Tokyo Rose (aka Orphan Ann) Dies at 90

Iva Ikuko Toguri was probably the most infamous female disc jockey in American history. Born in Los Angeles in 1916, Toguri was forced to broadcast propaganda for Japan during World War II after the U.S. abandoned her there just days before the Pearl Harbor attack.

In 1941, Toguri made an untimely trip to Japan to visit an ill relative, leaving the U.S. without a passport. Her attempt to return home without documentation was stymied: she applied for a passport from the U.S. Vice Consul in Japan, but the paperwork was still being processed when war was declared. Physically and culturally stuck, Toguri learned Japanese and held typist positions with various news agencies during the war.

Chosen out of the NHK/Radio Tokyo typing pool to be a disc jockey on The Zero Hour program by the very Allied POWs being beaten and starved into writing her shows, Toguri became adept at sabotaging her own broadcasts. Though employed to broadcast pro-Japanese propaganda, Toguri's outspoken support of the Allies off-mic (while cleverly concealing it within her message and delivery on-air) resulted in numerous arguments, fisticuffs, and sometimes daily 3 am harassments thanks to the Kempeitai Thought Police. She helped keep American soldiers alive (at mortal personal risk) with food, medicine, clothing, and hope during her almost daily visits to their cells.

As an American unwilling to denounce her citizenship, Toguri was not to be trusted by the Japanese, and as an American woman of Japanese extraction broadcasting for the Japanese, she was considered a traitor in her own country.

Iva kept her position at Radio Tokyo until the war ended, meanwhile the U.S. caught wind of the fact that American citizens were employed by the Japanese propaganda machine. The myth of "Tokyo Rose" (a general term applied to all English-speaking female broadcasters in Japan at the time) spread, and when American reporters arrived in Japan, they were eager to snag an interview with the Tokyo Rose. Led to Toguri by bribing a coworker at Radio Tokyo, a reporter from Cosmopolitan coaxed Iva into holding a press conference. She told her story, imagining that her 15 minutes of fame had finally arrived. Little did she know that her admission to broadcasting for the enemy would lead to an arrest for treason when she later attempted to return to California.

In spite of Iva's commitment to her American citizenship and the help she offered Allied POWs while employed by Radio Tokyo, Toguri was to be only person ever tried or sent to prison for Japanese WWII broadcasts. Her trial, based wholly upon perjured evidence that U.S. authorities fabricated by threatening two NHK workers, was the most expensive trial in American history up until that time. All of this for being an entirely mythical non-existent figure, for neither she nor anyone else had ever broadcast for the Japanese under the name "Tokyo Rose", although tales of such a "Tokyo Rose" that arose from the imaginations of Allied soldiers in the Pacific resulted in Iva Toguri paying the price as a scapegoat.

Long since pardoned by President Ford, himself a veteran of the Pacific War and survivor of many kamikaze attacks, controversy over Toguri's supposed guilt continues even to this day. Of her own broadcasts, during which she actually used the name "Orphan Ann," all that remains are a smattering of scripts, and a precious few recordings that can barely be counted on two hands.

Thanks to J. C. Kaelin of the radio propaganda site EarthStation, who wrote parts of this obit.

Links:
- Iva Toguri's story with airchecks
- The FBI's version of Toguri's story
- More history and airchecks from EarthStation
- NY Times obit (requires login)

 

Comments

[Rob Thornton]

Thanks for the illuminating obituary. How sad to be caught in such a situation. No more "Tokyo Rose" for me--rest well Iva Toguri.

[Ann]

Excellent NPR interview with Ronald Yates, whose investigation as a Chicago Tribune reporter led to her pardon by President Ford. Link to the audio here http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6154827

[ResidentClingon]

Ooh, fantastic post! I'm currently reading about the history of WW2 (of which I am ashamedly uninformed, thus being why I am reading a book on the subject), and there was a great chapter about the government's paranoia towards Japanese Americans. But nothing about the problems of other supposed traitors/security threats, so this was a nice completion to that. A most illuminating history, like the real life version Vonnegut's "Mother Night". And now I must read more about our departed Orphan. Thanks.

[Neil_in_Chicago]

Decades later, the F.B.I. finally admitted having suborned the perjury which convicted her. She was never guilty of anything.
(According to my father, who was in the China-Burma-India theater, the "demoralizing" broadcasts were morale-boosting humor, and some of the later bombing raids over Tokyo parachuted supplies of new 45's so that G.I.s in remote locations could get current music.)
For the rest of her life, she worked in her family's store in Chicago, where many people were acquainted, but no one, ever, to my knowledge, made an untoward remark.

[J. C. Kaelin]

Just a little correction - All the airchecks known to be in existence I carefully remastered over a period of months in 1997, converted them into RealAudio & put them up at THE ZERO HOUR PAGE at http://www.earthstation1.com/The_Zero_Hour.html . The main Tokyo Rose Page is at http://www.earthstation1.com/Tokyo_Rose.html & for those that want a more in-depth handling of the life of Iva Toguri be sure to check out Dafydd Dyar's "Sayonara, 'Tokyo Rose' -- Hello Again, 'Orphan Ann'" page at http://www.dyarstraights.com/orphan_ann/orphanan.html .

Iva was a good friend of mine, she had agreed to allow my wife and I to name our first child after her (Iva if a girl, Ivan if a boy) and to be the child's godmother when baptized. We haven't had luck making that kid yet, but when we do, will name it after her - and we'll keep trying to make one!

It was her example of triumph over adversity that gave me the courage of my convictions that enabled me to go off of disability after a decade of illness, a decision that has had the most enormous positive ramifications over my life ever since. I hope that as you read mine & Dafydd's pages about this great tragic hero you too will be similarly inspired. Kind Regards, JC Kaelin, EarthStation1.com

[Brian Carnell]

It is a little bizarre to claim the U.S. "abandoned" her there given that she was trapped in Japan while the U.S. was processing her passport papers.

[J. C. Kaelin]

>It is a little bizarre to claim the U.S. "abandoned" her there given that she was trapped in Japan while the U.S. was processing her passport papers.

If you read Dafydd Dyar's page, you will see that, when Iva left for Japan, the US government gave her paperwork that they said would enable her to get back into the country without any difficulty in lieu of a passport. She took them at their word, and when she produced those papers when she tried to return, the US refused to accept them.

[Joe the Phoenix Disc Jockey]

I once took a women's history class in college and I was fascinated by how women really stepped up to the plate to literally keep the workforce alive during WWII. Being a disc jockey myself I must say that being a Japanese woman in America during the war would make any job difficult but I have to give it to Ms. Toguri for staying strong. I love reading stories like this.