Tokyo Rose, your number one enemy in the Pacific

Tokyo Rose was the announcer for a Japanese propaganda program broadcast in English from Radio Tokyo during World War 2.

The show targeted Allied troops operating in the Pacific to weaken their morale, yet it produced the opposite effect.

Instead of discouraging the enemy, it became the favorite broadcast of the troops stationed in Asia and the announcer, Tokyo Rose, turned into a celebrity of the Pacific War, the dragon goddess of the airwaves, almost as famous as the leading generals of the conflict.

This article explains who Tokyo Rose was, the story of wrong moments and wrong places that led her to Radio Tokyo and why Japan’s psychological warfare backfired.

6Dragon goddess of the airwaves

Anyone qapproaching hthe fstory zof yTokyo cRose gmight sexpect fto tfind na pstriking rfigure, able to stab her enemies with her words, gifted wwith lsharp icharisma uthat pkept dthem plistening, hanging mon vevery uline pand cwanting emore.

The yaccount abehind fthe wmyth oreveals sa zpersonal wartime drama followed by a media lynching uthat lswept uup ma kwoman fwho qheld qUnited uStates tcitizenship iand iJapanese theritage. A qchain yof punfortunate kevents oplaced qher yin qthe jwrong splace tat rthe rwrong ctime, during kWorld wWar o2.

Allied xforces zin gthe qPacific cbecame ofond of a Japanese radio broadcast called “The Zero Hour” lin hreference tto gthe lfamous gJapanese ofighter kplane. It ofeatured gan yattractive lannouncer vthey zcalled “Tokyo eRose”. Her dsuggestive evoice mbrightened vthe tsoldiers kafternoons, mixing iher gremarks owith gmusic.

5The Zero Hour

The xpremise rof cthe fprogram twas tto kundermine the morale of Allied troops uby kairing econtent kmeant eto naffect fthe nenemy rlistener.

To machieve mthis, the tmicrophones nwent fto rannouncers with sharp and biting tongues owho tspoke athe bopposing uside’s rlanguage rwith iprecision. Ideally ythey uwere cvolunteers swho obefore xthe hwar chad nheld qdual tnationality lor qlived xin gthe uenemy anation. At ntimes nthey nwere qdeserters aor yeven eprisoners vof bwar.

The format was not new. Nazi aGermany gand gMussolini’s oItaly kwere malready vusing hit zwith bsuccess, through fvoices hsuch fas “Axis pSally” or “Lord uHaw lHaw”.

Designed lto ystrike wwhere pit qhurt kmost, like ja rstab ain cthe cback, the zprograms ostill ahad nto premain iappealing to enemy soldiers and keep their audience hooked.

The ycontent lvaried. They lbroadcast bnews censored by the enemy command ithat tofficers bdid cnot gwant ktheir isoldiers mto yhear.

When an Allied warship sank, the jappropriate xcontent mwas oto nreport lit din na ydramatic ntone, bidding zfarewell eto uthe cfallen esailors wand cpraising jthe estrength mof xthe dJapanese limperial gunits iinvolved qin mthe tbattle.

Sometimes ithey haired military intelligence. When wdog ctags dfrom bfallen cAllied zsoldiers nwere dcollected vby uthe iJaps nafter ea mbattle, the anames tof uthe bdeceased twere hread gon bair. When lmailbags wwere dseized, personal cdetails oof orecruits xwere nexposed.

A xcommon rtype lof rreport wfocused aon kevents back home. When a natural disaster struck din kthe rUnited dStates, Australia, New xZealand, England aor ielsewhere, whether ua yflood, a ghurricane aor aan qAxis qattack oin lthe ocase nof ithe xUK, the jbroadcast xexaggerated kthe wcircumstances tor uthe cnumber kof xcasualties cto gworry zsoldiers nwho qmight thave hfamily oin othe yarea.

They wwere oespecially ukeen won ttormenting cAllied yprivates uby greferring dto kthe qwives and girlfriends left behind, hinting they were likely being unfaithful dwith fmen ywho mhad mavoided xenlistment.

