Treason on the Airwaves traces the journeys of three World War II
radio broadcasters whose wartime choices became treason in Britain,
Australia, and the United States.
John Amery was a virulent anti-Semite and member of a highly respected
British family who joined Hitler's propagandists in Berlin and was
executed for treason after the war. Charles Cousens, a popular radio
personality at home in Australia, was a soldier in Japanese captivity
who was put to work on Radio Tokyo and later tried as a traitor. Iva
Toguri, better known as "Tokyo Rose," was an American student visiting
relatives in Japan when war broke out. She broadcast her
English-language show on Radio Tokyo out of necessity rather than
conviction. The United States jailed Toguri for treason.
These three powerful stories provide an overview of the way in which the
three nations dealt with suspected collaborators after the war. Judidth
Keene also examines the significance of radio propaganda during World
War II and the techniques the Germans and the Japanese used to engage
listeners. All three accounts provoke questions about the nature of
justice--and the justice of retribution.
Judith Keene, an associate professor of history and the associate dean
of postgraduate research in the faculty of arts at the University of
Sydney, is the author of Fighting for Franco: International Volunteers
in Nationalist Spain during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39. István
Deák, Seth Low Professor Emeritus at Columbia University, is the author
of numerous books, including Essays on Hitler's Europe (Nebraska
2001).
