Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino

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Iva Toguri outside Radio Tokyo

Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino ( July 4 , 1916 - Los Angeles , California - September 26, 2006 ) was a Japanese - American who worked in Japan during the Pacific War of World War II under the alias Orphan Ann on Radio Tokyo ( NHK ) was engaged as a music presenter on the show The Zero Hour . This broadcast was part of Japanese radio propaganda .

youth

Ikuko Toguri grew up in a Methodist family, the daughter of Japanese immigrant Jun Toguri, who arrived in the United States in 1899, and his wife . While attending school in Calexico and San Diego , she adopted the name Iva and began taking piano lessons. She attended high school and college in Los Angeles. Iva Ikuko Toguri was a self-confessed Republican and known in her schools as a loyal American.

She went to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to study medicine . There she graduated in zoology in early 1940 .

In early 1941, the Toguri family learned that a relative living in Japan was very ill, so Iva Ikuko Toguri decided at short notice to visit her. In the short time until the ship's departure, the authorities could not issue a passport , so she was only given an identification certificate to take her to Japan and back. Iva Ikuko Toguri registered "prospective medical student" as a profession. The crossing aboard the Arabia Maru began on July 5, 1941, the day after her 25th birthday.

In Japan

In November 1941, Iva Ikuko Toguri wanted to end her stay in Japan and return home, but her identification certificate was not enough for the Americans to prove her American nationality . Therefore, when the Pacific War broke out on December 7, 1941, she was still in Japan.

Now she began to have problems with the Japanese authorities, who required her to give up American citizenship in exchange for Japanese citizenship. When she refused, Iva Ikuko Toguri was threatened with detaining her, but given her Japanese origins, this did not happen at first. But her pro-American views prompted neighbors to persuade her uncle to get the enemy under his roof to move out. So she looked for a small apartment of her own where she gave piano lessons in order to be able to pay the fees for her Japanese course. In addition, she worked as a typist and translated English texts for the news agency Domei . While there, she also saw her family's names on a list from the Gila River Relocation Center American detention center in Arizona . At the agency, she befriended Felipe D'Aquino, a Portuguese of Japanese descent , who shared her views on the war.

When she returned home one day, she found all the furniture in the house on the street. Her home had been searched by the Japanese secret police , Kempeitai . Again she was threatened with internment.

Shortly thereafter, she was hospitalized and required treatment for malnutrition , pellagra , and beriberi , as she had little money to feed herself properly. In order to be able to pay the costs incurred, she borrowed money from her friend Felipe D'Aquino and her landlady. In order to be able to repay this, she took on additional employment as a typist at Radio Tokyo .

Radio Tokyo

Here, too, her task was to translate American news texts. It was during this work that she became acquainted with Australian Major Charles Cousens , who had formerly been a well-known announcer on Radio Sydney . With his associates, American Captain Wallace Ince and Filipino Lieutenant Normando Reyes , both captured by the Japanese on Corregidor , all three worked as POWs at Radio Tokyo.

Though they shared Iva Ikuko Toguri's pro-American stance, the men initially thought she was a Kempeitai spy. However, after a few months of sending them food and medicine, they began to trust her.

The Zero Hour

Japanese Major Shigetsugu Tsuneishi devised The Zero Hour radio show for psychological warfare in 1943 , for which he used English -speaking hosts . These should undermine the morale of the Americans fighting in the Pacific with bad news from home, such as floods , forest fires , traffic accidents and the like . In addition, well-known American music was to be played in order to take account of the homesickness factor. He used Major Cousens, Captain Ince and Lieutenant Reyes as speakers.

For their part, Cousens, Ince and Reyes tried to undermine the Japanese intentions. By means of hidden hints, ambiguities and sarcasm as well as hastily read news, the program was to be reduced to absurdity . But when the Japanese observers became too attentive, they began to read and intonate the texts as if they were being read at gunpoint.

