- 2 days ago
A Japanese radio show built to break American troops instead became one of the Pacific War’s strangest morale boosts. Behind the microphone was not the mythical “Tokyo Rose,” but a real story of prisoners, censorship, and a young American woman in Tokyo who refused to give up her citizenship.
The program called Zero Hour mixed swing records, taunts, and scripted jokes for U.S. soldiers, sailors, and Marines scattered across Saipan, Guam, Tinian, and beyond. The transcript follows how Charles Cousens, Wallace Ince, Norman Reyes, and later Iva Toguri helped shape the broadcast under threat, while American listeners tuned in anyway and laughed at the very propaganda meant to isolate them. It also traces how the legend of Tokyo Rose grew far beyond the actual broadcasts.
This military history documentary explores World War II radio propaganda, Pacific theater history, POW broadcasting, and the trial that later made Iva Toguri a household name. It is a gripping listen for anyone interested in WW2 stories, forgotten wartime media, and the true story behind one of the most famous voices of the war.
SEO: Perfect for listeners searching for WW2 history, military history documentary, Pacific War stories, Tokyo Rose, Radio Tokyo, wartime propaganda, and World War II radio broadcasts. Also ideal for fans of historical narration, forgotten war stories, and true stories about American troops in the Pacific.
The program called Zero Hour mixed swing records, taunts, and scripted jokes for U.S. soldiers, sailors, and Marines scattered across Saipan, Guam, Tinian, and beyond. The transcript follows how Charles Cousens, Wallace Ince, Norman Reyes, and later Iva Toguri helped shape the broadcast under threat, while American listeners tuned in anyway and laughed at the very propaganda meant to isolate them. It also traces how the legend of Tokyo Rose grew far beyond the actual broadcasts.
This military history documentary explores World War II radio propaganda, Pacific theater history, POW broadcasting, and the trial that later made Iva Toguri a household name. It is a gripping listen for anyone interested in WW2 stories, forgotten wartime media, and the true story behind one of the most famous voices of the war.
SEO: Perfect for listeners searching for WW2 history, military history documentary, Pacific War stories, Tokyo Rose, Radio Tokyo, wartime propaganda, and World War II radio broadcasts. Also ideal for fans of historical narration, forgotten war stories, and true stories about American troops in the Pacific.
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LearningTranscript
00:00On August 14, 1944, at 6 o'clock in the evening, a red light comes on in a studio at
00:07Radio Tokyo, in the center of the Japanese capital.
00:10A young woman leans toward the microphone. She has a script in her hand, and the Imperial Japanese Army is
00:16paying for every word on it.
00:19The Army's plan for this hour is simple. A shortwave signal will go out across thousands of miles of ocean
00:25to the Americans who have just taken Saipan, Tinian, and Guam.
00:30To the crews of the ships offshore. To the airmen in New Guinea. It will play them the music they
00:35dance to at home.
00:37Then, between the records, a woman's voice will remind them how far away home is, and how long this war
00:44is going to last.
00:46The officers who built the program are counting on one thing. Homesickness. Enough of it, they believe, and men stop
00:54fighting well.
00:55So here is the weapon. And here is the moment it fires.
01:01Hello, you fighting orphans of the Pacific, the woman says. How's Trix?
01:06The voice is not soft. It is rough. A little raspy. And it sounds like it is enjoying itself.
01:12She tells them she is back from her weekend off. She tells them she works strictly union hours.
01:19She announces that tonight is all-request night, and she calls her audience her wandering boneheads of the Pacific Islands.
01:27Then she puts on a record.
01:29Now move across that ocean. In tents, in radio shacks, on the mess decks of ships, American servicemen are listening.
01:38Nobody ordered them to. Nobody is stopping them either.
01:42And they are not staring at the ground thinking about home. They are grinning.
01:47One Marine private explained it after the war in a single sentence.
01:51Her function was to destroy our morale and make us homesick.
01:55But instead, we got a big laugh.
01:59They have never seen her. They don't know her name.
02:02On the air, she calls herself Anne, sometimes Orphan Anne.
02:07The men have given the voice a different name,
02:10one that was never spoken on any Japanese broadcast during the war.
02:14They call her Tokyo Rose, and they would not miss her show.
02:19That is the puzzle this video is going to take apart.
02:22A program built to break American troops became something they looked forward to.
02:28Why?
02:30If you want to know why U.S. soldiers, sailors, and Marines in the Pacific tuned in to their enemy's
02:35radio,
02:36and what it cost the woman behind the microphone,
02:38like this video and subscribe.
02:41Start with how wide this went.
02:43Because it was not a few bored radio operators.
02:47When the Army studied the program,
02:49its analysts concluded that it had no negative effect on troop morale at all,
02:54and that it might even have raised morale slightly.
02:57Later, the FBI would interview hundreds of men who had served in the Pacific about what they heard.
03:04Read that Army finding again.
03:06The enemy's morale weapon, measured by the people it was aimed at,
03:10came out as a small plus.
03:13And I want you to hold on to one date, because we are going to come back to it.
03:18August 7, 1945.
03:20On that day, in Washington, the United States Navy Department will issue this voice and official citation.
03:28For meritorious service, contributing greatly to the morale of American forces in the Pacific.
03:35It is a joke, naturally.
03:37But a Navy does not make jokes about something that has been hurting its men.
03:43So what was it?
03:45The easy answer is the music, and the easy answer is partly true.
03:50Mail took weeks to reach a forward island.
03:53American stations did not always reach that far.
03:57And every evening, here came clean recordings of the bands these men had grown up on,
04:02free of charge, courtesy of the Japanese Empire.
04:06For plenty of them, that was the whole attraction.
04:10But the music does not explain the words.
04:13Listen to what this announcer was actually given to say.
04:17On another night, one of her scripts opened like this.
04:21Hello there, enemies.
04:23How's Trix?
04:24She explains that she is about to begin the regular program of music and news for,
04:29quote,
04:30our friends.
04:30I mean, our enemies.
04:33In Australia and the South Pacific.
04:35She warns them to be on their guard.
04:37And then, she introduces the first record with these words.
04:42Here's the first blow at your morale.
04:44The Boston Pops, playing,
04:46Strike Up the Band.
04:48Think about that from the point of view of a Japanese officer
04:51who wants an American rifleman to feel alone and forgotten.
04:55You do not have your announcer tell him, out loud, that this is the blow at his morale.
05:01You do not have her laugh about it.
05:03You do not let her call the enemy her friends and then pretend it was a slip.
05:08Somebody put those lines on paper.
05:11Somebody inside that building, under the eyes of army censors,
05:14was writing a propaganda show that kept winking at its own target.
05:19The men on the islands could hear the wink.
05:22What they could not know was where it came from.
05:25Some of them decided, years later, that the voice had simply been on their side.
05:30They were closer to the truth than they knew.
05:32And the truth was more dangerous than a joke.
05:36Because that style, the boneheads, the union hours, the first blow at your morale,
05:42was not invented by any Japanese propagandist.
05:46It was invented by a prisoner of war who had been told to his face
05:50that he would broadcast for Japan or be executed.
05:54He obeyed.
05:55And what he and two other prisoners built out of that order,
05:59in the one place in Tokyo where nobody thought to look,
06:02is where the real answer begins.
06:04August 1st, 1942.
