http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/politics/11TAGU.html?pagewanted=print&position=As the son of a survivor of a Japanese prison camp whose military service went all but unrecognized for decades, Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba learned early lessons about right and wrong.
The unflinching report on abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq that General Taguba completed in March, people who know him say, was shaped by that strong moral compass and by his vision of the Army as a noble calling.
"If you want the truth, he's going to tell you the truth," said one Army general who has served under General Taguba. "He's not bullied; he's a stand-up guy."
General Taguba went out of his way in 2001 to call attention to what he described as the injustice the Army had accorded his father after a two-decade career that began in the Battle of Bataan in 1942, where he fought alongside American forces. He was captured by the Japanese, whose cruelties toward many of their prisoners has been well documented.
Staff Sgt. Tomas Taguba left the Army "without so much as a retirement ceremony to thank him for those 20 years of hard work and faithful service," General Taguba recalled with evident bitterness in a Veterans Day speech.