Tokyo Rose was pardoned? Just the other week I found myself defending P G Wodehouse against charges that he was a Nazi sympathizer. I never heard Tokyo Rose’s story, but as in so many cases, things are more complex than they appear.
Aside from being a bad son (lik…:
Her trial was considered the most expensive in American history at that time. The U.S. government stacked the deck against Toguri and her meager defense, and the judge later admitted he was prejudiced against her from the start. Toguri was found guilty of only one of the eight treason charges — “That she did speak into a microphone concerning the loss of ships.” She was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $10,000. Because she was a model prisoner, Toguri was released early in 1956, although she was served with a deportation order which took two years to fight.
In 1976, the TV news show 60 Minutes told the Tokyo Rose story from Toguri’s point of view. This led to a full pardon for Toguri from President Gerald Ford in 1977.
This came up as a result of Howard Dean being accused of treason for claiming that the president’s poorly-planned and more poorly-prosecuted war was unwinnable. I don’t think Dr Dean meant to disparage the troops in the field — I’m sure of that — but to keep in mind the people who decided to go to war with the flawed information they had, the ill-designed war plans they had, the inadequate matériel they had, not the ones they wish they had are getting Americans killed, to say nothing of what they’re doing to Iraq and it’s citizens.