At the end of 1943, the length of the programs was to be increased from 45 to 75 minutes. Shigetsugu Tsuneishi wanted to integrate female speakers. Cousens suggested that he ask Iva Ikuko Toguri if she would like to work as one of the speakers. His ulterior motive was to finally turn the show into an absolute burlesque with her untrained voice and the not outstanding English .

Iva Ikuko Toguri agreed and moderated anonymously at first. But when the Japanese insisted on a name, since all the other speakers also went by name via the station, they called themselves Ann , after the abbreviation for Announcer , which came before the text in their scripts. Cousens, seeing another possibility of satirizing the name , extended it to Orphan Ann ("Ann the Orphan"), based on the American radio character Little Orphan Annie , and he let Iva Ikuko Toguri announce her with the phrase Orphans of the Pacific ( "Orphans of the Pacific") begin. This was intended to create a humorous link between the listening GIs and the moderators.

After Major Cousens suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized, Iva Ikuko Toguri took over writing the scripts, trying to get as close as possible to his funky writing. Her other two colleagues were soon no longer with her either. Ince was dropped from the program for insubordination and Reyes was released as the Philippines were now officially part of Japan after the occupation. However, since the zero-hour program was too great a success in the eyes of the propagandists, it had to be continued. Other speakers were engaged, all of whom were known under a different pseudonym. The Allies soon adopted the collective term Tokyo Rose , which, however, was never mentioned by any of the moderators or speakers during the program.

Shortly before the end of the war, Iva Ikuko Toguri converted to the Catholic faith and married her friend Felipe D'Aquino. Since the Americans were bombing the Japanese islands from China and Okinawa at the time , the wedding celebration ended with an air raid alarm .

end of war

Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino in conversation with the correspondents

When the Tennō in the Gyokuon-hōsō announced Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945 , Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino planned to return to the United States with her husband.

On August 30, 1945, the plane landed in Japan with General Douglas MacArthur . He was accompanied by dozens of military and civilian reporters who did not want to miss this historic moment. Also among them were INS' Clark Lee and Cosmopolitan 's Harry Brundidge . Both had teamed up to interview the most sought-after people in Japan: Hideki Tojo and Tokyo Rose . The former was easy to find since he was under house arrest in Tokyo, but Tokyo Rose was a phantom.

Brundidge offered a reward for finding her. $ 250 (today: $3,289) for whoever introduces him to Tokyo Rose and another $2,000 (today: $26,310) for Tokyo Rose himself to get an exclusive interview. An employee of Radio Tokyo then gave him the name Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino, which Clark Lee immediately spread worldwide. Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino herself thought she was entitled to the name, and therefore the money, and signed a contract identifying her as the only Tokyo Rose .

However, things turned out differently. Not only did Cosmopolitan 's publisher withhold publication of the interview, it also refused to pay the money. Brundidge was to pay the sum out of his own pocket if he failed to annul the contract. He went to General Elliott Thorpe and handed him the contract with the words: "She is a traitor and here is her confession." He also called a press conference with all the other reporters.

At that press conference, Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino answered questions from many reporters believing Tokyo Rose was a popular figure in the US, just as she had always seen her Orphan Ann . She even went so far as to reenact a zero-hour situation for the American Newsreel . She also had her picture taken and fulfilled many autograph requests . She responded with laughter to questions accusing her of doing something wrong and even gave out her scripts to Radio Tokyo.

Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino in Sugamo Prison

When news broke in the US that Tokyo Rose was an American citizen who wished to return to the US, public protests erupted. On October 17, 1945, three American military police officers came to her and asked her to accompany her to Yokohama to answer some questions. She was then told at Eighth Army Headquarters that she would be arrested. Reasons were not given, although the Americans publicly announced the arrest. The following month she was transferred to Sugamo prison and remained there until October 25, 1946, when she was surprisingly released without conditions. Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino and her husband then withdrew from the public eye. In January 1948 she lost a child shortly after birth.

