Andre R Frattino

An interesting bit of dramatized history about the American citizen who ended up on Japanese propaganda radio during World War II and became conflated with the Tokyo Rose radio personality. After the war she was actually put on trial in America for her perceived acts of treason. But through it all, her strong, vibrant personality shines through.

The writing and art are fair enough, but this graphic novel gets a failing grade in editing. There are numerous misspellings in the word balloons, which are often poorly placed and cause reading order confusion. A Japanese officer's rank keeps flipping between major and master sergeant. Her uncle is called "Hottori" when his name is actually Hattori. Lots of little dings all over the place.… (mais)

graphic novel/WWII drama - fictionalized account of real-life Iva Toguri's experiences as an American unable to leave Japan after the Pearl Harbor attack, just as she is preparing to return stateside after visiting her mother's relations. Unwilling to renounce her American citizenship, she finds herself under oppressive scrutiny from Japanese officials but still risks her own safety to help POWs imprisoned there and becomes one of several radio hosts, secretly underming the govt's plans to demoralize the US and Australian troops with cheeky broadcasts.

Fairly riveting story; I'm glad that Iva's perspective could be told even if the creators (writer/artist) aren't Japanese-American. They did take some pains to hire an Asian (Chinese American) letterer, though it would have been better if there were fewer mispellings in the final product, and three Asian-American "sensitivity reader" but oddly only one of these three is Japanese-American (the other two being Chinese- and Vietnamese-American). I think the point of attempting to get the opinions from people of the culture represented is sort of lost, but I guess we're supposed to say at least they tried???? Hopefully next time they'll try a little harder.

That all aside, I enjoyed this story.… (mais)