06:07Tokyo, the headquarters of the Army General Staff.
06:11A prisoner of war is standing in front of a Japanese major,
06:15named Shigetsugu Tsuneshi.
06:17The prisoner is Charles Cousins,
06:19an Australian officer captured at Singapore,
06:22and before the war, he was one of the best-known radio voices in Sydney.
06:26That is why he is in this room.
06:29He has already refused once, in Singapore,
06:32to broadcast for his captors.
06:34Now, Tsuneshi lays out the choice without decoration.
06:38Cousins will broadcast for Japan, or he will be executed.
06:43At six o'clock that same evening, he is put to work.
06:47It would be easy to judge that.
06:49A man gives in within hours.
06:51But watch what he does with it.
06:53They assign him to write radio essays,
06:56and he fills them with lofty talk about human ideals,
06:59platitudes so empty that no propagandist could squeeze anything out of them.
07:04He has understood something his captors have not.
07:08They can order him to speak.
07:10They do not know enough about English-language radio to tell good from bad.
07:16Tsuneshi wants more than essays.
07:18He wants a full program aimed at allied fighting men,
07:21something with the sound and polish of a real American show.
07:25And he knows his own staff cannot fake it.
07:29So he goes looking through the prison camps for professionals.
07:32And here is the part I would ask you to notice,
07:34because it is the first crack in the whole machine.
07:37Look at who he picks.
07:40Captain Wallace Ince, United States Army.
07:44Lieutenant Norman Reyes, Philippine Army.
07:47Both captured on Corregidor, and both, before the surrender,
07:51had worked at the same radio station,
07:53broadcasting out of the Melinta Tunnel while the island was being shelled.
07:57It was called the Voice of Freedom.
08:01On April 9, 1942, it was Reyes, a third lieutenant,
08:05who read to the world the words,
08:08Baton has fallen,
08:09and told listeners that the men there had gone down with heads bloody but unbowed.
08:16So think about what Major Tsuneshi has just done.
08:19To build the program that will break American morale,
08:22he has drafted the men whose last job
08:24was holding American and Filipino morale together
08:27in the worst month of the war.
08:30He chose them for their skill.
08:32He never asked what they would do with it.
08:35March 1, 1943.
08:38The first broadcast of the new program goes out from Radio Tokyo.
08:42They call it the Zero Hour.
08:45In the beginning, it is just the three prisoners.
08:48Cousins writes and coaches.
08:50Ince goes on the air under the name Ted Wallace.
08:54Reyes runs the records.
08:56Above them sits a civilian program chief named George Mitsushio,
09:00born in California,
09:02who had since chosen Japan.
09:04Remember that name.
09:06It drops out of this story for a long while,
09:08and when it comes back,
09:10in an American courtroom,
09:12it does a great deal of damage.
09:14Every script the three men write
09:16goes to Japanese censors before it reaches the microphone.
09:20That is the cage,
09:21and inside that cage,
09:23they begin to work out a private craft.
09:26A censor reads paper.
09:28He does not hear tone.
09:30So a line that looks obedient on the page
09:32can be read with a sneer,
09:34or thrown away in a mumble,
09:36or delivered so fast,
09:38it turns to mush.
09:39A censor who learned his English in a classroom
09:42does not catch slang,
09:44so a double meaning can walk straight past him.
09:47The news items they are handed get read badly.
09:51The music gets chosen well.
09:54Accounts of the program describe it the same way.
09:57Innuendo, double entendre, deliberate flubs.
10:01Cousins had a shorter name for what he was after.
10:04He wanted to turn the show into,
10:06in his words,
10:08a complete burlesque.
10:11Understand the risk.
10:13Tuneshi was not a man who made a threat only once.
10:16A Dutch prisoner,
10:17held with the broadcasters,
10:19described, under oath,
10:21how the major addressed them.
10:23Those who refused to cooperate would be executed.
10:26And anyone who escaped, he said,
10:28would be brought back in pieces.
10:30Every sly joke these men wrote
10:32went out over a transmitter the Japanese army owned.
10:35If one officer with good English
10:38had sat down and really listened,
10:40three prisoners would have paid for it.
10:43Nobody did.
10:44And out on the islands,
10:46something began to happen that Tokyo could not see.
10:49The Americans started tuning in on purpose.
10:53They could not have told you why this show felt different.
10:57They only knew it did not sound like the enemy hating them.
11:00It sounded like somebody having a private laugh
11:03and letting them in on it.
11:06That is the first real layer of our answer,
11:08and it changes the easy one.
11:10The troops were not only enjoying free music.
11:14Without knowing it,
11:15they were listening to men on their own side.
11:18But it is only a layer.
11:20Because the Japanese noticed the audience too,
11:23and drew exactly the wrong conclusion.
11:26If the Americans were listening,
11:28the program was working.
11:30So make it bigger.
11:32Make it longer.
11:33And give it the one thing
11:34every propaganda station in the world
11:36believed a lonely soldier could not resist.
11:39A woman's voice.
11:41For the prisoners,
11:42that order was the most dangerous moment yet.
11:45A woman, chosen by the army,
11:47would read whatever she was handed
11:48with real poison in it,
11:50and the burlesque would be finished.
11:53Unless they chose her themselves.
11:55Cousins made sure the choice was his.
11:58There were other English-speaking women
11:59at Radio Tokyo,
12:01some with experience on the air.
12:03He passed over them.
12:04In November 1943,
12:07he picked a typist
12:08who had never spoken into a microphone,
12:09with a voice like a rasp.
12:12He said later it was exactly
12:13the comedy voice he needed.
12:15But the voice is not why he trusted her
12:17with three men's lives.
12:19He trusted her because of what
12:20she had been quietly smuggling
12:22to the prisoners.
12:23And because of one piece of paper,
12:25the Japanese police had been trying,
12:27for nearly two years,
12:29to make her sign.
12:30December 1941, Tokyo.
12:34In the days after Pearl Harbor,
12:36the Japanese police come to see
12:37a young woman from California
12:38who is staying with relatives in the city,
12:40and they bring advice.
12:42She should register as a Japanese citizen.
12:45It would make everything simpler.
12:47Her name is Eva Toguri.
12:49She is 25, from Los Angeles,
12:52a zoology graduate of UCLA,
12:54born on the 4th of July.
12:56She came to Japan five months ago
12:58to help nurse a sick aunt,
12:59and a paperwork problem
13:01kept her off the ship home.
13:02She says no.
13:04Now follow what that answer costs,
13:07because the price goes up every month.
13:09The government classes her
13:11as an enemy alien.
13:13She has refused a ration card,
13:14in a city where food is rationed.
13:17Neighbors throw stones at her
13:18and call her Horyo,
13:20prisoner of war.
13:22The police keep coming back
13:23with the same offer.
13:25Sign, and all of this stops.
13:27She finds typing work
13:29at a news agency,
13:30and by one account,
13:31they find her too pro-American
13:33to keep.
13:33She tells her landlady,
13:35flatly,
13:36that Japan hasn't a chance
13:37in the world of winning the war.
13:39That is not a safe sentence
13:41to say out loud
13:42in wartime Tokyo.
13:44Then, in 1942,
13:46word reaches her
13:47about her family.
13:48Her parents have been taken
13:50from their home in California
13:51and put behind wire
13:53in a camp in Arizona.
13:54By her own government.
