Aquino

[ah-kee-noh]

Aquino, Corazon (Maria Corazon "Cory" Aquino), 1933-2009, Philippine politician, president of the Philippines (1986-92), b. Maria Corazon Cojuangco. Her husband, Benigno Servillano Aquino, Jr., 1932-83, was Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos's chief political opponent. In 1983 he was assassinated by government agents as he returned to the Philippines from exile in the United States. When the accused agents were acquitted, Corazon Aquino declared her candidacy for the presidency. After the election (1986), both sides claimed victory although most agreed that Aquino had won. When Marcos refused to step down, Aquino organized strikes and boycotts, asserting what was dubbed "people power". With the nation on the brink of civil war, Marcos accepted asylum in the United States, and Aquino assumed the presidency, ending Marcos's 20-year regime and becoming the first woman president of the country. Promised changes and improvements largely failed to materialize during Aquino's term in office, which was plagued by economic difficulties and ineffectual leadership, and there were six coup attempts against her. In 1992, she did not run again but supported the successful presidential candidacy of Fidel Ramos. Benigno Aquino's accused assassins were later retried and convicted (1990) of his murder.

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Aquino, (Maria) Corazon

orig. Maria Corazon Cojuangco

(born Jan. 25, 1933, Manila, Phil.) President of the Philippines (1986–92). Born into a politically prominent family, she married Benigno Simeon Aquino, Jr. (1932–83), who became the most prominent opponent of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos. Benigno was assassinated in 1983 on his return from exile, and Corazon became the opposition candidate for president in 1986. Though Marcos was officially reported the winner, there were widespread allegations of voting fraud; high officials in the military supported Aquino, and Marcos fled. As president, Aquino introduced a hugely popular constitution. Over time her popularity declined amid charges of corruption and economic injustice.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Iva Toguri D'Aquino

Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino (July 4, 1916 – September 26, 2006), a Japanese-American, was the woman most identified with "Tokyo Rose", a generic name given by Allied forces in the South Pacific during World War II to any of approximately a dozen English-speaking female broadcasters of Japanese propaganda.

Identified by the press as Tokyo Rose after the war, she was detained for a year by the U.S. military before being released for lack of evidence. Upon return to the U.S., the Federal Bureau of Investigation began an investigation of her activities and she was subsequently charged by the United States Attorney's Office with eight counts of treason. Her 1949 trial resulted in a conviction on one count, making her the seventh American to be convicted on that charge. In 1974, investigative journalists found key witnesses had lied during testimony and other serious problems with the conduct of the trial. She was pardoned by U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1977, becoming the only U.S. citizen convicted of treason to be pardoned.

Early life

She was born in Los Angeles, a daughter of Japanese immigrants Jun and Fumi Toguri. Her father, Jun, had come to the U.S. in 1899, and her mother, Fumi, in 1913. Ikuko, who went by the name Iva, was a Girl Scout as a child, and was raised as a Methodist. She attended grammar schools in Mexico, California, and San Diego before returning with her family to Los Angeles. There she finished grammar school, attended high school, and graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a degree in Zoology. She then went to work in her parents' shop. As a registered Republican, she voted for Wendell Wilkie in the 1940 presidential election.

On July 5, 1941, Toguri sailed for Japan from Los Angeles' San Pedro area, to visit an ailing relative and to possibly study medicine. The U.S. State Department issued her a Certificate of Identification; she did not have a passport. In September, Toguri applied to the U.S. Vice Consul in Japan for a passport, stating she wished to return to her home in the U.S. Her request was forwarded to the State Department, but the answer had not returned by the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) and she was stranded in Japan.

Zero Hour

With the beginning of American involvement in the Pacific War, Toguri, like a number of other Americans in Japanese territory, was pressured by the Japanese central government under Hideki Tojo to renounce her United States citizenship. She refused to do so. Toguri was subsequently declared an enemy alien and was refused a war ration card. "A tiger does not change its stripes" is a quote attributed to her. To support herself, she found work as a typist at a Japanese news agency and eventually worked in a similar capacity for Radio Tokyo.

In November 1943, Allied prisoners of war forced to broadcast propaganda selected her to host portions of the one-hour radio show The Zero Hour. Her producer was an Australian Army officer, Major Charles Cousens, who had pre-war broadcast experience and had been captured at the fall of Singapore. Cousens had been tortured and coerced to work on radio broadcasts, as had his assistants, U.S. Army Captain Wallace Ince and a Philippine Army Lieutenant, Normando Ildefonso "Norman" Reyes. Toguri had previously risked her life smuggling food into the nearby Prisoner of War (POW) camp where Cousens and Ince were held, gaining the inmates' trust. After she indicated her refusal to broadcast anti-American propaganda, Toguri was assured by Major Cousens and Captain Ince that they would not write scripts having her say anything against the United States. Toguri would then host a total of 340 broadcasts of The Zero Hour.

