The Strange, Tragic Saga of “Tokyo Rose”

Iva Toguri, alias “Tokyo Rose” in her first interview with the military press corps- Sept, 1945

Our boys in the Pacific Theatre of World War Two called her “Tokyo Rose” , an English-speaking   American-accented woman who made radio broadcasts to allied servicemen from a powerful transmitter located on the Japanese home islands.  Between popular songs, she would direct insults and threats at leaders such as McArthur or Roosevelt or coyly make statements designed to undermine American morale such as: “Hey fellas, don’t you know that your girlfriend back home has forgotten you?  Especially irritating when mail was slow and morale was low.  Often she would get almost personal, identifying and directing remarks toward a specific army or marine unit or the crew of a naval vessel, giving their precise location and making dire predictions of a terrible fate that awaited them, which often worried the men until they realized that if an enemy attack really was imminent, the enemy was rather unlikely to warn the Americans before they struck. Nevertheless the men, despite the fact that the broadcasts were carefully orchestrated pieces of enemy propaganda, tuned in and listened, often laughing at the clumsy jokes, enjoying the music, and angrily denouncing ”Tokyo Rose,”  the announcer- the woman they loved to hate.  What most of our brave men didn’t realize was this: “Tokyo Rose” didn’t exist. There was no woman, no announcer calling herself: “Tokyo Rose.”

After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, it was said that American authorities entering the defeated country were interested in getting their hands on two particular people who were to be immediately arrested and put on trial: Hedeki Tojo, the army warlord who, more than any other, pushed his nation into war with the US, and the infamous radio announcer: Tokyo Rose. When they found Tojo, they found him only a few minutes after he committed hari-kari, a ritual suicide attempt. He botched it however, revived and was put on trial and later convicted.  “Tokyo Rose” , whoever she was, had blended into the crowd and was nowhere to be found.

About a month after the war’s end in September, 1945 two clever journalists put the word out that they would pay $2000 for an interview with “Tokyo Rose.” Badly in need of money so that she could get back home to the states a woman living in Yokohama stepped forward to give the interview and claim the reward.  Though she found the term “Tokyo Rose” strange, and laughed when her questioners insisted upon using  it, she cheerfully answered all queries making it obvious that she had little to hide.  As any lawyer would now say: big mistake.  As soon as the interview with journalists was finished she was arrested and taken to Sagumo Prison and placed in a cell alongside former Japanese officers awaiting trial for war crimes.  She never saw a dime of the money.  The whole thing had been a trap.

What about the Emperor? His Imperial Majesty? Could a “Jap” get any more guilty than this guy? General McArthur had given strict instructions that he was NOT to be arrested or harassed in any way.  Only specially authorized personnel were allowed to enter the Imperial Compound. To all but a few, the Emperor was off limits. Another tale for another day perhaps.

The naïve little woman arrested was Iva Toguri D’Aquino.  And she had indeed been involved in broadcasts to American servicemen in the final months of the war, something she made no effort to hide. During her initial confinement in Sagumo Prison she cooperated in every way, eagerly telling the authorities her story: that she had been born and raised in the US but while visiting extended family in Japan found herself stuck there when the war started. After keeping a low profile and avoiding notice for most of the war she was finally snatched up by local officials, brought to the radio station and forced to make the broadcasts. Japanese officials had ways of forcing people to do things. During hostilities she knew nothing of the moniker “Tokyo Rose,” having always identified herself on air as “Orphan Ann.” Her English-challenged superiors, she insisted, had been unable to closely monitor the content of her shows and no one else, it seems, tipped them off to what she was really saying, comments, she insisted, that were in no way treasonous, as regarding US security, or destructive to US morale. When skeptical investigators, a group that included members of McArthur’s own staff,  listened to tapes of her show, called the “Zero Hour” and interviewed various co-workers including three American and Austrailian POW’s and friends of her’s who had also been forced to work at the same radio station, they were forced to admit that she was telling the truth.  Her friends also claimed that she had, at considerable risk and expense to herself, smuggled food to starving American POWs confined nearby. After being held for over a year the charges against her were finally dropped and she was released. When asked what her plans were she replied that she simply wanted to go home to the United States. But money for passage home was still a problem.   And she and her husband (they had met and married during the war) had no choice but to remain in Japan.  Having been assured that the matter was dropped Iva returned to her relatives in Yokohama.

Other broadcasters had preceded “Orphan Ann.” She was simply the last in the “Tokyo Rose” lineup. Curiously, and as far as I can tell, investigators made no effort to find and question them.  After the publicity surrounding Iva’s arrest these women were, understandably, eager to “stay under the radar” and out of sight.  US occupation authorities simply dropped the matter. They must have had more important matters demanding  their attention, things  like reconstructing a nation that lay mostly in ruins and putting together a new government and constitution.