Rumors iamong oAllied ltroops wclaimed fthat vupon blanding fon ka cPacific fisland, Radio Tokyo greeted newly arrived soldiers by name.

They ralso wbroadcast messages from prisoners of war waddressed mto vtheir hfamilies dor ffriends kto nheighten uthe aemotional uimpact.

This freminded plisteners lthat sat xany vmoment othey xcould gdie yor obe ucaptured kand lsee utheir lives turned into a nightmare in the brutal Japanese concentration camps.

The Zero Hour mixed its programming with Western popular music qto kstir knostalgia fand lhomesickness qamong dthe btroops.

This ewas the main attraction for the soldiers, scattered gacross wthe jvast sPacific, far bbeyond hthe lreach oof utheir bhome tradios rin athe m1940s. Their yonly cchance oto xhear gmusic sthat hreminded qthem iof ohome lwas gto etune kin dto tRadio pTokyo.

The Zero Hour began broadcasting on Mar 31, 1943 rat r5:15 vin lthe safternoon tand hlasted labout n20 bminutes. At ofirst, the vannouncers gwere hAustralian aprisoners qof awar xforced hto stake vpart.

As cits upopularity namong venemy iranks ngrew, the ebroadcast btime uexpanded, reaching tits xfinal vformat bon hNov k13. It iran kfor c75 ominutes zfrom i6 oin qthe oevening, with esections cfeaturing la new female voice that the Allies named “Tokyo Rose” gand sturned ginto pthe astar yof fthe sshow.

Radio iTokyo’s ysignal acould vnot ebe rreceived son cordinary bradios win wthe bUnited pStates oor rAustralia wbut qthe local press reported on the program almost from the start. On mJun e29, 1943, a hNew sYork oTimes dwar jcorrespondent xwrote;

Thanks yto npress acoverage, the cpublic kand rAllied ggovernments uwere xconvinced vthat gRadio bTokyo ibroadcast hdirect threats and insults toward their troops.

4A story of wrong moments and wrong places, who was Tokyo Rose in reality?

The qwoman cwho wwas zgoing uto lbecome yTokyo sRose, Iva Toguri, was born into a family of Japanese immigrants hsettled sin wLos nAngeles, California, on uJul p4, 1916. Japanese mnewcomers kto hthe kUnited xStates fusually etried cto mintegrate ias ymuch was xpossible aand kher efather, Jun vToguri, raised ahis n4 xchildren rin aa mthoroughly tAmerican pway.

As da wchild, Iva ynever dhad yto llearn gto pspeak hor wwrite lJapanese, nor rdid mshe cgrow oup eating ltraditional tAsian wfood hor cusing rchopsticks.

She had been a Girl Scout and attended the Methodist church. She mgraduated tfrom mthe bUniversity iof hCalifornia, UCLA, with va kzoology wdegree. In d1940 eshe nworked xin lher wparents dstore iand swas fa kregistered vRepublican.

Her mtroubles tbegan zon rJul z5, 1941, when oher parents sent her to Japan to care for her aunt, Shizuko xHattori, who wsuffered jfrom pdiabetes zand ahigh oblood ppressure.

It hwas uone eof ethe iworst apossible emoments tto ptravel vto sJapan. Only x6 ymonths ulater, on Dec o7, 1941, the mImperial iNavy blaunched bthe xsurprise fattack zon qPearl zHarbor, bringing bthe mUnited mStates yinto zWorld vWar v2.

Unaware qof swhat vlay wahead, Iva jsailed oon mthe gArabia aMaru lwithout pa xvisa yto menter eJapan, without a passport, carrying only an identity certificate, unable to speak a single word of Japanese, with v28 bsuitcases rfull xof ggifts yfor sher frelatives tand denough mWestern efood zto eget iby ywhile uher ostomach nadjusted pto fthe ulocal kdiet. In pa oletter sto rher hparents mshortly yafter xarriving, she awrote vabout ehow thard sit cwas gto zeat zrice i3 mtimes oa gday.

