Summer, 2013: News from Japan
TV Asahi, Japan's second largest commercial television network, will broadcast a 90 minute documentary on the Tokyo Rose case on the anniversary of the end of World War 2 (August 15). This will be followed by a second program featuring a panel discussion of the various issues involved with the Tokyo Rose case specifically and the situation of Japanese Americans in Japan during the war.
TV Asahi flew TR/AP author Frederick Close (that's me!) to Los Angeles over the Fourth of July weekend to be interviewed by producer Tsukasa Takahashi, line producer Ako Kitamura, and U.S. liaison Nazu Kikkawa. The interview, conducted by Ms. Kikkawa, lasted about five hours, which on the one hand is barely enough time to scratch the surface of this complicated case and which on the other represents far more footage than can be profitably used in the documentary. I also supplied TV Asahi with numerous documents from his years of research, and the producers in turn showed me some mildly erotic drawings they believed were distributed by the Japanese military during the war. (I will scan these drawings and place them on the site along with my analysis of same as soon as I am able.)
TV Asahi, Japan's second largest commercial television network, will broadcast a 90 minute documentary on the Tokyo Rose case on the anniversary of the end of World War 2 (August 15). This will be followed by a second program featuring a panel discussion of the various issues involved with the Tokyo Rose case specifically and the situation of Japanese Americans in Japan during the war.
TV Asahi flew TR/AP author Frederick Close (that's me!) to Los Angeles over the Fourth of July weekend to be interviewed by producer Tsukasa Takahashi, line producer Ako Kitamura, and U.S. liaison Nazu Kikkawa. The interview, conducted by Ms. Kikkawa, lasted about five hours, which on the one hand is barely enough time to scratch the surface of this complicated case and which on the other represents far more footage than can be profitably used in the documentary. I also supplied TV Asahi with numerous documents from his years of research, and the producers in turn showed me some mildly erotic drawings they believed were distributed by the Japanese military during the war. (I will scan these drawings and place them on the site along with my analysis of same as soon as I am able.)
In setting up the interview, Ako Kitamura explained why they had chosen me. Ms.
Kitamura is part Japanese and part French, so English is her third language. What her
English lacks in perfection of grammar, it makes up for in charm. Here is what she
wrote:
"I wish to express my deep gratitude for accepting to be filmed and interviewed. I had read your book, and found it wonderful. Wonderful for it richness and, wide and deep research results , wonderful for its so-just guess and responses to so many questions we had about the myth -part of Tokyo Rose. The book is also full of so precious facts and recollections that you had received directly from Ms.Iva Toguri and we could not know before.
* I am also impressed by the way you had analyzed the huge process of the trap that started to grow around her from the end of the war to the end of the trial. I did appreciate also, the details about the war situations or about the laws or explanations about American common sense and value. Your clear and objective deductions helped us a lot in the way of understanding this complex affair.
* I had translated important parts of the book in Japanese, for the staff of our program who does not read English, and all the team, including the producer, we all admire your great work and we feel honored to be able to meet you and interview you.
* We wish to review together ,in the interview, some of the important episodes of the case, and important element of the background of the whole affair. We wish also to know why this story had been edited in a spy-education book series born after 911and the value of reminding this case nowadays.
* For the filming we wish to present you as “The Specialist of the Tokyo Rose case” , so we would appreciate if you could bring with you some documents as testimony of your research, if it does not bother you. Is it possible to bring with you some photos of you interviewing Iva, or shots of two of you? Do you have any video or film of you interviewing Iva, or filmed images of two of you?
"I wish to express my deep gratitude for accepting to be filmed and interviewed. I had read your book, and found it wonderful. Wonderful for it richness and, wide and deep research results , wonderful for its so-just guess and responses to so many questions we had about the myth -part of Tokyo Rose. The book is also full of so precious facts and recollections that you had received directly from Ms.Iva Toguri and we could not know before.
* I am also impressed by the way you had analyzed the huge process of the trap that started to grow around her from the end of the war to the end of the trial. I did appreciate also, the details about the war situations or about the laws or explanations about American common sense and value. Your clear and objective deductions helped us a lot in the way of understanding this complex affair.
* I had translated important parts of the book in Japanese, for the staff of our program who does not read English, and all the team, including the producer, we all admire your great work and we feel honored to be able to meet you and interview you.
