## Facts

- Iva Ikuko Toguri D’Aquino, a natural-born U.S. citizen, worked in Japan during World War II on radio programming broadcast through the Broadcasting Corporation of Japan.
- The government alleged she served as an announcer and participant in programs directed at U.S. armed forces in the Pacific, intended to undermine morale and war effectiveness.
- She was indicted for treason based on eight alleged overt acts occurring between 1943 and 1945.
- The jury acquitted her on seven overt acts and convicted her only on overt act No. 6: an October 1944 studio broadcast in Tokyo in which she spoke into a microphone about the loss of ships.
- D’Aquino admitted participating in some broadcasts but argued her actions lacked treasonable intent and were not meaningfully harmful.
- She asserted duress, claiming wartime conditions and Japanese pressure made refusal dangerous and left her no realistic ability to withdraw or leave.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence was sufficient to prove treason based on overt act No. 6, including intent to adhere to the enemy and give aid and comfort.
2. Whether duress was established as a matter of law such that she was entitled to acquittal or, instead, was a jury question.
3. Whether alleged instructional, evidentiary, and procedural errors required a new trial.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit affirmed the conviction.
- The court held the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the government, was sufficient for a rational jury to find that the October 1944 broadcast constituted aid and comfort to the enemy and reflected the requisite intent.
- The court held duress was not conclusively shown; the record permitted competing inferences about threats, alternatives, and voluntariness, making the issue appropriate for the jury.
- The court found no reversible error in the instructions, evidentiary rulings, or trial procedures.

## Legal Principles

- Treason requires adherence to the enemy and giving aid and comfort, proved through an overt act meeting constitutional proof requirements.
- Participation in enemy propaganda broadcasts aimed at U.S. forces may constitute aid and comfort when the content and context support an inference that the broadcasts were intended to weaken U.S. war efforts.
- On appellate review of sufficiency, evidence is assessed in the light most favorable to the prosecution; a verdict stands if a rational factfinder could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
- Duress is an affirmative defense generally turning on factual questions about immediacy and severity of threats and the availability of reasonable alternatives; it is resolved by the jury unless the evidence compels only one conclusion.

## Conclusion

The court upheld D’Aquino’s treason conviction, concluding that the October 1944 broadcast provided a legally sufficient overt act from which a jury could find aid-and-comfort intent, and that her duress claim and asserted trial errors did not warrant reversal or a new trial.


D’Aquino v. United States, 192 F.2d 338 (9th Cir. 1951)