"To hell with FDR, Babe Ruth and Roy Acuff!"
David Tenner
during World War II yelled "To hell with Roosevelt! To hell with Babe
Ruth! To hell with Roy Acuff!" It *sounds* plausible, because this was a
time when country music was really coming into its own, white southern
troops having carried their musical preferences with them. (Also the
ASCAP-BMI battle had encouraged the dissemination of forms of music that
ASCAP had looked down on when it had a near-monopoly on music publishing.)
And Acuff was a particular favorite of country (or "hillbilly" as it was
still often called) fans--a fact which could presumably make its way to
the Japanese. Still, I have never seen any specific citation of the
*source* of this report--only things like "American soldiers claimed that
the Japnese had taunted them by shouting" etc., with no contemporary
newspaper citations being given for which American soldiers claimed this
and where and when and to whom.
It sounds a little bit too much like someone's (soldier or otherwise)
imagination of "just the kind of thing the Japs would do"--screaming
insults at the country's political leader, greatest sprots icon, and
greatest star of a recently popular field of popular music. Does anyone
have anything to verify or debunk this "battle cry"?
--
David Tenner
dte...@ameritech.net
Louise Bremner
> A number of web sites claim that Japanese troops charging American troops
> during World War II yelled "To hell with Roosevelt! To hell with Babe
> Ruth! To hell with Roy Acuff!"
That's one heck of a mouthful for a non-native speaker of English to
manage.
________________________________________________________________________
Louise "*tsu heru wizu roozubueruto!*" Bremner (log at gol dot com)
If you want a reply by e-mail, don't write to my Yahoo address!
MonkeyHawk
>> A number of web sites claim that Japanese troops charging American troops
>> during World War II yelled "To hell with Roosevelt! To hell with Babe
>> Ruth! To hell with Roy Acuff!"
>
> That's one heck of a mouthful for a non-native speaker of English to
> manage.
Wonder if it might have some connection to Tokyo Rose's broadcasts.
I remember a piece on her mumble-mumble years back. She was a first
generation American, as I recall, who more or less got trapped in Japan when
she was visiting (going to school? something) and WWII broke out.
Since she spoke unaccented English, and knew American jargon, she was given
the Tokyo Rose gig.
Among her stories were how she'd broadcast propaganda that sounded spot on
to the Japanese, but were patently absurd to American GIs. "While you're
fighting, Joe, your girlfriend is back home sleeping with Donald Duck," or
somesuch.
"Roosevelt, Ruth, and Acuff" seems to fit that kind of context.
Lon
Although Roy Acuff was pretty famous in the early 40's, he was still
somewhat new...one would think that the Japanese troops would be more
likely to diss someone more legendary at the time, such as Jimmie
Rodgers.
Lon "...or it may have just been an off the cuff remark" Stowell
Hugh Gibbons
dame_...@yahoo.com (Louise Bremner) wrote:
> David Tenner <dte...@ameritech.net> wrote:
>
> > A number of web sites claim that Japanese troops charging American troops
> > during World War II yelled "To hell with Roosevelt! To hell with Babe
> > Ruth! To hell with Roy Acuff!"
>
> That's one heck of a mouthful for a non-native speaker of English to
> manage.
Don't be silly. Everybody speaks English. I know because I've been to
Japan and everybody I talked to there spoke English.
Hugh "sampling bias" Gibbons
Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.
-- Anonymous
Crashj
<dte...@ameritech.net> wrote something like:
>A number of web sites claim that Japanese troops charging American troops
>during World War II yelled "To hell with Roosevelt! To hell with Babe
>Ruth! To hell with Roy Acuff!" It *sounds* plausible,
No it doesn't. My uncles report the Japs mostly screamed,
"aaaaaeriihhhhgggrrrh" just like they do in their comics today. Then
they died.
--
Crashj
MonkeyHawk
> <dte...@ameritech.net> wrote something like:
>
>>A number of web sites claim that Japanese troops charging American troops
>>during World War II yelled "To hell with Roosevelt! To hell with Babe
>>Ruth! To hell with Roy Acuff!" It *sounds* plausible,
>
> No it doesn't. My uncles report the Japs mostly screamed,
> "aaaaaeriihhhhgggrrrh" just like they do in their comics today. Then
> they died.
Pronounced "aaaaaeliihhhhggglllh," of course.
