My Americana. Tokyo Rose.
I have a friend, Bob; he is in his nineties. During the war, Bob was servicing planes in the South Pacific. War was great tedium for him, he spent most of his time playing poker and listening to the radio. So I asked him what did they listen to. It was Tokyo Rose, the Japanese radio broadcast on the allied troops. Was that because they were not able to tune to US radio stations? No, they really liked it.
Why would American troops prefer enemy propaganda to their own radio? Bob explained:
The US army propaganda was all about the revenge and smashing the heads of the Nips. In contrast, the main subject of Japanese propaganda was making American troops homesick and demoralized. So it was endless popular music, comedy skits, etc. The central message was that the Americans should go back to their girlfriends. For understandable reasons, American war propaganda was exactly opposite, focussing on the war effort and avoiding everything reminding the GIs of home. Little wonder that they prefered Japanese propaganda to their own. On the other side of the globe, the Germans and Italians pursued the same approach with Axis Sallies.
http://www.historynet.com/axis-sally.htm/1
However, they proved incapable of restraining themselves from biting propaganda, whereas the Japanese largely kept their message simple: home, sweet home. The result was the colossal popularity of Tokyo Rose who is said to be the most heard-to music broadcaster in the history of short-wave radio. How did the Japanese succeed where the Nazi failed?
The story of Tokyo Rose (Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino) is quite interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iva_Toguri_D%27Aquino
http://www.dyarstraights.com/orphan_ann/NikkeiW7.pdf
She was a Japanese-American from the LA who was stuck in Japan when the war started.
...she was pressured by the Japanese government to renounce her US citizenship. She refused to do so. Toguri was subsequently declared an enemy alien and was refused a war ration card. To support herself, she found work as a typist at a Japanese news agency. In November 1943, Allied prisoners of war forced to broadcast propaganda selected her to host portions of the one-hour radio show. Her producer was an Australian Army officer, Major Charles Cousens, who had pre-war broadcast experience and had been captured at the fall of Singapore. Cousens had been tortured and coerced to work on radio broadcasts, as had his assistants, U.S. Army Captain Wallace Ince and Philippine Army Lieutenant Normando Ildefonso "Norman" Reyes. Toguri had previously risked her life smuggling food into the nearby POW camp where Cousens and Ince were held, gaining the inmates' trust. After she refused to broadcast anti-American propaganda, Toguri was assured by Major Cousens and Captain Ince that they would not write scripts having her say anything against the US. True to their word, no such propaganda was found in her broadcasts.
...The FBI case history cited under References states, "As far as its propaganda value, Army analysis suggested that the program had no negative effect on troop morale and that it might even have raised it a bit". The NYT in her obituary noted, "The broadcasts did nothing to dim American morale. The servicemen enjoyed the recordings of American popular music, and the United States Navy bestowed a satirical citation on Tokyo Rose at war’s end for her entertainment value." (Wiki)
Japanese radio propaganda was sabotaged from the inside. After the war Tokyo Rose was captured but released. However, when she returned to America she was tried for treason in 1949 and served six years in prison. The charges were fabricated by the prosecution.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6154827
In 1977, President Ford pardoned her (she is the only American ever pardoned for treason). She lived in Chicago, where she had a grocery store on Belmont Avenue. She died in 2006. She lived only a few miles away from Bob.
...Hello you fighting orphans in the Pacific. How’s tricks? This is “After her weekend, and oooh, back on the air, strictly under union hours.” Reception okay? Why, it better be, because this is All-Requests night. And I’ve got a pretty nice program for my favorite little family, the wandering boneheads of the Pacific Islands. The first request is made by none other than the boss. And guess what? He wants Bonnie Baker in “My Resistance is Low.” My, what taste you have, sir, she says... We close up another chapter of sweet propaganda in the form of music for you, for my dear little orphans wandering in the Pacific. There are plenty of non-union hours coming around the corner, so being see you tomorrow. But in the meanwhile, always remember to be good... http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5140/
Why would American troops prefer enemy propaganda to their own radio? Bob explained:
The US army propaganda was all about the revenge and smashing the heads of the Nips. In contrast, the main subject of Japanese propaganda was making American troops homesick and demoralized. So it was endless popular music, comedy skits, etc. The central message was that the Americans should go back to their girlfriends. For understandable reasons, American war propaganda was exactly opposite, focussing on the war effort and avoiding everything reminding the GIs of home. Little wonder that they prefered Japanese propaganda to their own. On the other side of the globe, the Germans and Italians pursued the same approach with Axis Sallies.
http://www.historynet.com/axis-sally.htm/1
However, they proved incapable of restraining themselves from biting propaganda, whereas the Japanese largely kept their message simple: home, sweet home. The result was the colossal popularity of Tokyo Rose who is said to be the most heard-to music broadcaster in the history of short-wave radio. How did the Japanese succeed where the Nazi failed?
The story of Tokyo Rose (Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino) is quite interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iva_Toguri_D%27Aquino
http://www.dyarstraights.com/orphan_ann/NikkeiW7.pdf
She was a Japanese-American from the LA who was stuck in Japan when the war started.
...she was pressured by the Japanese government to renounce her US citizenship. She refused to do so. Toguri was subsequently declared an enemy alien and was refused a war ration card. To support herself, she found work as a typist at a Japanese news agency. In November 1943, Allied prisoners of war forced to broadcast propaganda selected her to host portions of the one-hour radio show. Her producer was an Australian Army officer, Major Charles Cousens, who had pre-war broadcast experience and had been captured at the fall of Singapore. Cousens had been tortured and coerced to work on radio broadcasts, as had his assistants, U.S. Army Captain Wallace Ince and Philippine Army Lieutenant Normando Ildefonso "Norman" Reyes. Toguri had previously risked her life smuggling food into the nearby POW camp where Cousens and Ince were held, gaining the inmates' trust. After she refused to broadcast anti-American propaganda, Toguri was assured by Major Cousens and Captain Ince that they would not write scripts having her say anything against the US. True to their word, no such propaganda was found in her broadcasts.
...The FBI case history cited under References states, "As far as its propaganda value, Army analysis suggested that the program had no negative effect on troop morale and that it might even have raised it a bit". The NYT in her obituary noted, "The broadcasts did nothing to dim American morale. The servicemen enjoyed the recordings of American popular music, and the United States Navy bestowed a satirical citation on Tokyo Rose at war’s end for her entertainment value." (Wiki)
Japanese radio propaganda was sabotaged from the inside. After the war Tokyo Rose was captured but released. However, when she returned to America she was tried for treason in 1949 and served six years in prison. The charges were fabricated by the prosecution.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6154827
In 1977, President Ford pardoned her (she is the only American ever pardoned for treason). She lived in Chicago, where she had a grocery store on Belmont Avenue. She died in 2006. She lived only a few miles away from Bob.
...Hello you fighting orphans in the Pacific. How’s tricks? This is “After her weekend, and oooh, back on the air, strictly under union hours.” Reception okay? Why, it better be, because this is All-Requests night. And I’ve got a pretty nice program for my favorite little family, the wandering boneheads of the Pacific Islands. The first request is made by none other than the boss. And guess what? He wants Bonnie Baker in “My Resistance is Low.” My, what taste you have, sir, she says... We close up another chapter of sweet propaganda in the form of music for you, for my dear little orphans wandering in the Pacific. There are plenty of non-union hours coming around the corner, so being see you tomorrow. But in the meanwhile, always remember to be good... http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5140/