# WWII US Deserters With No Japanese Ancestry Who Went to Work for Japan? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 6, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-us-deserters-with-no-japanese-ancestry-who-went-to-work-for-japan/531502 "2010-03-06T03:31:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boilercake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@boilercake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boilercake)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-us-deserters-with-no-japanese-ancestry-who-went-to-work-for-japan/531502/1 "2010-03-06T03:31:43Z")
Inspired by [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=12185720#post12185720) thread, anyone have any, even anecdotal, info on WWII US deserters with no Japanese ancestry who actually attempted to work in any capacity with Imperial Japan? Thanks for any info! ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2010, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-us-deserters-with-no-japanese-ancestry-who-went-to-work-for-japan/531502/2 "2010-03-06T03:55:40Z")
Other than as slave labor, no. There is Tokyo Rose however. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2010, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-us-deserters-with-no-japanese-ancestry-who-went-to-work-for-japan/531502/3 "2010-03-06T12:02:26Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > Other than as slave labor, no. There is Tokyo Rose however. There **is no** Tokyo Rose, & **never was**. There were several women who broadcasted in English, but no person who called herself “Tokyo Rose”. War rumor. A generic name for femal propaganda broadcasters in the Pacific, given by Allied personnel, not the women themselves. Still, political demogogues & media hacks caused one woman to be sent to prison as “Tokyo Rose”, with her sentence commuted later. > **[Tokyo Rose](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Rose)** > > Tokyo Rose (alternative spelling Tokio Rose) was a name given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to all female English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The programs were broadcast in the South Pacific and North America to demoralize Allied forces abroad and their families at home by emphasizing troops' wartime difficulties and military losses. Several female broadcasters operated using different aliases and in different cities throughout the terr During t... ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-us-deserters-with-no-japanese-ancestry-who-went-to-work-for-japan/531502/4 "2010-03-06T14:07:06Z")
_The World at War_ documentary series contained a clip from a Japanese movie made during the war. The movie depicts Japanese soldiers liberating a town or village occupied by the British. The soldiers enter a building that housed an officer’s club & proceed to wreck the joint (enraged at the soft living of their enemies) & gather prisoners. You get a brief glimpse of the prisoners & they do appear to be European. Considering that this was an entertainment feature with actors, it made me wonder who got to play the part of the POWs. Were they real POWs (coerced or volunteers) or perhaps Italians or Germans living in Japan? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2010, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-us-deserters-with-no-japanese-ancestry-who-went-to-work-for-japan/531502/5 "2010-03-06T15:38:59Z")
All I’ve ever been able to document is a lot of Americans “trapped” in Japan and other areas occupied by Japan from Dec 1941 and on worked. As another poster said that is “slave labor” though certainly there must’ve been some people that did this, but were too unimportant to show up in the history books. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-us-deserters-with-no-japanese-ancestry-who-went-to-work-for-japan/531502/6 "2010-03-06T16:40:28Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > There **is no** Tokyo Rose, & **never was**. > > There were several women who broadcasted in English, but no person who called herself “Tokyo Rose”. > > War rumor. A generic name for femal propaganda broadcasters in the Pacific, given by Allied personnel, not the women themselves. > > Still, political demogogues & media hacks caused one woman to be sent to prison as “Tokyo Rose”, with her sentence commuted later. > [Tokyo Rose - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Rose) That’s right. And there’s no such thing as a cat either. There are several creatures that are called “cat,” but no creature that calls itself that. It’s a rumor – a generic name for a type of furbearing quadruped, given by humans, nothing more. And, for the record, Iva Toguri was an American stranded in Japan at the beginning of the war. She took a job speaking English on _Zero Hour_, but doing comedy and other light material, not news or propaganda (although she did occasionally identify herself as “your favorite enemy”). Her conviction for treason was an injustice because the prosecution suborned perjury and misattributed others’ broadcasts to her, not because they got her name wrong. ---
**Author:** ![boilercake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@boilercake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boilercake)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-us-deserters-with-no-japanese-ancestry-who-went-to-work-for-japan/531502/7 "2010-03-07T01:41:57Z")
I presume that Imperial Japan would have some reservations working with an American lacking Japanese ancestry, but not necessarily completely based on race, ethnicity or national origin, as they were after all allied with Germany and Italy. Based on the laws of probability or whatever, I find it hard believe there wasn’t some American deserter stone-cold fascist that didn’t cross over to the other side, I mean there were Sonderkommandos (not looking for a debate on collaboration!) after all. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-us-deserters-with-no-japanese-ancestry-who-went-to-work-for-japan/531502/8 "2010-03-07T06:36:15Z")
> [@](#): > > There were several women who broadcasted in English, but no person who called herself “Tokyo Rose”. There was nobody who called themselves Lord Haw Haw or Axis Sally either. But there were English speaking people who broadcast propaganda messages for the Axis powers in order to demoralize Allied soldiers. The derogatory nicknames for these people were then created by others.