# Tokyo Rose

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tokyo-rose/589469>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [July 18, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tokyo-rose/589469 "2011-07-18T17:51:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RMW46140](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@RMW46140](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RMW46140)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tokyo-rose/589469/1 "2011-07-18T17:51:19Z")

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There is significant evidence to indicate that Ms Toguri D’Aquino was actually coerced into making the broadcasts. Several years ago, the Biography Channel had a special on “Tokyo ROse.”

According to this progran, Ms. Toguri D’Aquino took her children with her when she went to Japan. When the war started to go badly for the Japanese, The Japanese government told her that they “Could not guarentee the safety of her children” if she did not cooperate. In other words, make the broadcasts or we will kill your kids.

What parent would not do what they wanted to protect his or her children. Furthermore, they had several GIs on that had listened to her broadcasts and they claimed that there was nothing treasonous.

thanks,  
Mike WIlding

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**Author:** ![jonesj2205](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecc23a/32.png) [@jonesj2205](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonesj2205)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tokyo-rose/589469/2 "2011-07-18T18:03:39Z")

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I believe [this](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1705/how-did-wwii-propaganda-broadcaster-tokyo-rose-get-info-on-allied-ship-movements) is the column you are referring to?

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**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tokyo-rose/589469/3 "2011-07-18T20:08:24Z")

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The article in question makes it pretty clear that Toguri was coerced, I thought:

> [@SDSTAFF Bruce](#):
>
> An ethnic Japanese born in Los Angeles, she was in Tokyo visiting a dying aunt when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Ordered to make propaganda broadcasts along with other prisoners of war, Toguri claimed she and her associates subtly sabotaged the Japanese war effort. The American and Australian POWs who wrote her scripts assured her she was doing nothing wrong and immediately after the war Gen. MacArthur’s staff and the Justice Department cleared her of wrongdoing.

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tokyo-rose/589469/4 "2011-07-19T03:23:35Z")

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Just an update: She died in 2006. [Iva Toguri D'Aquino - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iva_Toguri_D'Aquino)