13:57Sit with that for a moment.
13:59The country she will not renounce
14:01has locked up
14:02her mother and father.
14:04And the country that wants
14:05her signature
14:06is offering her food.
14:08She still does not sign.
14:11In 1943,
14:12she is in a hospital
14:13with malnutrition.
14:15By August of that year,
14:17she has a job as a typist
14:18in the English section
14:19of Radio Tokyo.
14:21And that is where
14:22she comes across
14:23three prisoners of war
14:24who are brought in under guard
14:26to make a program
14:27called the Zero Hour.
14:29Here is what she does,
14:30and nobody asks her to.
14:33She starts bringing them things.
14:35Food.
14:36Medicine.
14:38By one account,
14:39clothing and a blanket.
14:40Her pay at the station
14:41is 150 yen a month,
14:43about seven American dollars,
14:45and more than half of it
14:47goes to the prisoners.
14:48This is a woman
14:49with no ration card,
14:51buying food
14:52where she can find it,
14:53and carrying it
14:54to captured Allied soldiers
14:55under the nose
14:56of the Japanese army.
14:58She brings them
14:59something else as well.
15:00News.
15:02The real kind.
15:03about how the war
15:04is actually going.
15:07So when Major Tsuneshi's order
15:08comes down
15:09for a woman's voice,
15:11Charles Cousins
15:11and Captain Ince
15:12already know exactly
15:13one person in that building
15:15they can trust
15:15with their lives.
15:18November, 1943.
15:20Cousins asks her,
15:22and her first reaction
15:23is to refuse this, too.
15:25She tells him
15:26she knows nothing
15:27about radio.
15:28She has never been
15:29in front of a microphone.
15:31He and Ince
15:32give her a promise
15:33in return.
15:34She will never be handed
15:35a line to read
15:36against the United States.
15:38They will write
15:39every word themselves.
15:41On the typed scripts,
15:43her part is marked
15:44with the abbreviation
15:45for
15:45announcer.
15:47A-N-N.
15:49So she becomes Anne.
15:50A little later,
15:52Cousins stretches it
15:53into
15:53Orphan Anne,
15:54a wink at the comic strip
15:56every American knew,
15:57and at an audience
15:58of men
15:59cut off a long way
16:00from home.
16:01He coaches her
16:02to play the whole thing
16:03as comedy.
16:04Hit the slang hard.
16:06Mispronounce a word
16:07here and there.
16:08Call them
16:09honorable boneheads.
16:11Sound like you
16:11were having fun.
16:13Her part of the program
16:14runs 15 or 20 minutes
16:16out of 75.
16:17A greeting,
16:19some patter,
16:19and records.
16:21Over the next year
16:22and a half,
16:22she will do it
16:23roughly 340 times.
16:26Now go back
16:27to that studio
16:27from the beginning
16:28of this video
16:28and look at it again
16:30with what you know.
16:31The voice
16:32the Imperial Army
16:33was paying for
16:34belonged to an American.
16:36Not someone
16:37who used to be one.
16:38Someone who had been
16:39offered an easier life
16:40every month
16:41for two years
16:42in exchange
16:43for no longer
16:44being one
16:45and had gone hungry
16:46instead.
16:48The words
16:49in her hand
16:49were shaped
16:50by an Allied officer
16:51who had been promised
16:52a firing squad.
16:53The American captain
16:54who signed off
16:55the show
16:55at the end
16:56of the hour
16:56had last been heard
16:58on the voice
16:58of freedom.
16:59And the men
17:00in the tents
17:00on Saipan
17:01laughing at being
17:02called boneheads,
17:04they believed
17:05they were being
17:05teased by the enemy.
17:07They were being
17:08teased by one
17:08of their own.
17:09That is a second layer
17:11and it goes deeper
17:12than the first.
17:13In part two,
17:14the troops
17:15were hearing prisoners
17:16slip a joke
17:17past a censor.
17:19Here they are
17:20hearing something
17:20harder to name.
17:21A person
17:23choosing them
17:23at a cost
17:25night after night
17:26and never once
17:27being able
17:28to say so.
17:30Keep in mind
17:31how exposed
17:31she was.
17:32The three prisoners
17:33were at least
17:34soldiers
17:35with a rank
17:36and a number.
17:37She was a civilian
17:38enemy alien
17:39alone in the enemy's
17:41capital
17:41with no protection
17:42of any kind.
17:43And she was now
17:45putting her voice
17:46on the army's
17:46own transmitter
17:47while feeding
17:48its prisoners
17:49on the side.
17:50And I want you
17:51to mark one thing
17:52the way we marked
17:53that navy date.
17:55Her refusal to sign.
17:56You would expect
17:57that piece of stubbornness
17:58to be the thing
17:59that protects her
18:00in the end.
18:01It does the opposite.
18:02It becomes the only reason
18:04an American prosecutor
18:05can ever lay a hand
18:06on her.
18:08But that is still
18:09years off.
18:10Something else
18:11is going wrong
18:11much sooner
18:12and it starts
18:13with the audience.
18:15Because while Anne
18:16was talking to them,
18:17the men in the Pacific
18:18were busy inventing
18:19another woman entirely.
18:21She had a different name,
18:23a different voice,
18:24and powers
18:24no radio announcer
18:25ever had.
18:27And when the time
18:28came to decide
18:29which of the two
18:29was real,
18:30the United States
18:31would pick the wrong one.
18:33December, 1943.
18:35The Central Pacific
18:36near the Marshall Islands.
18:39An American carrier
18:40task force
18:41has just finished
18:42a raid
18:42and a war correspondent
18:44named Charles R. Knott
18:45is aboard
18:46to file the story.
18:47By his account,
18:49the force has sunk
18:50two Japanese cruisers
18:51and four other warships.
18:53That evening,
18:54the crew tunes in Tokyo
18:56to hear how the day
18:57went from the other side.
18:59They find out
19:00they are dead.
19:02The Japanese Navy,
19:03a woman on the radio announces,
19:05has wiped out
19:06the entire task force,
19:08carrier included.
19:11Arnott wrote down
19:12what happened next.
19:13The crew loved it.
19:15By their count,
19:16this was the seventh time
19:18Tokyo had sunk
19:19that particular carrier.
19:21Another reporter joked
19:22that the men were feeling
19:23pretty sorry for themselves.
19:26Now notice something.
19:27That was not Anne.
19:30Eva Toguri had been on the air
19:31only a few weeks
19:32and her part of the Zero Hour
19:34was patter and records.
19:36A man who worked on the program
19:37swore later
19:38that she did not read
19:39the news at all.
19:40Whoever announced that sinking
19:42was somebody else.
19:44Radio Tokyo and its sister stations
19:46had a dozen or more
19:47English-speaking women
19:47on the air.
19:48One count puts it at 14.
19:51The troops did not
19:52sort them out.
19:53They had one name
19:54for all of them
19:55and it was already in use
19:56in 1942,
19:57a full year before
19:59Eva ever met Charles Cousins.
20:01Tokyo Rose.
20:03So there are two things
20:05living under that name
20:06and the difference between them
20:07is going to matter
20:08more than anything else
20:09in this story.
20:10Anne was real.
20:12Rose was built.
20:14And the men in the Pacific
20:16built her.
20:17Look at what they made.
20:19In June 1945,
20:22Collier's Magazine
20:22reported what G.I.s
20:24were saying about her.
