Treason on the Airwaves This page intentionally left blank Treason on the Airwaves Three Allied Broadcasters on Axis Radio during World War II Judith Keene Foreword by Istva´n Dea´k LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Keene,Judith. Treasonontheairwaves:threeAlliedbroadcastersonAxisradioduring WorldWarII/JudithKeene;forewordbyIstva´nDea´k. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN:978–0–313–35328–4(alk.paper) 1.WorldWar,1939–1945–Propaganda. 2.WorldWar,1939–1945–Radio broadcastingandthewar. 3.WorldWar,1939–1945–Collaborationists–Biography. 4.Radioinpropaganda–History–20thcentury. 5.Amery,John,1912–1945. 6.Cousens,Charles,1903–1964. 7.TokyoRose,1916–2006. 8.Nazipropaganda– GreatBritain. 9.Propaganda,Japanese–Australia–History. 10.Propaganda, Japanese–UnitedStates–History. I.Title. D810.P6K44 2009 940.54(cid:2)8870922–dc22 2008033451 BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable. Copyright(cid:3)C 2009byJudithKeene Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,withoutthe expresswrittenconsentofthepublisher. LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:2008033451 ISBN:978–0–313–35328–4 Firstpublishedin2009 PraegerPublishers,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881 AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc. www.praeger.com PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents ForewordbyIstva´nDea´k vii Preface ix Acknowledgments xi Abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 PARTI: BROADCASTINGTOBRITAINFROMWARTIMEBERLIN Chapter1 ExecutionoftheBritishTraitor:JohnAmery 11 Chapter2 LifeintheAmeryFamily 29 Chapter3 JohnAmerybetweentheWars 42 Chapter4 GermanWartimeBroadcasting 53 Chapter5 Amery’sReceptioninBritain 68 PARTII: BROADCASTINGTOAUSTRALIAANDTHEUNITEDSTATES FROMWARTIMETOKYO Chapter6 JapaneseWartimeBroadcasting 81 Chapter7 Tokyo’sAustralianBroadcasterCharlesCousens 91 Chapter8 AlliedPOWsBroadcastfromJapan 103 Chapter9 POWFamiliesListentoRadioTokyo 115 Chapter10 IvaToguriinWartimeJapan 126 Chapter11 ListeningtoRadioTokyoatthePacificFront 141 vi Contents Chapter12 TryinganAustralianTraitor:CharlesCousens 155 Chapter13 IvaToguriandtheTrialofTokyoRose 168 Epilogue 183 Notes 187 Bibliography 217 Index 225 Aphotoessayfollowspage78 Foreword Here is a fascinating triptych, lucidly and authoritatively etched, of World War II broadcasters who engaged in activity that was deemed treason. The three accused—an Englishman, an Australian, and an American—were all brought to trialfollowingtheendofhostilities;thenatureofthesentencesthatwerehanded down to each of them varied enormously according to the extent of post-war publicresentmentsandthepersonalityoftheaccused. ThemostfamiliaramongthethreeisperhapsIvaToguri—ayoungAmericanof Japaneseoriginwhowaspopularlyknownas“TokyoRose”—thoughtheprofiles oftheothertwoareequallycompelling.TheEnglishmanJohnAmery,avirulent anti-Communist and anti-Semite who spoke openly of Winston Churchill as a “Jew-lover,”becameenchantedearlyonwithfascistdoctrinesandunwiselylinked hisstartothetriumphofNazisminGermanwartimebroadcasts.TheAustralian CharlesCousens,apopularradiopersonalityathome,becameequallyprominent abroad among prisoners recruited by the Japanese to broadcast war news. Iva Toguri,whowasstrandedinJapanattheoutbreakofthewar,acceptedtheradio broadcast post that was offered to her out of necessity rather than initiative or conviction. As the author examines their stories, all three accounts provoke thoughtful questions as to the nature of justice and retribution. What constitutes the spe- cialcontributionof ProfessorKeene is her emphasislesson the politicalclimate surroundingthetrials—amplycoveredinmanyscholarlytracts—thanontheso- cial and racial overtones manifest in the course of the three-fold prosecutions. Her thesis, that the dominant motive for the traitor John Amery as well as for the judges of the alleged traitor Tokyo Rose was racism, will certainly lead to a spiriteddebateamongthereadersofthisbook. The author is scrupulous in examining the small, personal details that were oftenignoredinofficialaccountsandwhichallowforabalancedviewinforming anyjudgmentswithregardtothethreeprotagonists.Becausethedestiniesofall three were tied to their facility with the microphone, the powerful propaganda viii Foreword roleofthatearly-twentieth-centuryinstrumentloomslargeinProfessor’sKeene’s pages. Thisexhaustivestudy,remarkablebothforclarityandvigor;addssubstantially to our knowledge of post-war retribution, especially as its targets were not Ger- mans or denizens of countries allied to or occupied by the Nazis but citizens of nations proud of their unblemished record in opposing the enemies of freedom anddemocracyduringWorldWarII.Thehastewithwhichsome“traitorsofthe airwaves”weretriedandsentencedafterthewarshowsthateventhegreatvictori- ousdemocraciesfeltitnecessarytoengageinpurgessimilartoallothercountries thathademergedfromthewar. Istva´nDea´k ColumbiaUniversityinNewYorkCity Preface Inthelatesummerof2005,whenIwasresearchingthisbook,thereburstonthe sceneinmyhometownofSydney,aspateofviolentracialincidents.Thegroups involvedfoughtoveraccesstothemuch-vauntedAustralianicon,“thebeach.”On acoupleofstripsofsandinthesouthernsuburbswhatthepressandtherioters called “the Lebs” battled it out with, similarly described, “Aussie surfers.” While inotherpartsofthecitypeoplestruggledhomewithbagsofChristmasshopping, the police in the contested areas set up roadblocks and closed the streets. At a time of the year when the heat is at its most enervating and schools, university andbusinesseswinddowntoamonth’sannualholiday,thesedisturbingevents tookplace.Predictably,inacountrythatmakesmuchofthesupposedlaid-back natureofitscitizens,thepoliticianssaidlittlethatwasuseful.Ineffectiveleaders, perhaps, are the collateral damage in a society that claims as its national ethos “she’ll be all right.” On a prosaic note, I wondered where these young “Aussies” hadacquiredtheflagstheysowantonlydrapedaroundtheirshouldersorflewon theflagpolesthatsproutedontheircars.Inmyrecollection,theclosestIhadever been to an Australian flag was in primary school. But even then the raising and loweringofthenationalstandardonlyevertookplaceonspecialdaysandwasa taskrestrictedtoafewgold-starpupils. Itwasunnervingseenevenfromthesafetyofthemulticulturalinner-city.The smiling woman who sells my bread is modestly dressed from her scarf-covered head to her invisible toes. The butcher is halal and the corner shop, a model of Chinesecapitalism,isrununderthegimlet-eyesoftwobrothersfromShanghai. But,moreandmore,theexampleofthepeoplefromWorldWarTwo,withwhom I had been engrossed, seemed apposite. In all their variegated contexts, racism hadbeenthecatalyzingfactor.JohnAmeryandhisanti-Semiticconfreresunder- stood so little about human existence that they imagined Jews were the source of the world’s problems. Iva Toguri and her generation of Japanese Americans were excluded from full acceptance in their own place of birth, on the West CoastoftheUnitedStates.Equally,theywereneverathomeinJapan,thelandof theirforefathers.ManyAustraliansandAmericansofCharlesCousens’generation