be an even more dreadful place than the police headquarters.  Generally, when examined at the police headquarters, my hands were free, but here I was brought up for cross-examination with my hands and arms pinioned very firmly, so I thought it must be a harder place.  Moreover, an official pulled me very hard by the cords which bound my hands, which gave me excruciating pain, seeing how they had already been treated by the police.”

The next prisoner, Yi Mong-yong, a Presbyterian money lender, also pointed out the proud Tanaka.  He had been describing how the police kicked and struck him to make him say what they wanted.  “One of them is behind you now,” said he to the judges, pointing to Tanaka.

Some of the prisoners broke down while giving their evidence.  Unimas described how he had been hung, beaten, stripped and tortured by the police, and again tortured in the office of the Public Procurator.  “Having got so far,” the reports continue, “the prisoner began to weep and make a loud outcry, saying that he had a mother who was eighty years old at home.  With this pitiful scene, the hearing ended for the day.”