20:25She had charm.
20:27She had,
20:28in their phrase,
20:29a master mind.
20:31She welcomed
20:32new commanding officers
20:33to the theater by name.
20:35She predicted American landings
20:37before they happened.
20:38Marines on Guam
20:40swore she had warned them
20:41to oil their guns
20:42before a Japanese counterattack.
20:44A story went around
20:45that she said
20:45the Adabrine tablets
20:46they took against malaria
20:48would leave them sterile.
20:50A sailor
20:51on the Destroyer Robinson
20:53wrote in his diary
20:54that Tokyo Rose
20:55had reported
20:56Destroyer 562 sunk.
20:59That was his ship's number.
21:01They got our number
21:02at Lingayen,
21:03he wrote.
21:04The Army took this part seriously.
21:07Its analysts
21:08were relaxed about morale,
21:09as you heard earlier.
21:11Their one worry
21:12was that this woman
21:13seemed to know
21:14where American ships
21:15and troops were.
21:17Here is the fact
21:18that should stop you.
21:20The United States government
21:22recorded Radio Tokyo.
21:24It had monitors
21:25whose whole job
21:26was listening
21:27to those broadcasts.
21:29And in August 1945,
21:31those monitors
21:32gave their conclusion
21:33to the press.
21:34There was no Tokyo Rose.
21:37The name,
21:38they said,
21:39was strictly
21:40a G.I. invention.
21:42The FBI's own history
21:44of the case
21:45uses a blunter word
21:46for her.
21:47Mythical.
21:49So why would hundreds
21:50of thousands
21:51of sensible men
21:52invent an enemy
21:54who knew everything
21:55about them?
21:56Put yourself
21:56where they were.
21:57You are 20 years old,
21:59on an island
22:00nobody at home
22:01could find on a map.
22:03Mail takes weeks.
22:05The war is enormous,
22:06and you are
22:07a very small part of it.
22:09And then the word
22:10goes down the chow line
22:11that the most famous
22:12voice in Japan
22:13mentioned your outfit
22:15last night.
22:16By name.
22:18That is not a threat.
22:20That is proof
22:21you exist.
22:23Being sunk seven times
22:24is a great deal
22:25better than being ignored.
22:27Being personally taunted
22:29by the enemy's
22:30star broadcaster
22:31is a story you tell
22:32for the rest of your life.
22:35The Japanese
22:35had built a machine
22:36to make Americans
22:37feel forgotten,
22:38and the Americans
22:39had turned it
22:40into the one program
22:41on the dial
22:42that seemed to know
22:43who they were.
22:44A Navy veteran
22:45named Robert Anderson
22:46described how it worked
22:48on his ship.
22:49The crew did not
22:50sneak off to listen.
22:52The ship recorded
22:53the broadcasts
22:54and played them back
22:55for the men.
22:56Think about that.
22:57An American warship
23:00rebroadcasting
23:01enemy propaganda
23:02to its own sailors
23:03as the evening's
23:04entertainment.
23:05Anderson remembered
23:06the Attebrine story
23:07worrying a few men
23:08at first.
23:09He remembered the line
23:10about sweethearts
23:11back home leaving them.
23:13And he remembered
23:14that none of it stuck.
23:16What they wanted
23:17was the music.
23:19Here is the third layer,
23:21then,
23:21and it belongs
23:22to the audience.
23:24In Tokyo,
23:25prisoners wrote
23:26The Wink
23:27and an American
23:28delivered it.
23:29But out here,
23:31nobody was helping
23:32these men.
23:33They took whatever
23:34came over that frequency,
23:35the friendly teasing
23:37and the real poison
23:38alike,
23:39and they ran all of it
23:40through the same thing,
23:42a sense of humor
23:43the Japanese army
23:44had never planned for.
23:47Major Tsuneshi
23:48was counting
23:48on homesickness.
23:50What he got
23:51was men competing
23:52over who had been
23:53insulted by name.
23:56That is worth holding
23:57against our main question.
23:59Why did they love it?
24:01Partly because of
24:02who was behind
24:03the microphone,
24:04and partly
24:05because of who
24:06was in front of the radio.
24:08But the invention
24:09had a flaw,
24:09and it was a dangerous one.
24:12A legend
24:13needs a face.
24:14Every nasty thing
24:15any announcer said,
24:17and plenty
24:17that no announcer
24:18ever said,
24:19went into the account
24:20of a woman
24:21who did not exist.
24:22And of all the voices
24:23on Japanese radio,
24:25the men had a favorite.
24:26The raspy one.
24:28The funny one.
24:29The one who called
24:30them boneheads.
24:32The affection
24:33and the legend
24:34were sliding together
24:35onto one real person,
24:36and she had no way
24:37of knowing it.
24:39She had a more
24:40immediate problem.
24:41In the summer of 1944,
24:43the man who wrote
24:44every joke
24:45she had ever read
24:46on the air
24:46collapsed,
24:47and was carried
24:48out of the program.
24:50The scripts
24:50that had kept
24:51three prisoners
24:52and one American typist
24:53safe for months
24:54now had no author.
24:57The censors
24:57were still reading.
24:59Major Tsuneshi
25:00was still waiting
25:01for his weapon to work.
25:02And somebody
25:03had to be on the air
25:04at six o'clock.
25:05Somebody was.
25:06She sat down
25:07at a typewriter
25:08and wrote it herself.
25:10That is what
25:11Iva Taguri did
25:11when Charles Cousins
25:12went down
25:13with a heart attack.
25:14She was a zoology graduate,
25:16not a writer.
25:17But she had a stack
25:18of his old scripts
25:19and a year
25:20of his coaching
25:20in her ear,
25:21and she began
25:22turning out new ones
25:23in his manner.
25:24The same slang,
25:26the same boneheads,
25:28the same mock menace
25:29that announced itself
25:30as menace.
25:32And the censors,
25:33who had never understood
25:34the joke in the first place,
25:36could not tell
25:37that the author
25:37had changed.
25:39Which lets me tell you
25:40something about the scene
25:41this video opened with.
25:43August 14th, 1944.
25:46By that evening,
25:48Cousins was off the program.
25:50The woman at the microphone
25:51was working without him.
25:53The union hours,
25:54the all-request night,
25:56the sign-off
25:57where she tells her
25:57dear little orphans
25:58wandering in the Pacific
25:59to always remember
26:01to be good.
26:02That was an American typist
26:04keeping a prisoner's burlesque
26:05alive on her own.
26:06because she understood
26:07what would happen
26:08if it stopped being a joke.
26:10It would become
26:11the real thing,
26:12and her voice
26:13would be on it.
26:14She did try to pull back.
26:16From the middle of 1944,
26:18she missed a great many broadcasts,
26:20and she took other work
26:21at the Danish legation.
26:23But an enemy alien
26:25under police watch
26:26does not simply resign
26:27from a program
26:28the army owns.
26:31October 1944.
26:33Leyte Gulf,
26:34in the Philippines.
26:36Over four days,
26:37the United States Navy
26:38fights the largest
26:39naval battle of the war
26:40and breaks the Japanese fleet
26:42as a fighting force.
26:44Radio Tokyo
26:45tells its listeners
26:46the opposite.
26:47A great victory.
26:48American ships on the bottom.
