Tokyo Rose
Tokyo Rose was a name given by
Allied forces in the South
Pacific during
World War II to any of several
English-speaking female broadcasters of
Japanese
propaganda.
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Mug shot of the wrongly accused Iva Toguri D'Aquino |
The name is usually associated, erroneously, with
Iva Toguri D'Aquino (born Ikuko Toguri,
July 4,
1916,
Los Angeles, California), a United States citizen visiting relatives in Japan at the start of the war. In 1949,
perjured testimony led to D'Aquino being convicted of
treason by the United States government. She was released after six years, and on January 19, 1977,
pardoned by U.S. President
Gerald Ford, who also restored her citizenship.
[Siemaszko, Corky. New York Daily News (July 4, 2006): "Still not Tokyo Rose: Long free, at 90, she's imprisoned by a myth"]Unable to leave Japan after the start of hostilities, she took work at the Japanese
radio show The Zero Hour, using some of her earnings to feed
P.O.W.s.
[Ibid.] She married Felipe D'Aquino, a
Portuguese citizen of Japanese-Portuguese descent, in 1945. Later that year, Following Japan's surrender, two reporters offered $250 for the identity of Tokyo Rose. A monetarily tainted identification led to her arrest. Though she was released when the
FBI and the
U.S. Army's Counterintelligence Corps found no evidence against her, influential
gossip columnist Walter Winchell lobbied against her. Forcibly separated from her husband, she was brought to the U.S., and charged and convicted of treason. Released after six years, she moved to
Chicago, Illinois, where
Chicago Tribune reporter Ron Yates found her accusers, who admitted they had lied under oath, claiming pressure from
prosecutors. A subsequent
Morley Safer report on the television news program
60 Minutes prompted her exoneration by Ford.
Some conspiracy theorists have suggested that
aviatrix Amelia Earhart was forced to make propaganda broadcasts after her disappearance in 1937, based on the possibility that Earhart's plane went down in the
South Pacific Mandate area, which was under
Japanese Navy administration before World War II.
Tokyo Rose has been the subject of both a movie and a documentary:
* 1946:
Tokyo Rose, film; directed by Lew Landers;
Blake Edwards played Joe Bridger
* 2000:
Tokyo Rose, A&E Biography documentary, VHS release, was about Iva Toguri D'Aquino.
Tokyo Rose is a
1989 album by
Van Dyke Parks. The album attempts to reflect an intersection between Japanese and American cultures, a common concern during the 1980s.
In 2004, actor
George Takei announced he was working on a film titled
Tokyo Rose, American Patriot, about Toguri's activities during the war.
[Chun, Gary C.W. "Star Trek 's Lt. Sulu plans to make his film, Tokyo Rose: American Patriot, in Hawaii", StarBulletin.com, April 12, 2004.]There are various restaurants and establishments named Tokyo Rose.
Tokyo Rose is also the name of a band hailing from New Jersey. They currently (as of August '06) have two albums: "Reinventing a Lost Art" and "New American Saint." Their website is
http://www.tokyorosenj.com/*
Axis Sally*
Seoul City Sue*
Lord Haw-Haw*
Baghdad Bob*
Hanoi Hannah*
Federal Bureau of Invesitgation: FBI History — Famous Cases: Iva Toguri d'Aquino and "Tokyo Rose"*
Ask Yahoo! (Feb. 21, 2002): "Who was Tokyo Rose?" (unbylined)*
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