‘By Any Means Necessary’: Interviews and Narrative Analysis with Torturers—A Conversation with Dr. John Tsukayama

Abstract

Bielby and Murer interview John Tsukayama whose doctoral dissertation—‘By Any Means Necessary: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis Study of Post 9/11 American Abusive Violence in Iraq’—involved interviewing fourteen former U.S. military and intelligence personnel who witnessed, objected to, or participated in the abuse and torture of detainees during the Iraq War (2003–2012). With Bielby and Murer, Tsukayama reflects on his experiences, including his motivations for the project, his reasons for conducting the interviews as he did, the reflections of his interviewees with regard to their at times violent pasts, and the ethics and emotional toll of conducting work such as this. Tsukayama is Special Instructor in the Political Science Department at the Brigham Young University Hawaii.