26:51Mark that week
26:52the same way
26:53we marked a name
26:54and a date earlier.
26:55Five years later,
26:57twelve Americans
26:58in a jury room
26:59will be asked
26:59to decide
27:00what one typist
27:01did or did not say
27:02into a microphone
27:03during those days.
27:05Almost everything
27:06will hang on it.
27:07Through that winter,
27:09the prisoners were held
27:10in a camp
27:10in the Kanda district
27:11of Tokyo
27:12that appeared
27:12on no official list.
27:15Aiva kept the food coming.
27:17Then the war arrived overhead.
27:20In the spring of 1945,
27:22American B-29s
27:24burned out mile after mile
27:26of the city
27:26she was living in.
27:28The men she had been
27:29talking to every evening
27:30were now above her
27:31at night
27:32in the hundreds.
27:34In April,
27:35in the middle of that,
27:37she married a Portuguese citizen
27:38named Felipe Dacchino.
27:40She was still an American
27:42on paper.
27:43The police
27:43had not stopped asking.
27:46And here is a small story
27:48from those months
27:48that tells you
27:49where the troops' feelings
27:50had got to.
27:52It went around
27:53the bomber bases
27:54that Tokyo Rose
27:55had complained on the air
27:56that her records
27:57were wearing out.
27:58So,
27:59the story said,
28:00a B-29 crew
28:02dropped her a crate
28:03of new ones
28:03by parachute
28:04right over Radio Tokyo.
28:06And men swore
28:08they heard them played
28:09the very next night.
28:11I cannot give you
28:12a tail number
28:13for that aircraft,
28:14and neither can anyone else.
28:15It lives in the same country
28:17as the seven sunken carriers.
28:19But look at what
28:20the legend had become.
28:22In 1943,
28:24she knew
28:24your ship's number.
28:26By 1945,
28:28the men
28:28flattening her city
28:30were supposedly
28:30resupplying her
28:32with dance music.
28:33They had stopped
28:35inventing an enemy.
28:36They were inventing
28:37a friend.
28:39Now we reach
28:40the date
28:41I asked you to hold.
28:42August 7, 1945.
28:45Washington.
28:46The day after
28:47Hiroshima.
28:48Captain T.J. O'Brien,
28:51the Navy's
28:51Director of Welfare,
28:52releases a document
28:54to the press.
28:55It is a citation.
28:57It is addressed
28:58to Tokyo Rose
28:59of Radio Tokyo,
29:00and it commends her
29:01for meritorious service,
29:03contributing greatly
29:04to the morale
29:05of United States
29:06armed forces
29:07in the Pacific.
29:08It goes on
29:09in the same
29:10straight-faced style.
29:12She has entertained
29:13American fighting men
29:14through long nights
29:15at sea
29:16and in foxholes,
29:17with music from home
29:18and laughter.
29:19Her efforts have only
29:21made them more determined
29:22to finish the job,
29:23which is why
29:24they are now driving
29:24on toward Tokyo,
29:26so that soon,
29:27in the citation's words,
29:28they will be able
29:29to thank Tokyo Rose
29:30in person.
29:32As a reward,
29:33she has granted
29:34permission to broadcast
29:35one future event
29:36to the Army of Occupation
29:37and to the ships
29:38of the fleet
29:39anchored off Japan.
29:41Admiral Halsey
29:42riding the Emperor's
29:43white horse
29:44through the streets
29:44of Tokyo.
29:46That is as close
29:47as a Navy gets
29:47to affection
29:48for someone
29:49on the other side,
29:49and it settles
29:51one question for good.
29:52Major Tsuneshi's weapon,
29:54three years in the building,
29:56had ended up
29:57as a running joke
29:58in the Navy Department's
29:59welfare office.
30:00The Americans
30:01it was aimed at
30:01had not just survived it,
30:03they had adopted it.
30:05But read that citation again
30:07the way a lawyer would.
30:08Who is it made out to?
30:10Not Anne.
30:11Not Eva Toguri.
30:13Nobody in Washington
30:14knew those names.
30:15It is made out
30:16to Tokyo Rose.
30:18And in the very same week,
30:19the government's
30:20own radio monitors
30:21were telling reporters
30:23that there was
30:24no such person,
30:25that the name
30:26was a soldier's invention
30:27covering at least
30:28two different women.
30:29The Navy had just
30:31decorated a ghost.
30:32And it had promised,
30:34in writing,
30:35that American servicemen
30:36were coming
30:37to find her.
30:39August 15th.
30:40The emperor's voice
30:41comes over the radio
30:42and tells Japan
30:43the war is finished.
30:46All over Tokyo,
30:47people are weeping
30:48in the street.
30:49Eva said later
30:50what that day was for her.
30:51Not a surrender.
30:53A day of victory.
30:55She had held on
30:56to her citizenship
30:57for three years
30:58and eight months,
30:59through hunger
31:00and stones
31:01and the police
31:02at the door,
31:02and her side
31:03had won.
31:05The thanks
31:06were on their way.
31:07But the first Americans
31:08to reach her
31:09were not sailors
31:09carrying a citation.
31:11They were two reporters,
31:13carrying a contract
31:14and an offer
31:15of $2,000.
31:16And they had one question
31:18for every English-speaking
31:19woman in Tokyo.
31:21Which one of you
31:22is Tokyo Rose?
31:24For four years,
31:25she had refused
31:26to sign her name
31:27for the Japanese.
31:29This time,
31:30she signed.
31:31September 1st, 1945.
31:34Tokyo,
31:35in the first days
31:36of the occupation.
31:38Two American correspondents,
31:39Clark Lee
31:40and Harry Brundage,
31:41have beaten the rest
31:42of the press corps
31:43to the biggest
31:43unclaimed story
31:44in Japan.
31:46They want
31:47Tokyo Rose.
31:49Their offer,
31:50passed along
31:50through a go-between,
31:52is $2,000
31:53for an exclusive.
31:54Think about what
31:55that number looks like
31:56to Eva Toguri.
31:58She has been paid
31:59about $7 a month.
32:00And think about
32:01what she believes
32:02she is being asked.
32:04She ran a comedy segment
32:05written by Allied prisoners.
32:07She fed those prisoners.
32:09She kept her citizenship.
32:11As far as she knows,
32:12the Americans loved her show.
32:14And here are Americans
32:15at her door,
32:16with a reward.
32:18The contract puts
32:19a sentence in front of her.
32:21It identifies her
32:22as the one and only
32:23Tokyo Rose.
32:25She signs it.
32:27She never sees a cent.
32:29And the reason
32:30is two sergeants.
32:32Dale Kramer
32:33and James Keeney
32:34were reporters for
32:35Yank,
32:36the Army's own weekly,
32:37written by enlisted men
32:38for enlisted men.
32:40They went looking
32:41for her too,
32:42and Kramer described
32:43what they found.
32:45Not a siren.
32:46A small woman at home,
32:48bending over
32:49a little charcoal stove,
32:50putting green vegetables
32:51in a pot.
32:52They explained
32:54that Yank
32:54was the soldier's magazine.
32:56She talked to them.
32:58That interview
32:59broke the exclusive,
33:00and the $2,000
33:01evaporated.
33:03But pay attention
33:04to what the sergeant wrote,
33:06because he was
33:06the first American
33:07to get it right.
33:09His piece ran in Yank
33:11on October 19th,
33:12under the title
33:13Second Hand Rose.
