The Capture of
Tokyo Rose

The U.S. Army authorities arriving in Japan after the surrender proceedings in Tokyo Bay were hellbent on capturing the American traitor who presided over so many disheartening radio broadcasts — the woman they nicknamed “Tokyo Rose”:

“…one of the supreme objectives of American correspondents landing in Japan was Radio Tokyo. There they hoped to find someone to pass off as the one-and-only “Rose” and scoop their colleagues. When the information had been sifted a little, a girl named Iva Toguri (Iva Toguri D’Aquino: 1916 – 2006), emerged as the only candidate who came close to filling the bill. For three years she had played records, interspersed with snappy comments, beamed to Allied soldiers on the “Zero Hour”…Her own name for herself was “Orphan Ann.”

Toguri’s story was an interesting one that went on for many years and finally resulted in a 1977 pardon granted by one who had listened to many such broadcasts: President Gerald R. Ford (1913-2006), who had served in the Pacific on board the aircraft carrier “USS Monterey”.

•Articles about the daily hardships in post-war Germany can be read by clicking here.