JoAnne Schmitz
wrote:
Wasn't there some recent war propaganda that involved opponents of the
Americans claiming the wives and girlfriends of the American soldiers were
home sleeping with Bart Simpson?
JoAnne "cowabunga, dude!" Schmitz
--
The new Urban Legends website is <http://www.tafkac.org>
That's TAFKAC.ORG
Do not accept lame imitations at previously okay URLs
Lee Ayrton
> On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 02:00:58 GMT, "MonkeyHawk" <monke...@sbcglobal.net>
> wrote:
>
>> "Louise Bremner" <dame_...@yahoo.com> wrote
>>
>>>> A number of web sites claim that Japanese troops charging American
>>>> troops during World War II yelled "To hell with Roosevelt! To hell
>>>> with Babe Ruth! To hell with Roy Acuff!"
>>>
>>> That's one heck of a mouthful for a non-native speaker of English to
>>> manage.
>>
>> Wonder if it might have some connection to Tokyo Rose's broadcasts.
[snip]
>> Among her stories were how she'd broadcast propaganda that sounded spot
>> on to the Japanese, but were patently absurd to American GIs. "While
>> you're fighting, Joe, your girlfriend is back home sleeping with Donald
>> Duck," or somesuch.
>
> Wasn't there some recent war propaganda that involved opponents of the
> Americans claiming the wives and girlfriends of the American soldiers
> were home sleeping with Bart Simpson?
Good memory. That was during the Great Toilet Paper Shortage, I think.
2. Urban Legends Reference Pages: Radio (Baghdad Betty)
<URL:http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/radio/baghdad.htm>
Lee "One over Parr" Ayrton
--
"I defer to your plainly more vivid memories of topless women with
whips....r"
R. H. Draney recalls AFU in the Good Old Days.
Tom Sevart
"MonkeyHawk" <monke...@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:rt0Jd.14382$wZ2....@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com...
> > No it doesn't. My uncles report the Japs mostly screamed,
> > "aaaaaeriihhhhgggrrrh" just like they do in their comics today. Then
> > they died.
>
> Pronounced "aaaaaeliihhhhggglllh," of course.
What about "BANZAI!!!"?
I was told that that word means something like "Japan will last forever" but
not being a Japanese speaker I have no idea if it's true or not.
Tom
R H Draney
>
>What about "BANZAI!!!"?
>
>I was told that that word means something like "Japan will last forever" but
>not being a Japanese speaker I have no idea if it's true or not.
It's hard to get worked up about someone who attacks you while yelling "LITTLE
TREE!"...r
Louise Bremner
If ever you need to look up a Japanese word, you could JimBreen[1] it:
<http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/jwb/wwwjdic?1C>
Click on the checkbox next to the text-entry field, and select "the_lot"
from the drop-down dictionary menu if you don't get results the first
time.
[1] Elsewhere in cyberspace, there's discussion about how Jim Breen's
name has become verbed, like Google.
________________________________________________________________________
Louise "" Bremner (log at gol dot com)
JoAnne Schmitz
> Although Roy Acuff was pretty famous in the early 40's, he was still
> somewhat new...one would think that the Japanese troops would be more
> likely to diss someone more legendary at the time, such as Jimmie
> Rodgers.
The Lexis-Nexis Elf pointed me to the following, which gives a rationale
for the ire of the Japanese:
Copyright 1992 Newspaper Publishing PLC
The Independent (London)
November 24, 1992, Tuesday
SECTION: GAZETTE PAGE; Page 29
LENGTH: 867 words
HEADLINE: Obituary: Roy Acuff
BYLINE: By LAURENCE STAIG
"The United States' entry into the war consolidated the importance of
traditional values for the American people, and Acuff's style was well
suited to this perspective. A wartime hit for Acuff was Cowards over Pearl
Harbor. The war correspondent Ernie Pyle claimed that Japanese troops in
the South Pacific lured US forces into battle with a particular war cry:
''To hell with Roosevelt! To hell with Babe Ruth! To hell with Roy Acuff!''
Astonishingly, an armed forces survey held by the army's Yank magazine
after the war voted Roy Acuff as the most popular vocalist, above Frank
Sinatra. Acuff was described as a folk artist, the new industry term for
hillbilly."
JoAnne "leaving the 'new industry term' game to someone else" Schmitz
Jordan Abel
It doesn't say anything about "japan" itself - it's just a generic "long
live X" - it means literally "Ten thousand years" ["years" being the
character for 'years of age']