33:15And his conclusion,
33:16after chasing the story
33:17all over Tokyo,
33:19was one flat sentence.
33:22Tokyo Rose
33:23simply didn't exist.
33:25An enlisted reporter
33:27worked that out
33:27in a few days.
33:28It would take
33:29his government
33:3032 years.
33:32In those first weeks,
33:34though,
33:34something else happened.
33:35And it is the scene
33:37I most want you to see.
33:39The men came
33:40to thank her.
33:41Just as the Navy
33:42had promised,
33:43G-I-Z
33:44wanted her picture.
33:45They wanted her autograph.
33:47She posed,
33:48and she signed,
33:49over and over.
33:50And sometimes
33:51she signed it
33:52the way they asked.
33:54Eva Togudi,
33:55Tokyo Rose.
33:57And then the commander
33:58of the 8th Army
33:59sent for her.
34:01Lieutenant General
34:01Robert Eichelberger,
34:03MacArthur's man,
34:04with an army
34:05of occupation to run,
34:06had her brought
34:07to his office.
34:08He had his photograph
34:09taken with her.
34:10He asked whether
34:12she had ever received
34:12the package
34:13of new records
34:14he had ordered
34:14dropped from a B-29,
34:16addressed to Tokyo Rose.
34:18She told him
34:19she knew nothing
34:19about it.
34:20And the general
34:21thanked her
34:22for playing such
34:22nice music
34:23for his soldiers.
34:25So that story
34:26about the parachuted
34:27records had somebody
34:28real behind it
34:29after all.
34:30A three-star general.
34:33Stop on that picture.
34:35An American general,
34:36the conquering army
34:37around him,
34:38shaking hands
34:39with the voice
34:40from Radio Tokyo,
34:41and thanking her.
34:43That is the answer
34:44to our title,
34:45as the men
34:46who were there
34:47understood it.
34:48They did not see
34:49an enemy.
34:50They had listened
34:51to her for two years,
34:53and they had made
34:53up their own minds.
34:55Here is the turn.
34:56The people who had
34:57heard the show
34:58were all in the Pacific.
35:00The people who would
35:01decide what happened
35:02next were at home,
35:04and they had never
35:05heard a minute of it.
35:06All they had
35:07was the name.
35:09And at home,
35:10the name meant
35:10something else entirely.
35:12It meant
35:13the woman who told
35:14American boys
35:15their wives
35:16were cheating.
35:17It meant
35:18the voice that knew
35:19where the ships were.
35:21The legend
35:22that the troops
35:22had built for fun
35:23had sailed home
35:24ahead of them,
35:25and nobody
35:26had packed the joke.
35:28Once the newspapers
35:29announced that
35:30Tokyo Rose
35:31had been found,
35:32the army arrested her.
35:33She was held
35:34for about a year,
35:35most of it
35:36in Sugamo prison,
35:38alongside men
35:38waiting to be tried
35:39as war criminals.
35:41No lawyer.
35:42By one account,
35:44her husband
35:44was allowed
35:4520 minutes
35:46with her a month.
35:47Army counterintelligence
35:49questioned her.
35:50A sergeant
35:51named Merritt Page
35:52took down
35:53what she told him,
35:54that she did not
35:55believe she had
35:56done anything
35:56treasonous.
35:58The FBI looked.
36:00General MacArthur's
36:01legal staff looked.
36:02The Justice Department
36:03looked,
36:04and its officials
36:05described her broadcast
36:06with one word,
36:08innocuous.
36:10On October 25th,
36:111946,
36:12she walked out.
36:14The government's
36:15stated reason
36:15was the one
36:16Sergeant Kramer
36:17had printed a year earlier.
36:19Tokyo Rose
36:20was a composite.
36:21There was no case.
36:23And with the case
36:24closed,
36:25somebody tidied up.
36:27Most of the recordings
36:28of her broadcast
36:28were destroyed.
36:30She had been on the air
36:31some 340 times.
36:33By the end,
36:34six recordings
36:35were left.
36:36Hold on to that number,
36:38because what a recording
36:39could have proved
36:40is about to matter
36:41very much.
36:43She wanted one thing now,
36:45to go home
36:46to the country
36:46she had refused
36:47to give up.
36:48She applied
36:49for a passport.
36:50That application
36:51reached the newspapers.
36:53Walter Winchell,
36:54the most listened-to
36:55broadcaster in America,
36:57took it to his microphone.
36:58The American Legion
36:59joined in.
37:01Tokyo Rose
37:01was trying to come back,
37:03and nobody
37:04had punished her.
37:05None of the men
37:06raising that cry
37:07had heard the program,
37:08either.
37:08The pressure went up
37:10through an administration
37:11facing an election,
37:12and the closed case
37:14came open.
37:15In the late summer
37:16of 1948,
37:17she was arrested
37:18in Tokyo
37:19a second time
37:20and put on a ship.
37:21On September 25th,
37:23in San Francisco,
37:25FBI agents
37:26took her into custody
37:27on a warrant
37:27for treason.
37:29Now we are
37:30at the hard center
37:31of this story.
37:32The Constitution
37:33sets a rule
37:34for this one crime
37:36that it sets
37:36for no other.
37:38Two witnesses
37:39to the same overt act.
37:42So the government
37:43went looking.
37:44It interviewed
37:45hundreds of men
37:45who had served
37:46in the Pacific,
37:47the same men
37:48who had laughed
37:49at her show.
37:50And it flew
37:51nineteen witnesses
37:52in from Japan,
37:53first class.
37:54The men who had listened
37:56were about to be asked,
37:58under oath,
37:58what they had really heard.
38:01Some would testify
38:02against her.
38:03Some would cross
38:04the country
38:05to testify for her.
38:07And two men
38:08would come from
38:08half a world away,
38:10at their own expense,
38:11to stand next to her.
38:13One of them
38:14was an American officer
38:15the Army had
38:16every reason
38:17to keep quiet.
38:18July 5th, 1949.
38:21The Federal Courthouse
38:22in San Francisco.
38:24Eva Taguri de Kino,
38:25the day after
38:26her 33rd birthday,
38:27sits down
38:28at the defense table
38:29to be tried for treason
38:30against the United States.
38:32Three lawyers
38:33sit with her,
38:34led by a man
38:35named Wayne Collins.
38:37None of them
38:37is being paid.
38:39Start with the point
38:40I asked you to mark
38:41back in Tokyo.
38:42Her refusal to sign.
38:44Treason is a crime
38:45only a citizen
38:46can commit.
38:47Had she taken
38:48Japanese citizenship
38:49in 1941,
38:50as the police demanded,
38:52no American court
38:53could have charged
38:54her with it.
38:55She is at that table
38:56because she stayed
38:57an American.
38:59The government
39:00will call
39:0046 witnesses
39:01over the next
39:02six weeks,
39:03and the first surprise
39:04is what happens
39:05when it puts
39:05the veterans
39:06on the stand.
39:07They are there
39:08to say
39:08they heard her.
39:10One after another,
39:12former servicemen
39:13describe a woman's voice
39:14from Tokyo
39:14taunting them.
39:16Then Collins
39:17and his partners
39:17cross-examine,
39:18and it starts
39:19to come apart.
39:20Men cannot separate
39:21what they heard
39:22on a radio
39:22from what they heard
39:24in a chow line.
