Tokyo Rose?

[Jeff Higgins]

I have some sketchy memories of this lady in WWII, but I really don't know all that much about the story. A friend at work sent me the following:

Interesting-

Tokyo Rose During World War II -- the Japanese developed a way to demoralize the American forces. Psychological warfare experts developed a message they felt would work.

They gave the script to their famous broadcaster "Tokyo Rose" (actually about a dozen different English-speaking Japanese females) and every day she would broadcast this same message packaged in different ways, hoping it would have a negative impact on American GI's morale.

What was that demoralizing message? It had three main
points:

1. Your President is lying to you.

2. This war is illegal.

3. You cannot win the war.

Does this sound familiar?

Is it because Tokyo Hillary, Tokyo Harry, Tokyo John, Tokyo Teddy, Tokyo Nancy, etc. have picked up the same message and are broadcasting it on Tokyo CNN, Tokyo ABC, Tokyo CBS, Tokyo NBC, etc., to our troops?

The only difference is that they claim to support our troops before they demoralize them.

Come to think of it, Tokyo Rose told the troops she was on their side, too!

Seems to fit.

[island911]

So then Pat, Rodeo, on-ramp, cc, wideboty . .. they are all English-speaking Japanese females?

[Dan in Pasadena]

A retarded comparison.............oops, my bad. That is disrespectful to developmentally disabled people. Still a stupid analogy and serves no purpose whatsoever to advance discussion only serves to incite an argument.

[don911]

Below is from a web search. I also heard the story last year on npr. I think she passed away last year. She was actaully trying to help America....hmmm

Tokyo Rose is something of an urban legend -- a fictional person cobbled together from scraps of real history. There's no proof that such a woman existed, although one woman was convicted of treason as Tokyo Rose.
During World War II, American soldiers dubbed the female broadcasters on Japanese radio, "Tokyo Rose." It was a name invented by the soldiers -- U.S. government research never found evidence of a person named Tokyo Rose in radio programs anywhere in the Pacific. The voice of Tokyo Rose was said to have taunted Allied forces during the war, hurting morale.

Iva Ikuko Toguri is the woman who was tried as Tokyo Rose. She is a first-generation Japanese-American who happened to be visiting a sick relative in Japan in 1941. When war was declared between Japan and the U.S., Toguri was trapped in Japan and pressured by Japanese military police to renounce her American citizenship. She refused. Instead, she learned Japanese and took two jobs to support herself while she sought a way to return home.

One of her jobs was as a typist for Radio Tokyo. There she met American and Australian prisoners of war who were being forced to broadcast radio propaganda. Toguri scavenged black-market food, medicine, and supplies for these POWs. When Radio Tokyo wanted a female voice for their propaganda shows, the POWs selected Toguri. She was one of many female, English-speaking voices on Radio Tokyo, and she took the radio name of "Orphan Ann." Her POW friends wrote her scripts and tried to sneak in pro-American messages whenever possible.

After the war, several reporters went to Japan to find and interview the infamous Tokyo Rose, offering a large cash payment for an interview. A woman at Radio Tokyo pointed the reporters to Iva Toguri, and Toguri, thinking that she and her new husband, Felipe d'Aquino, could use the money, agreed to be interviewed. She even signed a contract stating that she was the infamous Tokyo Rose. A reporter gave the interview notes to U.S. Army Counter Intelligence, and in 1945, the U.S. arrested and imprisoned Toguri in Japan. She was released in 1946, but was arrested again in 1948, and taken to the U.S. to be tried for treason.

Her trial was considered the most expensive in American history at that time. The U.S. government stacked the deck against Toguri and her meager defense, and the judge later admitted he was prejudiced against her from the start. Toguri was found guilty of only one of the eight treason charges -- "That she did speak into a microphone concerning the loss of ships." She was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $10,000. Because she was a model prisoner, Toguri was released early in 1956, although she was served with a deportation order which took two years to fight.

In 1976, the TV news show 60 Minutes told the Tokyo Rose story from Toguri's point of view. This led to a full pardon for Toguri from President Gerald Ford in 1977.

Unfortunately, Toguri's husband was never able to join her in the U.S. They reluctantly divorced in 1980, and d'Aquino died in 1996. Iva Toguri currently lives in Chicago where she runs her family's import business.

[nostatic]

cue the similar analogy between the current administration and the 3rd Reich...

[2.7RACER]

Jeff Higgins,
Your attempt at comparing dissent to the disaster in Iraq brings little to thoughtful discussion.

[island911]

Originally posted by nostatic
cue the similar analogy between the current administration and the 3rd Reich...

My apologies, Dr. no. You too must be an English-speaking Japanese female.

I shouldn't have missed that.

[Dan in Pasadena]

I'm no fan of GWB or his administration, far from it. But I am not enough of a drama queen to compare it with the Third Reich, geesh!

[Jeff Higgins]

How many of you have friends and/or relatives in Iraq right now? Do you ever hear from them, and get a down-home, personal view of how they feel? I think if you did you would be able to see the similarities.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by Jeff Higgins
How many of you have friends and/or relatives in Iraq right now? Do you ever hear from them, and get a down-home, personal view of how they feel? I think if you did you would be able to see the similarities.

I have several friends in Iraq and Afganistan and the all say that what is being shown on the news media is 95% crap. As well have been to both countries from time to time and have to agree.

[Moneyguy1]

Don't forget

Lord Haw Haw

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Japanese chicks are hot.

[Jim Richards]

Blue, your focus on the important issues is commendable.

[kach22i]

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/pardons/pardon.history.html

Iva Toguri D'Aquino, an American citizen, was convicted of treason for broadcasting Japanese propaganda during World War II. President Ford pardoned her after it came to light she was being held in Japan as an "enemy alien" and was secretly working to subvert the broadcasts.

Freaky article............................

Presidents and the power to pardon
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/pardons/pardon.history.html
(CNN) -- The power of U.S. presidents to grant irrevocable reprieves and pardons has raised eyebrows throughout the country's history.

[fastpat]

Originally posted by Moneyguy1
Don't forget

Lord Haw Haw

What's interesting about this character is that the German National Socialists were making fun of the British peerage, like all good socialists do, in both the name and the way the character acted on the radio.

Of course, Britain was already well into socialism at the time, Churchill was a hardcore national socialist, as was Roosevelt so they didn't talk much about that aspect.

[Superman]

Cocktail party?

[Jim Richards]

yep, time for another round

[jyl]

Originally posted by Joeaksa
I have several friends in Iraq and Afganistan and the all say that what is being shown on the news media is 95% crap. As well have been to both countries from time to time and have to agree.

How much time do you spend alone, unguarded, and outside of Green Zone, airport, and other protected places on your current trips to Iraq?

[kach22i]

Originally posted by jyl
How much time do you spend alone, unguarded, and outside of Green Zone, airport, and other protected places on your current trips to Iraq?

We don't want to see him hanging from a bridge, stay in the Green Zone Joeaksa .

[DaveE]

Originally posted by Joeaksa
I have several friends in Iraq and Afganistan and the all say that what is being shown on the news media is 95% crap. As well have been to both countries from time to time and have to agree.

Yes, things are actually going very well over there...................