Bamboo Torture
Bamboo torture is a form of torture and execution where a bamboo shoot grows through the body of a victim. It was reportedly used in East and South Asian countries such as China, India, and especially Japan
Bamboo Allegedly used by the Japanese on American prisoners of war, it saw the victim tied down to a frame over a patch of newly sprouting bamboo plants.
One of the fastest-growing plants in the world, capable of up to three feet of growth in 24 hours, the sharp-tipped plants would slowly pierce the skin of the victim — and then continue to grow. The end result was death by gradual, continuous, multiple impalements, the equivalent of being dropped on a bed of sharpened stakes in terrible slow motion.
Sharp Bamboo
Wikimedia Commons
Despite the practice having roots in the former areas of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Siam (now Thailand) in the 19th century, there are no proven instances of it having been used during WWII.
It’s certainly possible, however, and it has been shown that the technique, among the worst execution methods ever, works: A 2008 episode of MythBusters found that bamboo was capable of penetrating a human-sized lump of ballistic gelatin over the course of three days.
Recorded usage
A "Madras civilian", in his travel description from 1820s India, referred to this use of bamboo as a well-known punishment in Ceylon. The use of live trees impaling people as they grow was recorded in the 19th century, when the Siamese used nipah palm sprouts in the same way as bamboo torture on the Malays during the 1821 Siamese invasion of Kedah, among other punishments.
After World War II, stories circulated of Japanese soldiers inflicting "bamboo torture" upon Allied prisoners of war, securely tying the victim in place above a young bamboo shoot. Over several days, the sharp, fast-growing shoot would first puncture, then completely penetrate the victim's body, eventually emerging through the other side.
In her Hakka Soul memoir, Chinese poet and author Woon-Ping Chin mentions the "bamboo torture" as one of the tortures that locals believed the Japanese performed on prisoners.
program MythBusters investigated bamboo torture in a 2008 episode and found that a bamboo shoot can penetrate through several inches of ballistic gelatin in three days. For research purposes, ballistic gelatin is considered comparable to human flesh, and the experiment thus supported the viability of this form of torture, though not its historical accuracy
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