* We wish to review together ,in the interview, some of the important episodes of the case, and important element of the background of the whole affair. We wish also to know why this story had been edited in a spy-education book series born after 911and the value of reminding this case nowadays.
* For the filming we wish to present you as “The Specialist of the Tokyo Rose case” , so we would appreciate if you could bring with you some documents as testimony of your research, if it does not bother you. Is it possible to bring with you some photos of you interviewing Iva, or shots of two of you? Do you have any video or film of you interviewing Iva, or filmed images of two of you?
Tokyo Rose /
An American Patriot:
A Dual Biography
An American Patriot:
A Dual Biography
News of the "peanut guerrilla":
Readers of TR/AP (pp. 281-282) may recall that Iva Toguri met in Sugamo Prison a young girl whom Iva described as a "fight-to-the-last-man-type-Japanese." I could not locate any additional information about this woman but Ako Kitamura supplied me with a valuable update to that story. To read more, click on this button:
Readers of TR/AP (pp. 281-282) may recall that Iva Toguri met in Sugamo Prison a young girl whom Iva described as a "fight-to-the-last-man-type-Japanese." I could not locate any additional information about this woman but Ako Kitamura supplied me with a valuable update to that story. To read more, click on this button:
What's New
on the website and in the real world
on the website and in the real world
My reply concerning her final request for images of Iva and I together:
"I regret to inform you that not one single picture or video exists of me with Iva Toguri. Iva was a kind of celebrity, and people constantly asked for her autographs and to have a picture taken with them as a souvenir. Perhaps because the "souvenirs" she signed after the war for American GIs were used against her at trial, she invariably refused these strangers' requests. She told me when I first met her how much she had disliked being used by strangers as a prop in "Here I am with Tokyo Rose" photos. As a result, even though we knew each other for 25 years, I made it a point never to ask her for a photograph of the two of us. Frankly, in retrospect, I wish I had taken such photos. I do have the letter in her handwriting that I quoted on TR/AP page xi about our friendship."
"I regret to inform you that not one single picture or video exists of me with Iva Toguri. Iva was a kind of celebrity, and people constantly asked for her autographs and to have a picture taken with them as a souvenir. Perhaps because the "souvenirs" she signed after the war for American GIs were used against her at trial, she invariably refused these strangers' requests. She told me when I first met her how much she had disliked being used by strangers as a prop in "Here I am with Tokyo Rose" photos. As a result, even though we knew each other for 25 years, I made it a point never to ask her for a photograph of the two of us. Frankly, in retrospect, I wish I had taken such photos. I do have the letter in her handwriting that I quoted on TR/AP page xi about our friendship."
More positive reviews on many sites:
June, 2014
Rowman & Littlefield published a revised and expanded edition of TR/AP. The new edition contains the complete story of Manila Rose, for the first time in print. Click on the Manila Rose button above for more info. In the new edition I have rearranged chapters, eliminated repetitive sections, and added new historial information that I discovered since first publication in 2010.
Rowman & Littlefield published a revised and expanded edition of TR/AP. The new edition contains the complete story of Manila Rose, for the first time in print. Click on the Manila Rose button above for more info. In the new edition I have rearranged chapters, eliminated repetitive sections, and added new historial information that I discovered since first publication in 2010.
May, 2014
SOLmagz.com chose TR/AP as their book-of-the-week. They confused the new edition with the older one, e.g. citing the Scarecrow Professional series. I can't tell you more about them because their "AboutSOLmagz" link is broken, but it's a nifty website. See http://www.solmagz.com/book/2014%2005%20tokyo%20rose.html
SOLmagz.com chose TR/AP as their book-of-the-week. They confused the new edition with the older one, e.g. citing the Scarecrow Professional series. I can't tell you more about them because their "AboutSOLmagz" link is broken, but it's a nifty website. See http://www.solmagz.com/book/2014%2005%20tokyo%20rose.html
July, 2014
New features on the site include propaganda leaflets developed by Japan to reduce the morale of Allied troops, scripts of Manila Rose for her program Memory Lane broadcast from the Philippines during 1944, and a preview of her complete biography on Kindle ebook. To go directly to these features, choose a button below:
New features on the site include propaganda leaflets developed by Japan to reduce the morale of Allied troops, scripts of Manila Rose for her program Memory Lane broadcast from the Philippines during 1944, and a preview of her complete biography on Kindle ebook. To go directly to these features, choose a button below: