Transcript
A (0:00)
Do you know about the term Tokyo Rose?
B (0:03)
I do now, but why don't you explain to the listeners?
A (0:06)
Well, it is a term that is sort of used loosely, was used by American soldiers and Allied troops in the South Pacific theater of World War II. And it was kind of a catch all for any of the English speaking Japanese propaganda radio announcers who were women.
B (0:34)
That's right. They were, you know, these, these Japanese radio broadcasters, like you said, who were primarily women, were broadcasting in English to American troops, you know, so that they could pick it up on their, you know, shortwave radios or whatever. You know, tales of Japanese dominion and, you know, threatening them with certain death and doom to sort of demoralize the American forces.
A (0:56)
Yeah, you're never going to make it and stuff like that.
B (1:00)
And you know, they, many of them didn't, even more of the Japanese didn't make it. But, you know, there was a kernel of truth, I think, in some of these broadcasts from the Tokyo Roses themselves.
A (1:12)
And that leads us to, I guess, the obvious subject of this record broadly.
B (1:20)
Yeah. What would you say the subject is?
A (1:23)
Well, I think that, that it sums it up perfectly by having that be the title because it's a real thing that involves America and Japan that also is this mythical, made up thing, this idea of this thing, the communication between them being like hostile, but also kind of having this colloquial and curious thing to it. It's a complicated dynamic that that title I think alludes. To. And I think that the record broadly is about the, the various kinds of similar dynamics or puzzling or interesting or even romantic notions about each other that Japan and America had, had and, and still have.
B (2:23)
Yeah, I think it's, it's sort of a cultural, political history of the, the relationship between the United States and Japan, you know, in the 19th and 20th centuries. And I think that it's, you know, it's coming out in 1989. So it's, I guess it's worth remarking like, you know, the same way that I think a lot of Americans, or at least a lot of American culture, I should say, thinks about China today, you know, and kind of portrays it as the dragon rising from the east, ready to, you know, kind of overtake the, overtake the west and become the dominant, you know, supreme nation state. A lot of the same feelings were applied towards Japan back, you know, around this time in the 1980s. And you know, those feelings didn't end up bearing out because Japan ended up hitting, you know, some, some rough patches in the coming history, in the coming in the ensuing years with regard to economy and political arrangements and such. And, you know, I guess I think that should maybe tell you a little bit about all of the, like, Chinese xenophobia that's whooped up today. But, you know, it's a conversation for another day anyways. You know, it's this. It's this point in time where, you know, Americans are kind of looking east across or west across the Pacific to the Far east with a wary eye and kind of concerned about their status as, you know, the global hegemon. And Japan is sort of this. This, you know, very clear other. Basically, that they can kind of look at and think about as, you know, something imposing and unknown and powerful.