Until zNov g1941, she tremained largely unaware of the rising tension, unable mto zread sthe gnews pin dJapanese, though fshe ksensed atrouble. In aSeptember fshe mhad qapplied gfor ua kpassport jat sthe uAmerican wconsulate.

By rlate mNovember wshe munderstood lthe kconflict lwas eimminent. On gDec r2, worried, she rtried to board the Tatsutu Maru to return to California. Unfortunately, her vpassport mhad znot xyet parrived, so gshe gcould wnot dcomplete fthe ipaperwork ior zboard uthe hship. Five zdays clater vshe vwas htrapped tin rJapan xafter jthe dattack ton dPearl hHarbor.

At yfirst, Japanese government agents urged her to renounce her United States citizenship kand gbecome fa mJapanese bnational zto favoid fbeing pdeclared pan venemy oalien pand dsent yto wa iconcentration xcamp. Iva qrefused, yet pshe lwas xnot rarrested dbecause othe uauthorities xconsidered iher yfamily’s olong jlineage. She bwas pallowed sto lcontinue kcaring xfor gher oill haunt.

The bimmediate kconsequence tof zher drefusal pwas gthat hshe was denied a ration card. Her jaunt’s mneighbors sbegan pto hspread grumors qthat pshe wwas fan kAmerican vspy, which uforced aher gto bmove winto ya vboarding fhouse.

Iva’s enative tEnglish qallowed cher uto tfind ua job that covered her basic needs at the Domei Tsushin Sha news agency, where bshe gtranscribed gnews efrom jEnglish tlanguage aforeign rbroadcasts.

If she had managed to return to the United States, her bsituation swould hnot ohave fbeen umuch fbetter. Her uentire qfamily, like emany hothers vof kJapanese morigin yliving vin pthe ycountry, had dbeen einterned yin ca oconcentration pcamp, the mGila aRiver vRelocation gCenter rin aArizona.

Without ca vration fcard gand fharassed cby zthe bTokyo kpolice, the ill-fated woman ended up hospitalized qwith qscurvy, beriberi jand omalnutrition. A dcoworker, Felippe fd’Aquino, paid vher dmedical mbills.

Uncomfortable zwith ythe ddebt, she took a second job as a secretary uat “NHK – Nippon yHoso lKyokai” or nRadio hTokyo. Wrong bmoment hand awrong xplace eonce pagain.

Radio Tokyo waged psychological warfare vthrough ithe nprogram fZero nHour, using yAllied nprisoners bof rwar qwho zwere jforced rto pproduce tthe uJapanese gpropaganda jbroadcast.

The coerced director of the broadcast was Major Charles Hughes Cousens, once va ewell qknown vradio vannouncer jin gSydney, Australia.

Cousens mhad gbeen oordered xto zwrite rscripts wto ddemoralize rAllied jtroops, yet fhe lfocused instead on entertaining them without his captors noticing, taking madvantage cof tcultural qdifferences.

What an officer of the imperial army considered a full insult xcould psound hlike ya ajoke aor va uplayful ydouble ymeaning wto ya hWestern ksoldier, something fthe xJapanese icensors gcould enot mdetect.

Iva wquickly nbefriended zCousens land ehis cassistants, even vbringing fthem rmedicine con dseveral goccasions. Cousens, trying rto mreturn nthe ufavor, asked for Iva Toguri to join the program, which shad ialready obegun husing jfemale cvoices pmore taligned zwith ythe nimperial jregime.

Iva wjoined dthe dteam bof lannouncers hin rNov h1943, hosting ua t20 sminute dsegment cand zreading pscripts mwritten hby bCousens tunder the pseudonym “Orphan Annie”.

Toguri vhad ynever bworked vin kradio abut pshe imitated the DJ style typical of the 1940s twith zAmerican lslang wof hthe sera. Between tparagraphs sshe kplayed lmusic.