Under the stage names "Ann" (for "Announcer") and later "Orphan Anne" and possibly "Your Favorite Enemy, Anne", reportedly in reference to the comic strip character Little Orphan Annie, Toguri performed in comedy sketches and introduced newscasts, with on-air speaking time of generally about 20 minutes. True to the word of the two prisoners of war that Toguri worked under, no anti-Allies propaganda was found in her broadcasts. Though earning only 150 yen, or about $7, per month, she used some of her earnings to feed POWs smuggling food in as she did before.

Toguri aimed most of her comments toward her fellow Americans ("my fellow orphans"), using American slang and playing American music. In one of the few surviving recordings of her show, she refers to herself as "your 'Number One' enemy." In contemporary American slang (especially that used by US Marines and Naval forces in the Pacific), she was telling them that she was their "best enemy" (in other words, their friend), while the Japanese thought that it meant that she was their greatest enemy.

At no time did Toguri call herself "Tokyo Rose" during the war, and in fact there was no evidence that any other broadcaster had done so. The name was a catch-all used by Allied forces for all of the women who were heard on Japanese propaganda radio. She married Felipe D'Aquino (last name sometimes given only as Aquino), a Portuguese citizen of Japanese-Portuguese descent, on April 19, 1945. At the same time, Toguri formally became a Catholic, a faith she would keep through her prison years. The marriage was registered with the Portuguese Consulate in Tokyo, with Toguri declining to take her husband's citizenship.

Postwar arrest and trial

Arrest

After Japan's unconditional surrender (August 15 1945), reporters Henry Brundidge and Clark Lee offered $2000 for the identity of "Tokyo Rose."

In need of money, and still trying to get home, Iva stepped forward to claim the money, but instead found herself arrested, on September 5 1945, in Yokohama. She was released after a year in jail when neither the FBI nor General Douglas MacArthur's staff had found any evidence she had aided the Japanese Axis forces. Furthermore, the American and Australian prisoners-of-war who wrote her scripts assured her (and the Allied headquarters) that she had committed no wrongdoing.

The case-history at the FBI's website states, "The FBI's investigation of Aquino's activities had covered a period of some five years. During the course of that investigation, the FBI had interviewed hundreds of former members of the U.S. Armed Forces who had served in the South Pacific during World War II, unearthed forgotten Japanese documents, and turned up recordings of Aquino's broadcasts". Investigating with the U.S. Army's Counterintelligence Corps, they "conducted an extensive investigation to determine whether Aquino had committed crimes against the U.S. By the following October, authorities decided that the evidence then known did not merit prosecution, and she was released".

However, upon her request to return to the United States to have her unborn child born on American soil, the influential gossip columnist and radio host Walter Winchell lobbied against her. Her baby was born in Japan, but died shortly after. Following her child's death, D'Aquino, forcibly separated from her husband (whom she never saw again), was brought to San Francisco, on September 25 1948, where she was charged by federal prosecutors with the crime of treason for "adhering to, and giving aid and comfort to, the Imperial Government of Japan during World War II".

Treason trial

Her trial on eight "overt acts" of treason began on July 5, 1949, at the Federal District Court in San Francisco. During what was at the time the costliest trial in American history, totaling more than half a million dollars, the prosecution presented 46 witnesses, including two of Toguri's former supervisors at Radio Tokyo, and soldiers who testified they could not distinguish between what they had heard on radio broadcasts and what they had heard by way of rumor. Although boxes of tapes were brought by prosecutors to the courthouse and rested near the prosecution table, none were entered into evidence and played for the jury. Toguri claimed she and her associates subtly sabotaged the Japanese war effort.

Toguri was defended by a team of attorneys, led by Wayne Collins. Collins had been at the forefront of the battle for rights of Japanese Americans. Collins enlisted the help of Theodore Tomba, who became one of Toguri's closest friends, a relationship which continued until his death in the 1970s.

During the trial, the former supervisor at Radio Tokyo testified that:

I said to Toguri I had a release from the Imperial General Headquarters giving out results of American ship losses in one of the Leyte Gulf battles, and I asked that she allude to this announcement, make reference to the losses of American ships in her part of the broadcast, and she said she would do so.

Another co-worker testified that Toguri said, "Now you fellows have lost all your ships. Now you really are orphans of the Pacific. How do you think you will ever get home?"

