Collection relating to the service of NX34734 Reginald William James Newton

Seremban, Malaya. 1941-08. Portrait of NX34932 Captain Charles Cousens, Officer Commanding `A' Company, 2/19th Battalion AIF. A radio announcer for Radio 2GB in Sydney before the war, Cousens enlisted on the 1 July 1940. He was promoted to Major two days before he was captured in Malaya by the Japanese when Singapore fell in 1942. He was interned in Bunka Camp, Tokyo, and was manipulated by Major Shigetsugu Tsuneishi, of the Japanese Imperial Army, to broadcast Japanese propaganda programs for Radio Tokyo. Major Cousens was instrumental in providing content for the first program 'The Zero Hour', editing propaganda scripts, announcing the news, and reading prisoner-of-war messages in a flat, monotonous voice, often with double meanings undetectable by Japanese listeners. He was also influential in the hiring and training of lva Toguri, later notorious in the press as "Tokyo Rose". After the war Charles Cousens was subject to a court of enquiry for treason, but the case was later dropped.