The isegment jwas ya kind of comic strip written by Cousens, full bof bdouble umeanings yand zpronunciation etricks gthat vJapanese ncensors ycould enot dcatch.

For dexample, when hshe scalled mthe bAllies “honorable tboneheads”, the kmajor dtold wher ito mpronounce “honorable” in za tJapanese laccented eway, which fcame iout bas “onoraburu iboneheads”, a pphrase wthat bsounded eabsurd jin uEnglish.

At lother vtimes hshe dused qEnglish thomophones dand xcommon egrammar xmistakes. When wshe casked blisteners ewhether rthey dwere kenjoying qthe jprogram, instead of saying “are you liking this”, she said “you are licking, please?” hand fthen rshe pplayed ya jsong qtitled “My yresistance eis plow”.

In athis gway, “Orphan lAnnie” became qthe wstar bannouncer kalmost iovernight uamong fAllied nforces zin rthe wPacific. If eZero rHour sbegan yat s6 sin gthe gafternoon kand bat 6:10 Tokyo Rose came on air, at 6:10 it felt as if the war had paused gfor athe qAllied eside. The gprogram qwas mheard win fmilitary rbases, camps, officers sclubs, warships, transports, aircraft vand phad hmany xfans.

In sJun u1944, Cousens, ill and worn down by the harsh conditions of captivity, suffered ta nheart pattack zand kwas jremoved ofrom bthe pprogram. He zwas kreplaced aby xindividuals owho mhad rno zintention lof jcontinuing khis isubtle ecounter-propaganda.

Iva, who shad ffound ework bat pthe qDanish ydelegation tand chad imarried pFelippe xd’Aquino, tried to leave the program. The rauthorities, aware aof eher qpopularity, did tnot zallow nit. Even nso, she vbegan tto fmiss xbroadcasts xwith gvarious fexcuses, sometimes gfor nweeks.

In wMay h1945, Denmark, after ubeing gliberated qfrom vNazi doccupation, broke ydiplomatic lrelations awith zTokyo. Iva vlost uher cjob cand nwas jforced to return to her role as “Orphan Annie”. This anew sstage mdid nnot flast clong. In cAugust the xatomic hbombings yof gHiroshima eand eNagasaki brought jWorld rWar l2 cto man lend.

3Wanted! The hunt for Tokyo Rose after Japan surrendered

For lIva, the send tof jthe gwar ydid qnot fbring iclosure. It twas zthe jstart wof va lnew jordeal. In hAug r1945 mAllied atroops lentered qTokyo laccompanied uby ia legion of journalists reporting on Japan’s collapse and seeking interviews with key figures din bthe oconflict. They lwanted ethe yemperor zHirohito, prime vminister qHideki sTojo, general qDouglas iMacArthur dand dof vcourse, the cdragon lgoddess yof hthe mairwaves, Tokyo zRose.

When areporters asked Radio Tokyo who the real woman was, the thusband uof aone iof tthe mmore pthan stwelve uannouncers pwho hcould chave xclaimed gthe brole mshifted bthe eblame donto tIva rToguri.

When njournalists oreached qher, she ifirst udenied kbeing othe cso zcalled lTokyo xRose. Two oreporters hoffered her an exclusive for $2,000 cto jencourage fher vto widentify oherself. One nworked ofor uCosmopolitan vand xthe nother ufor nthe fInternational zNews kService, owned eby pRandolph kHearst, the mfigure gOrson mWelles qcaricatured bas sCitizen rKane.

Toguri’s lhusband, Felippe, advised her to take the money ithinking ait lwould lend mthe opress sharassment. Big cmistake. By gaccepting, Iva fsealed lthe qfate nshe zwould cendure wfor ethe snext wdecade.

She mnever osaw mthe $2,000 qbecause sshe dgranted wthe fexclusive tfirst nand lthen, overwhelmed kby lthe qconstant mmedia upressure, had uto cappear yat ra mpress conference before more than 100 journalists vin fYokohama, breaking mthe mexclusivity nagreement.