39:25The legend
39:26and the broadcast
39:27have grown together
39:28in memory.
39:30One prosecution witness,
39:31a veteran named
39:32Marshall Hoot,
39:34identifies her voice
39:35and then says this,
39:37This woman
39:38always referred
39:39to herself
39:39as Anne,
39:41Orphan Anne,
39:42or
39:42Little Orphan Annie,
39:44and I never heard
39:46her call herself
39:46Tokyo Rose.
39:48The prosecution
39:49calls Dale Kramer,
39:51the Yank sergeant.
39:52He tells the court
39:53she did not use
39:54that name
39:55and points to a script
39:56where she calls herself
39:58Orphan Anne.
39:59His partner,
40:00James Keeney,
40:01testifies that she
40:02denied ever telling
40:03servicemen
40:04their wives
40:05were stepping out.
40:06An FBI agent,
40:08Frederick Tillman,
40:09called by the government,
40:11concedes what she told him,
40:12that she had tried
40:13to make the program
40:14entertaining
40:15and to cut down
40:16whatever propaganda value
40:18it had.
40:19Those are the witnesses
40:20against her.
40:21Then,
40:22the defense brings
40:23its own listeners.
40:25Former American servicemen
40:26take the oath
40:27and describe the Orphan Anne
40:28broadcasts
40:29in their own terms.
40:31Friendly,
40:32entertaining,
40:34not vicious,
40:35and not demoralizing.
40:37They are saying
40:38under oath,
40:39in a treason trial,
40:41what the Marine private
40:42said about the big laugh.
40:44And then come the men
40:46from the cage.
40:47Charles Cousins
40:48has traveled from Sydney
40:49at his own expense.
40:51His own country
40:52had charged him
40:53with treason
40:54over those broadcasts
40:55and then dropped the case
40:56and had taken
40:57his commission away
40:58regardless.
41:00He has nothing
41:01to gain here.
41:02He tells the jury
41:03how he chose her
41:05and why.
41:06And he gives them
41:07his phrase.
41:08He wanted
41:09a complete burlesque.
41:11Hers was the comedy voice
41:13he needed.
41:14Wallace Ince
41:15has also paid
41:16his own way.
41:17He is a major
41:18in the United States Army now,
41:20a serving officer
41:21who once spoke
41:22on Radio Tokyo himself
41:23with every reason
41:25not to remind
41:26the country of it.
41:27He sits in that witness chair
41:29and does it anyway.
41:31The two men deny,
41:32in full,
41:33the statements
41:34the government
41:34has put in her mouth.
41:36And they tell the court
41:37about the food
41:37and the medicine.
41:38Norman Reyes,
41:40the voice of
41:40Baton Has Fallen,
41:42is a student
41:43at Vanderbilt.
41:44He had given
41:45the FBI statements
41:46that cut against her.
41:47On the stand,
41:48he says those statements
41:49were pressed out of him
41:50with threats
41:51and he takes them back.
41:54Even Major Tsuneshi
41:55is there.
41:56The architect
41:57of the Zero Hour,
41:58under cross-examination
42:00in an American courtroom,
42:02admits that she had been
42:03broadcasting
42:04under duress.
42:06So what does the government
42:07have left?
42:09Two witnesses.
42:10The Constitution's minimum.
42:13One is Kenkichi Oki.
42:15The other is the name
42:17I asked you to remember.
42:18George Mitsushio,
42:20the program chief.
42:21Both born in California.
42:24Both had given up
42:25American citizenship,
42:26which is exactly why
42:27neither could be sitting
42:28where she sat.
42:30They swear that in October 1944,
42:34after Leyte Gulf,
42:35they watched her
42:36at the microphone
42:37and heard her say,
42:39Orphans of the Pacific,
42:40you are really orphans now.
42:43How will you get home
42:44now that your ships are sunk?
42:46That line appears
42:47in no surviving script.
42:49And remember the number.
42:51Of some 340 broadcasts,
42:53six recordings still existed.
42:56It was not on any of them.
42:58The rest had been destroyed
42:59after the government
43:00closed the case
43:00the first time.
43:01The trial ran 56 court days
43:04and cost the government
43:05around three quarters
43:06of a million dollars,
43:07the most expensive
43:08it had ever mounted.
43:10Before sending the jury out,
43:12Judge Michael Roche
43:13gave them instructions.
43:15By accounts of the trial,
43:16they were not to weigh
43:17the help she gave
43:18Allied prisoners,
43:19nor that the Japanese military
43:21had ordered her
43:22onto the air.
43:24The reporters who had
43:25sat through all of it
43:26took a poll among themselves
43:27while they waited.
43:29Nine to one for acquittal.
43:31The jury could not agree.
43:33They came back and said so.
43:35Judge Roche did not
43:37declare a mistrial.
43:38He reminded them
43:39how long the trial had lasted
43:40and what it had cost.
43:42And he sent them back in.
43:44On September 29th,
43:46they returned.
43:46Not guilty on seven
43:48of eight counts.
43:49Guilty on one.
43:51Overt act number six.
43:53That she did speak
43:54into a microphone
43:55concerning the loss of ships.
43:58The foreman was a bookkeeper
43:59named John Mann.
44:01He told the press
44:02the jury did the only thing
44:03it thought possible
44:04under the judge's instructions.
44:06Years later,
44:07he said he would regret
44:08that verdict
44:09for the rest of his life.
44:11Ten years.
44:13A $10,000 fine.
44:15And the thing she had
44:16gone hungry to keep,
44:18her American citizenship,
44:20taken away
44:20by an American court.
44:23Wayne Collins
44:24had three words for it.
44:26Guilty without evidence.
44:29That is the bottom
44:30of this story.
44:31But look at who
44:32was standing in it
44:33with her.
44:34An unpaid lawyer.
44:36A sergeant from Yank.
44:38An American major
44:39with his career
44:40on the line.
44:41Veterans who crossed
44:42the country
44:43to say she had
44:44made them laugh.
44:45The men who had
44:46actually listened
44:47never changed
44:48their minds.
44:49They just had not been
44:51given the last word yet.
44:53It would come
44:54from men like them.
44:55It took 56 years
44:57and she was in the room.
44:59January 28, 1956.
45:03The Federal Reformatory
45:04for Women
45:05at Alderson, West Virginia.
45:07After six years
45:08and two months,
45:10Iva Taguri
45:10walks out
45:11through the gate.
45:12She is 39.
45:14A reporter asks
45:15where she is going
45:16and she says,
45:17I am going out
45:19into the darkness.
45:21The government
45:21is waiting
45:22with a deportation order.
45:24A woman born
45:25in Los Angeles
45:25on the 4th of July
45:26is told to register
45:28as an alien.
45:29It takes her
45:30two more years
45:31to beat that.
45:32Then she goes
45:33to Chicago,
45:34to the back
45:34of her father's
45:35gift shop.
45:36And for a long time,
45:37that is where
45:38the story seems to end.
45:40Her husband
45:40is barred
45:41from the country.
45:42The fine still stands.
45:44And in 1972,
45:45the government
45:46is garnishing
45:47her wages for it.
45:48But the men
45:49who had listened
45:50were still out there.
45:51And they had never
45:52been asked properly.
45:54Around the time
45:55of her release,
45:56a veteran of the Navy's
45:57construction battalions
45:58wrote to a newspaper.