On September 29, 1949, the jury found Toguri guilty on a sole count, Count VI, which stated, "That on a day during October, 1944, the exact date being to the Grand Jurors unknown, said defendant, at Tokyo, Japan, in a broadcasting studio of The Broadcasting Corporation of Japan, did speak into a microphone concerning the loss of ships." She was fined US$10,000 and given a 10-year prison sentence. Attorney Collins called the verdict "Guilty without evidence". She was sent to the Federal Reformatory for Women at Alderson, West Virginia. She was paroled after serving six years and two months, and released January 28, 1956. She moved to Chicago, Illinois. The FBI's case history notes, "Neither Brundidge nor the witness testified at trial because of the taint of perjury. Nor was Brundidge prosecuted for subornation of perjury."

Post-Prison Life

After her parole, resisting efforts at deportation, Toguri moved to Chicago, where her father had opened the Japanese-import retail store J. Toguri Mercantile during the war, after his release from the Gila River War Relocation Center in September 1943. Toguri lived and worked at the store until her death in 2006, her former notoriety all but forgotten. The store has relocated at least once from its old location at 1012 N. Clark. It and its building, which is still owned by the Toguri family, is currently located on Belmont Avenue in Chicago's Lake View neighborhood and sells Asian books, artwork, foodstuffs, and art and party supplies.

Toguri never reunited with or again saw her husband, who had been deported to Japan after her trial. Toguri divorced him in 1980; he died in 1996.

Presidential pardon

In 1976 an investigation by Chicago Tribune reporter Ron Yates discovered that Kenkichi Oki and George Mitsushio, who delivered the most damaging testimony at Toguri's trial, lied under oath. They stated they had been threatened by the FBI and U.S. occupation police and told what to say and what not to say just hours before the trial. This was followed up by a Morley Safer report on the television news program 60 Minutes

Due to these revelations, U.S. President Gerald Ford pardoned Mrs. D’Aquino on January 19, 1977, his last full day in office, after she had appealed to him in writing. The decision was supported by a unanimous vote in both houses of the California State Legislature, the national Japanese-American Citizens League, and S. I. Hayakawa, then a United States Senator from California. The pardon restored her citizenship.

Later life

On 15 January 2006, the World War II Veterans Committee (sponsors of the Memorial Day Parade in Washington D.C.), citing "her indomitable spirit, love of country, and the example of courage she has given her fellow Americans", awarded Toguri its annual Edward J Herlihy Citizenship Award. According to one biographer, Toguri found it the most memorable day of her life.

On September 26, 2006, at the age of 90, Toguri died in a Chicago hospital of natural causes.

Legacy

The FBI case-history cited under References, below, states: "As far as its propaganda value, Army analysis suggested that the program had no negative effect on troop morale and that it might even have raised it a bit". The New York Times in her obituary noted, "The broadcasts did nothing to dim American morale. The servicemen enjoyed the recordings of American popular music, and the United States Navy bestowed a satirical citation on Tokyo Rose at war’s end for her entertainment value.

Depiction in film and media

Iva Toguri has been the subject of two movies and five documentaries:

1946: Tokyo Rose, film; directed by Lew Landers; Blake Edwards played Joe Bridger.
1969: The Story of "Tokyo Rose", CBS-TV and WGN radio documentary written and produced by Bill Kurtis.
1976: Tokyo Rose, CBS-TV documentary segment on 60 Minutes by Morley Safer, produced by Imrel Harvath.
1995: U.S.A. vs. "Tokyo Rose", self-produced documentary by Antonio A. Montanari Jr., distributed by Cinema Guild.
1995: Tokyo Rose: Victim of Propaganda, A&E Biography documentary, hosted by Peter Graves, available on VHS (AAE-14023).
1999: Tokyo Rose: Victim of Propaganda, History International, Produced by Scott Paddor, Editor Steve Pomerantz, A&E Director Bill Harris
In 2004, actor George Takei announced he was working on a film titled Tokyo Rose, American Patriot, about Toguri's activities during the war.
2008: Tokyo Rose, film; in development with Darkwoods Productions, the only entity granted life story rights by Iva Toguri, Frank Darabont to direct. Christopher Hampton, is the screenwriter for Tokyo Rose.

The first registered rock group using the name Tokyo Rose was formed in the summer of 1980. They are most known for their video which tells the story of the war time Tokyo Rose. Tokyo Rose is also the name of an emo/pop band hailing from New Jersey.
Tokyo Rose is a 1989 album by Van Dyke Parks. The album attempts to reflect an intersection between Japanese and American cultures, a common concern during the 1980s.
The Canadian group Idle Eyes had a hit in 1985 in Canada with the song "Tokyo Rose" from their self-titled debut from WEA Music Canada.
Vigilantes of Love scored a hit with "Tokyo Rose from their 1997 album, Slow Dark Train.