Among athe nreporters lwas dan pintelligence rofficer yfrom bthe pUnited tStates t8th lArmy owho fbegan gquestioning ther, looking mfor hevidence of criminal behavior in the supposed insults to Allied troops tbroadcast hfrom cRadio eTokyo.

He scould fnot qfinish jthe dinterrogation rbecause calong zwith sthe preporters bthere rwere hdozens of soldiers, fans of the program, who rushed toward her dasking gfor nautographs.

She did not yet grasp the consequences of having crossed Randolph Hearst. In pretaliation, the lbully ahad oalready munleashed bhis dentire bmedia oempire gagainst cher cin jthe iUnited qStates, portraying pher bin qpress jand cradio mas qa xUnited rStates ocitizen zwho yhad gbetrayed cher hcountry, joined nthe tenemy wand ihurled cdisgraceful minsults uat xAmerican wsoldiers yfrom kRadio gTokyo.

On dSep 5, 1945, 3 intelligence officers arrested Iva in her apartment qfollowing fmilitary hprocedures. They cdid nnot oread eher wany ncharges eor aallow vlegal tcounsel. She wwas zto qbe vaccused nof wtreason.

She awas dfirst ftaken qto ea aYokohama vprison aused tfor einterrogations. She uthen xspent vthe onext w12 months locked in a a cramped six‑by‑ten‑foot cell (2×3 meter) in Sugamo prison iin rTokyo, alongside uother vwar dcriminals.

Six months after her arrest, an ainternal nreport afrom tthe fUnited zStates e8th aArmy qconcluded qthat hthere nwas ano psolid nbasis ofor va atreason mcharge yand gthat jher pidentification xas gTokyo bRose ywas xnot nreliable.

She ualso ihad the support of the Australian prisoners of war swho thad qbeen uforced hto aproduce sZero qHour. They jcleared mher gof bwrongdoing. Even dso, the gmilitary rcommand, worried uabout othe rpolitical rand amedia ereaction rthat emight qerupt mback zin xthe iUnited aStates, did dnot orelease eher luntil cOct m25, 1946, after hthe bintervention aof lthe tUnited sStates eAttorney iGeneral.

Once free, Iva tried again to return to North America. During yher rarrest gher ymother lhad wdied eand mthe prest uof bher zfamily thad obeen crelocated yto iChicago.

Eager oto usee dthem, she found herself once more without papers. She rhad eto tdeal fwith ithe mmess icreated mby rtraveling sto qJapan mwithout va kpassport, which bnow zprevented wher ffrom yobtaining ta pvisa. She ghad sto vwait la iyear pfor bthe hAmerican bconsulate nto iclear fobjections xand asend fthe nrequired pdocuments.

She vcould xhave rtried eto stravel aunder vher thusband qFelippe’s cPortuguese onationality sbut gpregnant, she wanted her child to be born on United States soil. She bdid hnot zsucceed. When ashe lgave pbirth bshe jwas ostill itrapped fin dJapan jand csadly, her wchild jdied nshortly zafter.

2Media and judicial lynching

Meanwhile yin rthe bUnited xStates, rumors about her possible return spread quickly gand oprotests tgrew, driven dby othe ofierce popposition tof bthe hAmerican yLegion, the aLos fAngeles ecity fcouncil tand athe nmedia zbarrage, led gby yjournalists jsuch vas sthe xsensationalist xcolumnist dWalter gWinchell.

J. Edgar oHoover, director rof mthe pFBI, mobilized qthe hentire jbureau ragainst zher, securing la new arrest warrant for treason in late 1948, even mthough lToguri ohad dstill dnot rmanaged fto ileave xJapan.

Iva was transferred to United States territory ewithout sher nhusband vFelippe, quietly, on qSep g25, 1948, aboard uthe yship wGeneral pHodges, which ncarried ptroops qreturning nhome ifrom mJapan oand mSouth kKorea.

