# Anybody Ever Really Use This Torture? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 29, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500 "2002-12-29T13:42:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/21 "2002-12-31T01:46:42Z")
My urologist shoved a camera up there, I promise I would have told him anything he wanted to know…No hammer needed ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/22 "2002-12-31T01:57:26Z")
> [@](#): > > how does one induce an erection in a torture chamber? sleep? ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/23 "2002-12-31T03:53:44Z")
> [@](#): > > I know the Japanese were also inventors of a torture where they forced bamboo shoots down your throat and then some water. The bamboo shoots would grow and burst through your stomach. I’m assuming this is a joke, seeing how 1)that would take too long and 2) if you can’t grow other seeds in your stomach, there is no reason why bamboo should work. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/24 "2002-12-31T05:14:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Muffin \* > \*\*Alarm bells go off. \*\* I take it we had the same history teacher? ---
**Author:** ![Hrdygrdymn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/77aa72/32.png) [@Hrdygrdymn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hrdygrdymn)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/25 "2002-12-31T05:27:37Z")
The glass rod I can handle… but Henry Miller! Noooooooooooo! ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/26 "2002-12-31T05:32:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dooku \* > \*\*I had actually typed “torture penis urethra hammer” into Google on my work machine and was ready to hit “search” before I came to my senses. 🙂 \*\* Surprisingly, a google search on that turns up [nothing](http://www.google.com/search?q=%22torture+penis+urethra+hammer%22&sourceid=opera&num=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8). Not even porn, amazing. ---
**Author:** ![PetW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@PetW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PetW)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/27 "2002-12-31T05:46:48Z")
That’s because you put it in quotes. Dooku just put it in quotes so you could see what words he was searching for… I doubt he would have put the words in there as a phrase. ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/28 "2002-12-31T05:58:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Splanky \* > \*\*Yeah, I’ve used it before. \*\* C’mon, kid - you were just getting some credibility here! Stick to the high road. ---
**Author:** ![jjrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c77e96/32.png) [@jjrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjrt)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/29 "2002-12-31T06:41:12Z")
I knew a man who was in WWII and the Japanese had taken him prisoner and pulled all his teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Major\_Feelgud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3be4f8/32.png) [@Major\_Feelgud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Major_Feelgud)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/30 "2002-12-31T06:49:42Z")
Why? Did he have cavities? ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/31 "2002-12-31T07:08:46Z")
I wonder if you could make a good living as a glass penis rod salesman. It would be worth it just to have the title on your business cards! ---
**Author:** ![censored](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/35a633/32.png) [@censored](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/censored)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/32 "2002-12-31T07:28:30Z")
the iraqis use a torture where they hook up electrodes to one’s penis…but that’s just a variation on the electricity-to-body-part theme 😉 ---
**Author:** ![superfreakicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@superfreakicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/superfreakicus)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/33 "2002-12-31T08:03:51Z")
the version I heard is that they stick a watermelon seed in your penis, and… well, actually that was it. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/34 "2002-12-31T11:57:28Z")
BTW, the Japanese “Death by a thousand cuts” (24 actually, ending with decapitation) wasn’t used as a torture method, but as a form of execution during the medieval period. ---
**Author:** ![zigaretten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/91b2a8/32.png) [@zigaretten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zigaretten)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/35 "2002-12-31T13:25:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by monica \* > I’m assuming this is a joke, seeing how 1)that would take too long and 2) if you can’t grow other seeds in your stomach, there is no reason why bamboo should work. Well…I think he may have the details wrong, but… “Another common torture was the “rice torture,” in which the victim would be starved for several days and then have a large amount of uncooked rice forced down his throat. A hose would then be put in the victims mouth and he would swallow a large amount of water, which caused the rice to expand. This would cause excruciating pain as the stomach stretched to its limit, and the pain would often continue for days as the rice was digested. The resulting stress on the digestive tract would also cause internal and rectal bleeding.” _Hidden Horrors, Japanese War Crimes in World War II_ by Yuki Tanaka ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/36 "2002-12-31T16:10:14Z")
Aside from whether this is true or not, glass rods of that size are easy to come by. Didn’t anyone ever use a pippette in science class? Or perhaps they just made do with plain old thermometers; those would be about the right size. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/37 "2002-12-31T16:36:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by X~Slayer(ALE) \* > \*\*That sounds like a lot of BS to me. If you think about it, youre a wartime honorable japanese soldier and about to get medievil on your victim, japanese style… first get a small glass tube (hollow preferable) and a hammer and deftly insert tube (not the hammer)into victim’s urethra… then strike with hammer… > > _sheeesh_ In wartime, you gotta use what you can easily get. I bet I cant even find a glass tube that size even now. How would the japanese supply officer label that? glass penis rods. For torture use only…? > \*\* ACtually it’s fairly well documented that at the beginning of WWII the Japanese had their own Internment camps in Mongolia where the performed “experements” like seeing how long someone could withstand the elements by stripping them bare standing them in water outside ion the snow… or completely freezing a limb (like an arm) and then snashing the frozen appendage. This was well documented in Men Behind the Sun and The Rape of Nanking. ---
**Author:** ![Tupug\_Anachi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tupug\_Anachi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tupug_Anachi)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/38 "2002-12-31T16:53:20Z")
God, I’m sure glad I’m not going to Nathan’s for lunch. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/39 "2002-12-31T18:18:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zigaretten \* > \*\*Well…I think he may have the details wrong, but… > > “Another common torture was the “rice torture,” in which the victim would be starved for several days and then have a large amount of uncooked rice forced down his throat. A hose would then be put in the victims mouth and he would swallow a large amount of water, which caused the rice to expand. This would cause excruciating pain as the stomach stretched to its limit, and the pain would often continue for days as the rice was digested. The resulting stress on the digestive tract would also cause internal and rectal bleeding.” \*\* Well, having made the mistake when eating rice-milk (you know, rice, milk, sugar and cinnamon… why are you all looking at me like that?) of not fully cooking the rice, I have a small inkling of what that would feel like… All this talk of bashing penis’ with hammers is reminding me of the word Plebura (sp) as defined in “The Meaning of Liff” by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd (I think) Plebura (n) - A South American game, where a ball is whacked against a brick wall with a stout wooden bat, until the prisoner confesses. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500/40 "2002-12-31T18:30:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ravage2 \* > \*\*I know the Japanese were also inventors of a torture where they forced bamboo shoots down your throat and then some water. The bamboo shoots would grow and burst through your stomach. \*\* The way I heard that one was the Japanese soldiers would tie you down on top of growing shoots and let them grow up until they began to pierce the skin, bamboo growing so quickly. Still would take too long for the battlefield, as if there aren’t any easier ways :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-really-use-this-torture/145500.md?page=3)