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In addition to those single nation military commissions conducted by the United States, water torture was a major issue in proceedings before the IMTFE. That tribunal was created by General MacArthur in his position as Supreme Commander Allied Powers, ("SCAP"),<ref>Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, The Avalon Project at Yale Law School, http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imtfech.htm</ref> an American Judge<ref>Justice John P. Higgins of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, and, as a replacement in July, 1946, MG Myron Cramer, former Judge Advocate of the Army. Richard Minear, ''Victor's Justice: the Tokyo War Crimes Trial'', Princeton University Press (1971). Interestingly, Cramer was a former Judge Advocate General of the United States Army who had participated extensively in the drafting and application of the procedural and evidentiary rules which governed both the Nuremburg Tribunal and the IMTFE. See, Wallach, supra at fn. 16.</ref> sat on it and voted for convictions,<ref>See *IMTFE Judgment at _________</ref> and the chief prosecutor was an American.<ref>Joseph Keenan. See, Joseph Keenan, ''Observations and Lessons from International Criminal Trials'', 17 U. KAN. CITY L. REV. 117, 123 (1949).</ref> Accordingly, if for no other reason,<ref>Some authors argue that international law decisions should have no precedential value in U.S. courts.</ref> its record should have some precedential weight, in history if not in law.
===The International Tribunal===
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The IMTFE was principally concerned with Japanese crimes against states including acts of aggression and crimes against peace<ref>See IMTFE Indictment Paragraphs 1-53.</ref> but it also considered charges of misconduct against military personnel and civilians including murder, rape and torture.<ref>The IMTFE Indictment charged the defendants, inter alia, with torture under conventional War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity by ordering, authorizing and permitting "...the Commanders-in-Chief of the several Japanese naval and military forces in each of the several theatres of war in which Japan was then engaged, and the officials of the Japanese War Ministry, and the persons in charge of each of the camps and labour units for prisoners of war and civilian internees in territories of or occupied by Japan and the military and civil police of Japan, and their respective subordinates frequently and habitually to commit ... breaches of the Laws and Customs of War," including "prisoners of war and civilian internees were murdered, beaten, tortured and otherwise ill-treated, and female prisoners were raped by members of the Japanese forces." Appendix D, Section One; "Excessive and illegal punishment of prisoners of war, contrary to Article 8 of the said Annex to the said Hague Convention and to Part III, Section V, Chapter 3 of the said Geneva Convention, and to the said assurances: 1. Prisoners of war were killed, beaten and tortured without trial or investigation of any kind, for alleged offences..." Appendix D, Section Four; and "Large numbers of the inhabitants of [occupied] territories were murdered, tortured, raped and otherwise ill-treated, arrested and interned without justification, sent to forced labour, and their property destroyed or confiscated, Appendix D, Section Twelve. See, IMTFE Judgment, Indictment, http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/PTO/IMTFE/index.html</ref>
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