During this time, Major Cousens faced a military court in Australia and was acquitted of treason charges. He resumed work at Radio Sydney shortly thereafter. Captain Ince was not only acquitted, but was promoted to Major.

Efforts were underway in the US to try Tokyo Rose in San Francisco. In return, there was also a nationwide campaign to ban her from immigrating back to the United States. Harry Brundidge, now working for the Nashville Tennessean , arranged with the FBI to fly to Japan and have Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino re-sign the papers Clark Lee had prepared. When he got to her in Japan, she actually signed it just to be able to go back home.

Three months later, she was arrested at her home in Ikejiri on charges of treason against the US government during World War II . A little later they disembarked for California with a troop ship.

Back in the US

In the USA she was able to speak to a lawyer for the first time, who was also able to immediately prevent an illegal questioning by the FBI. That attorney was Wayne M. Collins , who also defended her during the trial, which began nine months later.

The process

The process itself was the most expensive up to that time in the US. It began on July 5, 1949 and cost the state $750,000 ($7,446,149 today). Numerous witnesses were flown in from Japan, most of whom had previously been interrogated by the FBI in Japan. Charles Cousens and Wallace Ince traveled at their own expense to appear as defense witnesses. Despite their best efforts, the jury could not come to a decision.

The judge rebuked the jury, saying the trial had already cost $500,000 by that point, and ordered them to reach a decision as soon as possible. The decision was made on September 29, 1949 and was acquitted on seven counts, guilty on one count. This referred to the announcement of lost American ships on enemy radio, which was not allowed.

FBI file Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquinos with the verdict

The judge's sentence, ten years in prison and a fine of $10,000 ($99,282 today), was announced on October 6, 1949.

In custody

Prisoner 9380-W was Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino at Alderson Women's Prison in West Virginia . Relatively quickly, she was classified by the management as a model prisoner with exemplary leadership. She worked in various departments before receiving training in the use of IBM punch card machines and working on a prisoner counting and mapping project. She then became the prison doctor 's assistant , where she qualified to become a trained radiographer and laboratory assistant .

One of her fellow prisoners was Mildred Gillars (Axis-Sally) , who was also in prison for treason because she had played a leading role in a propaganda program at the Reichsrundfunk in Berlin .

On January 28, 1956, Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino was released from prison for good behavior. At the exit, a guard handed her a deportation certificate directing her to leave for Japan immediately.

In freedom

It took her lawyer Wayne Collins two years to prevent the deportation. During this time, Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino was able to live with him. After that, she went to her family in Chicago to start a new, unrecognized life. She periodically wrote petitions to governments seeking rehabilitation , but all petitions were denied. In 1969, CBS produced a documentary about her called The Tokyo Rose Story . In 1976, she made a personal appearance on the national show 60 Minutes , which brought her case back to the public eye. As a result, on January 19, 1977, she finally managed to get the rehabilitation she demanded from US President Gerald Ford .

In 1980, Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino divorced her husband Felipe, who was still living in Japan. Felipe d'Aquino died in Japan in November 1996.

Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino lived in Chicago until her death on September 26, 2006.

See also

literature

  • Russell Warren Howe: The Hunt For “Tokyo Rose”. Madison Books, Lanham 1990. ISBN 0-8191-7456-4 .
  • Masayo Umezawa Duus: Tokyo Rose: Orphan Of The Pacific. Kodansha International, New York 1979. ISBN 0-87011-354-2 .
  • Rex B. Gunn: They Called Her “Tokyo Rose”. Gunn, Santa Monica CA 1977.

web links

Commons : Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino  - Collection of images
personal data
SURNAME D'Aquino, Iva Ikuko Toguri
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Orphan Ann; 戸栗郁子 (Japanese); Toguri Ikuko
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American radio presenter
BIRTH DATE July 4, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California
DATE OF DEATH September 26, 2006
PLACE OF DEATH Chicago , Illinois