Australia was divided about Charles Cousens. Was he a traitor who collaborated with the Japanese, broadcasting and writing treasonable scripts for Radio Tokyo, or was he, as he claimed, simply a prisoner-of-war, forced to cooperate with his captors under threat of torture and death?
When World War II ended, in a case unique in Australian legal history, Major Charles cousens, 2/19th Battalion, AIF, was charged with high treason. The fact that before the war he had been one of Australia's most popular radio announcers made the case all the more sensational.
The Prosecution argued that he had been a willing tool of the Japanese and had led an easy life in Tokyo. It attempted to liken the scripts he wrote to those broadcast by Lord Haw-Haw' from Nazi germany and alleged that Cousens has trained 'Tokyo rose', the best known radio voice in the Pacific war.
Cousens himself maintained that wherever possible he had sabotaged Japanese propaganda and intruded information useful to the Allies. And others saw no difference between what Cousens did as a POW and what 15,000 others did for the Japanese in building railways and roads and working the docks. As Brigadier Harold Taylor said, "We all had the same choice of not doing what we were told, or being shot."
To write this, the first critical assessment of the case, Ivan Chapman followed Cousens' career from radio to television. Chapman also sifted the evidence presented in court, examined copies of Cousens' radio scripts, interviewed fellow POWs, and traced Japanese with whom Cousens was forced to work at Radio Tokyo.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Ivan Chapman is a military historian with a background in radio and television journalist, both in Sydney (ABC) and London (BBC). His own wartime captivity attracted him to the Cousens case.
The first of Ivan Chapman's four books on military themes - Details Enclosed - dealt with the four years he spent in various German prison-camps. Private Eddie Leonski: The Brownout Strangler (published by Hale & Iremonger) probed a series of murders by an American soldier that terrorised war-time Melbourne. Chapman has also written Iven G. Mackay: Citizen and Soldier. His next work will be another biography - of Major-General Sir Nevill Smith, VC
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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Seller: THE CROSS Art + Books, Sydney, NSW, Australia
22.0 x 15.0cms, 388pp, b/w illusts, very good+ paperback & cover Cousens broadcast for the Japanese during World War II. But was he a traitor & collaborator or was he a prisoner-of-war who was threatened with torture & death?. Seller Inventory # 125378
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Seller: Goulds Book Arcade, Sydney, Newtown, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Several copies are available. 388 pages. Books listed here are not stored at the shop. Please contact us if you want to pick up a book from Newtown. Size: Size E: 8"-9" Tall (203-228mm). Seller Inventory # 157140
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Seller: Le Monde de Kamélia, Bruxelles, Belgium
Condition: very good. Livraison rapide, bien emballé, service client soigné.Pour tout renseignement complémentaire, n'hésitez pas à nous contacter. Seller Inventory # F900ED8D1F96
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