Svoboda's uncle was a former military policeman in U.S. occupied Japan who boasted a washboard stomach even at age 80. He loved telling war stories until the news of Abu Ghraib reached him, after which he fell into a severe depression. The tapes on which he was recording his memoirs ended abruptly with his suicide, sparking Svoboda's interest in her uncle's history and her investigative trip to Japan where she conducted extensive research on her uncle's experiences as an MP in Japan, including his shocking claim that Americans were executed by their own countrymen.