The Scapegoat-An Excuse for Society
... alive represents the living Christ absolving them, therefore providing the Christians a scapegoat for sin (Sanders). A more contemporary example of scapegoat in history is the controversial charge of Iva Toguri as a traitor in WWII. Iva Toguri, daughter of Japanese immigrants, was born 1916 in Los Angeles, CA. Iva was sent to Japan to care for a sick aunt. Homesick, she wanted to return home but the war broke out and prohibited her return. To support herself, Iva worked as a typist and later reluctantly as a radio announcer for Radio Tokyo. Her association with the radio show “Zero Hour” and the name “Tokyo Rose” led her to be tried as a traitor. However, the name for which she was tried as a traitor precedes her radio-announcing career by years. According to an article written by Rex Gund, “The Wild Night on Oahu”. The first time the name Tokyo Rose was used was in U.S. Navy logs. A U.S. submariner heard a women’s voice introduced as “Madame Tojo” from Radio Toyko. He recorded about her mocking the whereabouts of U.S. fleets after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The name Tokyo Rose caught on and spread to other U.S. forces in the Pacific. Her “taunts” instilled fear in the GI’s. They felt this announcer was the “victorious enemy.” Rumors about Radio Tokyo reporting on the movement of troops escalated. “Every new transfer supposedly was announced by Tokyo the day is was named,” writes Clark Lee (341). Tokyo Rose had become well known in the U.S. as well. By 1942, Yank Magazine references the name and also connects it to behavior of a traitor by calling her Lady Haw Haw, comparing her to an English traitor at Radio Berlin, Lord Haw Haw (Gunn 323). In the spring of 1944, Radio Tokyo had changed its tone to a more entertaining flair, providing comedy and music. About this time was when Iva hesitantly agreed to take part in the “Zero Hour” radio show with two allied prisoners. “Zero Hour” and other programs, including at least seven other women, were under Japanese order to deliver negative propaganda to the GI’s. These broadcasts were not effective, in fact, many GI’s looked forward to hearing a women’s American accented voice so far from home and considered any female voice as that of “Tokyo Rose”. In 1944, when the war finally ended, Iva was elated and anxious to return to the U.S. with her husband, Felipe d’Aquino. But to the contrary, she became “the victim of wartime hysteria and became a scapegoat for her alleged role as ‘Tokyo Rose’” writes the Japanese American Citizens League (353). Since there was a “widespread curiosity as to her identity” reporters rushed to find a story (Lee 337). Reporters Lee and Bundridge wanted to be the first to find and interview “Tokyo Rose” and did just that. In a 17-page interview, later deemed a confession, Iva, for the fame and the money from the interview, claimed she was Tokyo Rose. Brundidge took the interview to his editor at Cosmopolitian but was refused publication. Relieving himself of having to pay 2,000 dollars to Iva for the story, he took the interview to General Thorpe and requested Iva to be arrested for treason. Iva, a woman of Japanese descent was an easy target, she was imprisoned without charge for a year. In 1947, Iva once again attempted to return to the U.S. and once again the media intervened. Referring to The Hunt for Tokyo Rose written by Russell Warren Howe, resentment toward Japan surfaced again and national campaigns were formed to prevent Iva’s return. Truman, who felt pressured to prove he wasn’t “soft on traders” sent General Tom Clark to find Iva guilty of treason (Howe 120). In order to declare her guilty, witnesses from Japan were either bribed or threatened to perjure themselves. ...