Treason on the Airways

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Description
This is a fascinating work based on three individuals who became notorious in World War II as broadcasters and were later tried for treason. The trials of three World War II radio broadcasters in Germany and Japan, John Amery, an Englishman in Berlin, Charles Cousens, an Australian prisoner of war in Japan, and Iva Toguri, a young American woman stranded in Tokyo, mark one of the most famous treason trials in Britain, Australia, and the United States. This work examines the lives and decisions of these broadcasters whose choice between patriotism and survival have helped shape modern day trials of treason.John Amery, the playboy son of a member of Churchill's cabinet, joined Hitler's propagandists in Berlin. Charles Cousens, who was an Australian soldier in Japanese captivity after the fall of Singapore, was put to work on Radio Tokyo creating English-language short wave programs with a team of Allied prisoners of war. Iva Toguri, better known as 'Tokyo Rose', was an American student caught in Japan when war broke out, and found work broadcasting her American show across the Pacific. Their work as propagandists for the Axis left their lives in the fate of their home countries; Amery was executed, Cousens left in limbo, and Toguri served a heavy penal sentence.These individual cases are examined in this book against a survey of the laws of treason in Britain, Australia, and the United States and an overview of the way in which each country dealt with suspected collaborators after the war. While most information about these three individuals are based on rumour and misinformation, this work sets each of them in their family and social context to show the choices that were available to them and how they became part of the enemy's propaganda production. Also told are poignant stories of the desperate Allied families who listened nightly to Axis broadcasts in the hope of hearing word about their missing manfolk. The author historically shows how significant radio propaganda was during World War II, and the different techniques that the Germans and Japanese used in order to grasp the listeners and command a significant audience.

ISBN: 9780313353284
Classification: Second World War , Crime & criminology
Format: Hardback (235mm x 155mm x 28mm)
Pages: 200
Publish Date: 1-Dec-2008
Country of Publication: United States