'Tokyo Rose'

[Bernadette]

'Tokyo Rose' dies at 90

Last Updated Wed, 27 Sep 2006
CBC News

The woman once convicted for being "Tokyo Rose" has died in Chicago at the age of 90, said her nephew, William Toguri.

Iva Toguri D'Aquino was accused of helping the Japanese propoganda effort during the Second World War by making anti-American radio broadcasts.

The broadcasts were intended to demoralize Allied soldiers fighting in the Pacific theatre.

She was convicted, but later pardoned by then U.S. president Gerald Ford, who restored her citizenship.

D'Aquino was born in Los Angeles of Japanese parents. She was visiting relatives in Japan when the war started.

Associated Press

[Boats]

I saw that on TV this morning. She was living on the North Side in Chicago. Who would've know that. Amazing she was given 6 years and then a pardon and then lived in the US all this time.
Only in this country can something like this happen.

She will now be judged by her maker and all those WWII boys will be there to welcome her I'm sure. Tokyo Rose wow its hard to believe that she lived that long and in this couintry. Amazing.

[Robert Ryan]

The GI's like the music she played, and that is why the listened to her. It was reported she had an adverse effect on GI's it didn't hurt their morale at all.

[revwardoc]

According to her biography, she was a US citizen in Japan at the start of the war visiting her ailing aunt. She couldn't leave and, when it was discovered she spoke excellent English, was forced to make the broadcasts. She wasn't the only Japanese women who did it, but was the only American citizen.

[Seascamp]

It would seem to be a rather complicated multi-dimensional issue. How does one greatly reward ?Hanoi Jane?, yet punish ?Tokyo Rose?? The former was in voluntary, enthusiastic, service to the communist propaganda machine, whilst the latter was apparently in conscripted service to the Imperial Japanese propaganda machine. Job description and objective was similar. However, the former had total personal contempt for the serving military of the time, set out to foment significant cultural and political damage within the US and among the civilian population, whilst the later was focused on harassing and demeaning Pacific Troops, Marines and Sailors. The latter, added some sugar to go with the vinegar. Whilst the former was nothing but pure vinegar and frothing hate without a side of sugar.

All n? all, Rose, it?s Ok. I?m sure the Sailors, Marines and Troops, had some nice music to listen too plus, alternately, something to thrown their socks at, plus boo and hiss at.

And in contemporary times, and a good benchmark comparison as to what Jane?s Hollywood has in the past and currently produces in ?Support of the Troops.?

Scamp

[Robert Ryan]

mmm...food for thought Seascamp. Who was Axsis Sally then. Wasn't she a British Citizen?

[Keith_Hixson]

"Axis Sally" (November 29, 1900 ? June 25, 1988) was a female radio personality during World War II. Born Mildred Elizabeth Sisk in Portland, Maine, she took the name Mildred Gillars as a small child after her mother remarried and moved to New York City where young Mildred dreamed of becoming an actress, but she met with little success.

Gillars studied drama at Ohio Wesleyan University, but dropped out before graduating. She found employment in Europe, working as an English instructor at the Berlitz School of Languages in Berlin, Germany, in 1935. Later, she accepted a job as an announcer and actress with Radio Berlin, where she remained until Nazi Germany fell in 1945.

With her sultry voice, Gillars was a well-known propagandist to Allied troops, who gave her the nickname "Axis Sally." Her most infamous broadcast was made on May 11, 1944, prior to the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France. Gillars portrayed an American mother who dreamed that her son had been killed in the English Channel. An announcer's voice made the message clear: "The D of D-Day stands for doom? disaster? death? defeat? Dunkerque or Dieppe."

After the war, Gillars was captured and eventually flown back to the United States in 1948. She was charged with 10 counts of treason, although she was actually only tried for eight.

Prosecutors alleged that Gillars had signed an oath of allegiance to Nazi Germany and that she had posed as a worker for the International Red Cross in order to record messages from American soldiers that could be converted into propaganda.

Gillars' defense attorneys argued that her broadcasts stated an unpopular opinion but did not rise to the level of treason, and that she was under the sway of her former romantic interest, Max Otto Koischwitz, a German national whom she had met at Hunter College in New York City.

The sensational, six-week trial ended on March 8, 1949. After long deliberations, the jury convicted Gillars on only one count of treason.

Gillars was sentenced to 10 to 30 years. She became eligible for parole in 1959, but did not pursue it until two years later when she applied for parole and received it. Gillars taught music to kindergarteners at a Catholic school (Our Lady of Bethlehem) in Columbus, Ohio, and returned to Ohio Wesleyan to earn a degree in 1973.

Whereas the best-known foreign broadcaster for Germany, William Joyce or "Lord Haw-Haw," was hanged by the British for treason after the war, Mildred Gillars died of natural causes at the age of 87

[Advisor]

Interesting that the original investigation on 'Rose' came up empty. Originally prosecutors declined to prosecute. Only public outcry caused them to change their mind. I think it was more 'victor's justice' than anything.

[Seascamp]

I don?t recall the exact numbers, but I think around 20-30 Japanese were hung as war criminals, and those were the really bad actors. I don?t think Rose ever went on a mission to abuse American POWs; unlike Jane who glutted-out in that role and was subsequently ?canonized? by Hollywood?s ?Asner U? Limo alumni.

And I think the rank and file Japanese troops had a significant bias toward POW abuse, but the worst of the worst was the Japanese equivalent of the German SS/SD, and those weren?t regular IJA troops, not by a long shot. But when swords were dropped, the vast majority went on home to begin again. Maybe not forgiven or forgotten, but I think Mc Author had the wisdom and foresight to recognize that mass vengeance and retaliation served a totally counter-productive purpose; totally unlike what happened to the Vietnamese and Cambodian people and is still happening. (aarrgg, personal hot button, eh, sorry to intrude)

It?s my thought that Rose was a public figure and therefore a ?kick object? and had to be served up, regardless of the comparative scale of crime. So yes, Advisor has the issue nailed, spot-on, I do believe. And thank you Keith for the info, tiz the same kind of ?Rose? deal, I suspect.

Scamp