45:59Her program,
46:00he said,
46:01had brought many
46:02memories of home.
46:03And he had never
46:04known one man
46:05to quit because of it.
46:06Later,
46:07a researcher sat down
46:08with 94 men
46:09who had tuned in
46:10across the Pacific
46:11and put the question
46:13to them straight.
46:14Here is what
46:15came back.
46:16And these are the
46:17numbers I held
46:18for the end.
46:1989% said they had
46:21known perfectly well
46:22it was propaganda.
46:24Fewer than 1 in 10
46:25said it ever
46:26got them down.
46:27And 84% said
46:29they listened
46:30because it was
46:30good entertainment.
46:32One of those
46:33veterans put the
46:34whole thing
46:34in a sentence.
46:36Lots of us
46:37thought she was
46:37on our side
46:38all along.
46:39He was guessing.
46:41Now look at
46:41how the guess
46:42was proved.
46:43In 1976,
46:45a Chicago Tribune
46:47correspondent
46:47named Ron Yates
46:49found two aging
46:50men in Japan.
46:52Kenkichi Oki
46:53and George Mitsushio,
46:56the two witnesses.
46:58And they told him
46:59what they had sworn
47:00to in San Francisco
47:01was not true.
47:02They had never
47:03heard her say
47:04the line
47:04about the ships.
47:05They had been
47:06coached for weeks,
47:07they said,
47:07and warned
47:08what would
47:09happen to them
47:09if they did
47:10not cooperate.
47:11The one count
47:12she was convicted
47:13on rested
47:14on those two
47:14men.
47:15And they had
47:16just taken it
47:16back.
47:18Veterans groups
47:19joined Japanese
47:20American organizations
47:21in asking for
47:22a pardon.
47:23On January
47:2419, 1977,
47:26his last full
47:27day in office,
47:28President Gerald
47:29Ford signed
47:30it.
47:31Full and
47:32unconditional.
47:33Her citizenship
47:34came back with
47:35it.
47:36No one convicted
47:37of treason
47:38in the United
47:38States had
47:39ever been
47:40pardoned before.
47:42Wayne Collins
47:43did not live
47:43to see it.
47:44He had died
47:45three years earlier,
47:46still unpaid,
47:48still on the case.
47:49And his son
47:50carried it
47:51the rest of the
47:51way.
47:52Charles Cousins
47:53had gone home
47:54to Sydney,
47:55stripped of his
47:55commission,
47:56and three months
47:57later,
47:57the soldiers
47:58of his old
47:58battalion
47:59asked him
47:59to lead them
48:00in the Anzac
48:00Day March.
48:02He died
48:02in 1964.
48:05Iva went
48:06back to the
48:06shop.
48:07She did
48:07not give
48:08interviews.
48:09She worked
48:09the counter
48:10into her
48:1080s.
48:11And then,
48:12one more
48:12date.
48:14January 15,
48:152006.
48:17A luncheon
48:18in Chicago.
48:19The hosts
48:20are the
48:20World War II
48:21Veterans Committee,
48:22and they have
48:23come to give
48:23out their
48:24citizenship
48:24award.
48:25It goes
48:26to a small
48:27woman of
48:2789.
48:28A veteran
48:29stands and
48:30reads the
48:30citation.
48:32For her
48:32indomitable
48:33spirit,
48:34her love
48:35of country,
48:35and the
48:36example of
48:37courage she
48:37has given
48:38her fellow
48:38Americans.
48:40While he
48:40reads it,
48:41she is wiping
48:42her face.
48:44When it is
48:44her turn,
48:45she thanks
48:46them.
48:46For making
48:47this,
48:48she says,
48:48the most
48:49memorable day
48:50of her
48:50life.
48:52Think about
48:52the days
48:53that sentence
48:54had to
48:54beat.
48:55The day
48:56the war
48:56ended.
48:57The day
48:58she left
48:58prison.
48:59The day
49:00a president
49:01gave her
49:01country
49:01back.
49:03She put
49:04this one
49:04above all
49:05of them.
49:06A room
49:07of old
49:07men who
49:08had been
49:08young in
49:08the Pacific,
49:09telling her
49:10out loud
49:10what they
49:11had decided
49:1160 years
49:12before.
49:14Go back,
49:15one last
49:16time,
49:16to where
49:16we started.
49:18August
49:1814,
49:191944.
49:21A red
49:22light in
49:23a studio
49:23in Tokyo.
49:24A raspy
49:25voice saying
49:25hello to
49:26the fighting
49:26orphans of
49:27the Pacific,
49:28and calling
49:29them boneheads,
49:30and promising
49:31to keep
49:31union hours.
49:33And out
49:33across the
49:34water,
49:34in the
49:35tents,
49:35in the
49:36radio shacks,
49:37and on
49:37the mess
49:37decks,
49:38American
49:39servicemen
49:39grinning at
49:40a broadcast
49:40that was
49:41supposed to
49:41break them.
49:43A year
49:44after that
49:44evening,
49:45the United
49:45States Navy
49:46had made
49:46them a
49:47promise as
49:47a joke,
49:48that soon
49:49they would
49:49be able to
49:50thank Tokyo
49:50Rose in
49:51person.
49:52They did.
49:54It took
49:54until 2006,
49:56and by
49:57then they
49:57had her
49:57right name.
49:58She died
49:59that September,
50:00at 90,
50:01an American
50:02citizen.
50:03So why did
50:04American troops
50:05love the
50:05Japanese radio
50:06show that was
50:07meant to
50:07break them?
50:09Because it
50:09was never
50:10really Japanese.
50:12It was written
50:12by prisoners
50:13who would not
50:14serve the
50:14enemy,
50:15and spoken
50:16by an
50:16American who
50:17would not
50:17stop being
50:18one.
50:19The men
50:20in the
50:20Pacific could
50:21not have
50:21known any
50:21of that.
50:22They had
50:23no names,
50:23no faces,
50:24and no
50:25facts.
50:26They had
50:26only what
50:27came through
50:27the static,
50:28and their
50:29own judgment
50:29of it.
50:30And their
50:30judgment was
50:31right.
50:32Before the
50:32courts,
50:33before the
50:33newspapers,
50:34before their
50:35own government,
50:36the American
50:37soldier,
50:38sailor,
50:38and marine
50:38listened to
50:39that voice
50:40and knew
50:40a friend
50:41when he
50:41heard one.
50:43Thank you
50:43for watching
50:44this one
50:44through to
50:44the end.
50:45If it
50:46told you
50:46something you
50:46had not
50:47heard before,
50:48please give
50:48the video a
50:49like.
50:49That is what
50:50helps a story
50:51like this reach
50:51other people
50:52who care about
50:52what American
50:53servicemen in
50:54the Pacific
50:54lived through.
50:56Subscribe and
50:57turn on the
50:57bell so the
50:58next one
50:58finds you.
50:59And tell me
51:00in the comments
51:00where you
51:01are watching
51:01from.
51:02If your
51:03father,
51:03your
51:04grandfather,
51:04or your
51:05uncle served
51:06in the
51:06Second World
51:06War,
51:07I would be
51:08glad to read
51:08his name and
51:09his unit,
51:10and whether
51:10he ever
51:11mentioned
51:11listening to
51:12Radio Tokyo
51:12at night.