Unfortunately the story doesn’t end there.  Back in the states gossip columnist and radio announcer Walter Winchell got wind of the matter and began to angrily broadcast that “Tokyo Rose” herself had been “turned loose.”  This got things stirred up again.  The American public clamored for a real trial.  Therefore, in September 1948, Iva, to her utter astonishment, was rearrested and transported to San Francisco. She stepped onto US soil with flashbulbs popping. Amidst tremendous publicity she, as a US citizen, was charged by Federal prosecutors with eight counts of treason:  “Adhering to, and giving aid and comfort to the Imperial government of Japan during World War Two.”

The trial of “Tokyo Rose” that took place in the Federal District Court of San Francisco in July, 1949 was one of the longest and costliest in US history.  Though prosecutors went after her with a vengeance in the end she was convicted on only one count,   “overt act VI”   charging that she had said after the battle of Leyte Gulf: “Now you fellows have lost all your ships. You truly are orphans. How will you ever get home?” Iva denied that she had ever said it, a vague allusion to a battle that had already occurred, hardly a violation of US security. The conviction occurred because the prosecution, with resources to spare,  had brought over her former bosses to testify that they had heard her say this though they furnished no tapes or corroborating witnesses to prove it. Years later, when the case was reopened by investigators, it was discovered that her former bosses, trying to curry favor with American authorities and save their own skins (since they themselves were threatened with prosecution), had lied. Imagine that.  They cut a deal and it worked-well sorta. They had hoped for a much harsher sentence.  The trial came to an end and Iva Toguri went to jail and the matter was officially over.

The sentence was ten years in prison plus a $100,000 fine.  Iva served six years of the sentence before being released in 1955. She never paid the fine; she was penniless.  By this time the public had forgotten about her.  She moved to Chicago to be with her parents, who themselves had spent time in a confinement camp during the war, and lived there until her death of natural causes in 2006 at the age of ninety. She was never reunited with her husband. He had remained in Japan having been denied a visa to enter the US-a sad tale indeed.

There were however, a couple of bright spots in her tale. In the nineteen seventies two journalists (already alluded to) became interested once again in her trial and released a report proving conclusively that the testimony against her offered by her former employers at the radio station in Japan had been engineered by FBI agents and was therefore fraudulent. Upon hearing of this, President Gerald Ford, himself a veteran of the Pacific Theatre, pardoned her in his final official act before leaving office in 1977. Nearly thirty years later, in 2006, the World War Two Veterans committee awarded Iva the “Edward J. Herlihy Award” honoring her “indomitable spirit, love of country, and the example of courage she has given her fellow Americans.” Friends said that she considered this honor “the most memorable day of my life.” It came just in time.  She died later that year and went to her grave free at last of the curse of Tokyo Rose.  Her friends and family said that she never considered giving up her US citizenship or going back to Japan. She remained in the US, her country of birth and the land she loved, and despite everything, was fiercely loyal to the end. She was no traitor, Iva Toguri, God bless her, was a hero.

No, there never was a “Tokyo Rose” anyway. This was simply a generic, catch-all name that American servicemen in the Pacific had placed upon all of the women who made the broadcasts. Though it can never be established conclusively, there could have been, so some scholars have speculated, a dozen of them.  It is likely that a few of them did the broadcasts willingly and with enthusiasm. It is likely that a few of them really were traitors. But we’ll never know. They’re lost to history.

On the other side of the world “Tokyo Rose” had a counterpart who was not lost to history. Our GI’s  in Europe during hostilities listened to one they called “Axis Sally”, a certain Mildred Gillars, a native of Maine who immigrated to Germany not long after Hitler came to power and later, after the US entry into the war against Germany, made Nazi propaganda broadcasts specially and specifically  designed to undermine the morale of US service persons. She was for real and predictably enough, was nowhere to be found at the war’s end. After a three and a half-year search she was finally located, arrested and brought to the US to stand trial for treason in 1949. Her trial, occurring about the same time as that of Iva Toguri, did not, curiously, attract much attention.  Once the trial was underway,  there was no need for the prosecution to “take the low road.”  The case against her was very strong.  Astonishingly enough, she was only convicted (like Iva) on one count.  Having been an actress in Germany prior to her broadcasting days, we can only guess that she must have put on an impressive show making jury and judge feel sorry for her. Still she served ten years in prison. After her release in 1961 she joined a convent and died in 1988 at the age of 88. Maybe the daily rosary helped her guilty conscience.  Unlike her Japanese-American counterpart, there has never been any doubt, then or now, about Mildred Gillars: she was a traitor to her country.  And she received no pardon. Well…not in this world anyway.

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