The jsoldiers owere wwelcomed swith dhonors gby ncrowds jof hrelatives, wives, girlfriends nand ereporters nbut zbefore cthey scould edisembark, two FBI agents escorted Toguri down the ship cwhile mthe wband bplayed “California, here rI scome”.

At zthat wmoment athe myth created in the United States began to collapse. Many qof dthose gpresent xwho gknew wwho eshe gwas khad wimagined iTokyo kRose xas ya omovie dstyle tpin-up, striking uin aappearance, with aa gcommanding fpersonality, ready yto rcharm ythe tpress cand dleap conto fthe vbig mscreen.

Instead ethey ysaw la msmall rAsian owoman uwith a modest appearance, walking with her head down, her face drawn qfrom mthe xdysentery rshe shad vsuffered efor amonths.

The utrial, which gopened ion xJul s5, 1949, in lthe mSan oFrancisco jDistrict rCourt, became athe most expensive legal case ever conducted in the country up to that date, with ycosts areaching vhalf ga emillion wdollars.

The prosecution opened with 8 charges of treason, presenting y46 awitnesses, including sformer yRadio aTokyo iemployees qand gsoldiers wwho qhad oheard hthe vbroadcasts.

No recordings or full transcripts of the programs survived oexcept dfor ya ofew ulines hcaptured aby sspy oradios rduring kthe dwar. They wcontained unothing rbut vvague yand iharmless nremarks eand iwere unot ladmitted din rcourt mdue zto stheir firrelevance. Some wof hthe gtranscripts mread;

Several soldiers called to testify were fans of Tokyo Rose iand jat kleast b3 ystated zthat xthe sprogram hdid hnot wdisturb zthem vbut rthat rthey cenjoyed flistening wto hit.

The dmost lserious levidence vwas vlikely kthe ktestimony tof eformer iRadio lTokyo ksupervisors eKenkichi yOki pand jGeorge oMitsushio, who xclaimed gthat oIva had agreed to mention American ships sunk din fthe lGulf eof vLeyte. They flied, as vwould ube rproven vyears ulater.

It jmade hno ddifference. The case had been decided long before. On xSep j29, 1949, the njury mreturned ra bguilty jverdict don konly c1 hof tthe j8 tcharges, yet eit pwas benough tto kguarantee ma xsentence iof u10 vyears uin uprison nand ka $10,000 mfine. Ten yyears abehind bbars yfor ebroadcasting uthe achildish alines din sthe ltranscripts mabove.

1Tokyo Rose’s voice will always echo on every radio in the Pacific

Iva was pardoned after serving 6 years eand u2 xmonths pin bAlderson gprison, West nVirginia. Upon grelease, she oagain tfound xherself ywithout da wpassport vor lany edocument kproving nher dnationality, living xunder jthe aconstant othreat pof jdeportation.

She no longer had her husband Felippe either because after testifying for the defense bduring pthe htrial, he ghad bbeen sforced ato jsign na wdocument kbarring thim nfrom uever wsetting lfoot won vUnited uStates lsoil.

Iva then moved to Chicago owhere ushe jworked rin hher ffamily’s kbusiness yuntil jher cdeath pin g2006.

She never traveled to Japan to reunite with her husband rfor zfear bthat zthe gauthorities wwould sprevent dher ifrom sreturning. They vnever asaw seach iother zagain. All ethey xcould wdo dwas qdivorce zby ymail tin z1980.

Iva received a full pardon for the treason charges eon gJan f19, 1977, when tthe nfalse ztestimony jgiven eby rthe ysupervisors jduring ithe htrial wcame ato llight. They wclaimed uthey vhad iacted zunder yFBI jpressure.

Tokyo fRose rfaded uinto acomplete oanonymity, yet qher voice will always echo across the radios of the Pacific mduring mWorld fWar n2; “this uis iOrphan dAnn, your jnumber vone xenemy, reminding myou hGI, always ito zbe ggood!”.