From today's Marianas Variety,
Letters section:
"This is regarding the Washington Merry-Go-Round column that runs in your paper, written by Jack Anderson and Douglas Cohn.
In the most recent column, they state, “President Nixon launched the war on drugs in the 1970s, with Elvis Presley as his poster boy. Presley died addicted to drugs, and drug use has remained constant despite the government’s best efforts.”
A common misconception is that Presley was on LSD, cocaine, marijuana, acid, whatever, you name it, while ironically being named Nixon’s top DEA enforcer. In actuality, Presley was being PRESCRIBED pain killers and the like by several different doctors, none of which he should have been taking together for the period of time that he did.
In another recent column, the authors claim that “Tokyo Rose” was Filipino. According to my research, there never was a person broadcasting anti-American propaganda for the Japanese under the name “Tokyo Rose.” “Tokyo Rose” is more of an urban legend if you will, a product of the imaginations of several thousand lonely U.S. soldiers in the Pacific. It was they who gave that name to a combination of women who were hired by the Japanese military to demoralize U.S. troops but wound up having the reverse effect.
A journalist landing in Japan after the war promised a reward of $2,500 to “Tokyo Rose” if she would come forward and tell her (exclusive) story. The woman who stepped forward was Iva Toguri D’Aquino, an American citizen of Japanese descent (married to Felipe D’Aquino, a Portuguese national) who had gone to Japan to visit relatives shortly before the war broke out. She found herself stranded without her passport and no money to return to her family and subsequently confessed to being “Tokyo Rose” if only to collect the money and return home. She was tried for treason and eventually pardoned by President Gerald Ford after spending a number of years in prison. She now owns a small store on the north side of Chicago.
Hope you’ll do more research in the future, gentlemen!"
RICK VAUGHN
San Roque, Saipan
No comments:
Post a Comment