Goodbye George, Hello Iva.
Iva Toguri D'Aquino
I printed the face of Iva Toguri D'Aquino on several dollar bills. Two of the dollar bills have 3 images of Iva's face covering that of George Washington. For the third bill I cut Iva's face from a fourth bill and pasted it on the image of Washington's face. On the other side of the bills I wrote Iva's name so that people interested in taking the initiative can find out who she is.
Iva Toguri D'Aquino spent 6 years in prinson for wrongfully being accused of treason (Even though she has been cited as doing things such as risking her life to smuggle food to allied POW's in Japan). After Iva was released from prison on parole she had to fight against deportation attempts. The testimonies that put Iva in person were later found to be lies, but none of the witness were prosecuted for perjury. Eva was "pardoned" (pardoning implies guilt) by Presiden Ford 21 years after she left prison. Although she was given the Edward J Herlihy Citizenship Award by the World War II Veterans Committee (months before her death), her story is not remains largely obscured within dominant historical narratives of national heroes. Therefore I chose to replace Washington's face on several bills with Toguri's to memorialize her. My "Something" is intended to be a commentary about history, nationalism and patriotism.
I put one dollar bill in a donation jar on College Avenue.
I used one dollar to buy a bagel and soymilk.
I left third dollar bill on a EE bus seat.
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