"Tokyo Rose" - WW2 Traitor or Victim?

[Music] during world war ii the axis and the allies busied themselves with propaganda in an attempt to undermine each other's will to fight one of the most effective ways of reaching enemy troops and civilians was via radio broadcasts the germans used a variety of british traitors to broadcast nazi propaganda and perhaps the best known to a uk audience was lord horhore the cover name for an american-born irish fascist named william joyce who made some regular and unsettling broadcasts and a mock upper-class english voice being particularly notorious from the german invasion scare in 1940 and the blitz on london that followed joyce was captured in may 1945 and later controversially tried and hanged as a traitor even though it emerged that he actually held a british passport fraudulently and had been born in new york city making him a u.s citizen until he took up german nationality during the war the germans employed men and women traitors and my u.s audience may have heard of axis sally a cover name for a series of female traitors who broadcast for the nazis but most closely associated with mildred gilles from portland maine who was imprisoned in 1949 for treason but what about the pacific campaign any u.s veterans of that terrible campaign would recall the voice of tokyo rose a female voice that came to represent japanese villainy but was tokyo rose a traitor it has emerged that there wasn't one tokyo rose with several japanese americans who broadcast but one woman in particular was dubbed tokyo rose by the u.s media her name was eva taguri so what kind of show did tuguri broadcast it certainly wasn't the sneering anti-allied propaganda of william joyce nor was it particularly sophisticated her show mixed in a friendly female voice with jokes and popular music [Music] hello you fighting off into the pacific houston this is after her weekend annie back on the air strictly under uranus reception okay it better be because this is all requests but i've got a pretty nice program for my favorite little family in wandering doing hits in the pacific island the first request is made by none other than the boss and guess what you want bonnie baker and my listeners as well mom what taste you have cersei said [Music] taguri's broadcasts were popular with gi's in the pacific and were all made after japan had lost the strategic initiative and america was beginning to push the japanese perimeter back in its island hopping campaign the music she broadcast was especially welcomed by gis not to mention a young woman's voice which was both humorous and a little playful greetings everybody this is your number one enemy your favorite playmate or fernand a radio tokyo the little some beans and throats you'd like to touch we're ready again for a vicious assault on your morale 75 minutes of music and news for our friends eileen our enemies in the south pacific well uh how are my little darling little goats tonight full of beer and villagers i know you still hate us but don't let that take these questions it poison the whole system what you need is some good guys i mean solid helps you relax all set okay here's the first floor at your morale whose eyes are swinging and singing hey pop i don't want to go to work [Music] taguri show called the zero hour contained no direct attacks on the united states the reason for this was because her producer was an australian army major named charles cousins who had been captured at the fall of singapore in february 1942 and in 1943 forced to assist the tokyo rose broadcast by the japanese cousins working under duress was assisted in preparing the programs by two other pows captain wallace ince of the u.s army and lieutenant norman reyes of the philippine army so who was taguri she was born in los angeles in 1916 the daughter of japanese immigrants her upbringing was all-american a girl scout and church-going christian she graduated from ucla in 1941 with a degree in zoology on a trip to japan in july 1941 to visit a sick relative she traveled with a certificate of identification and not a passport waiting to return to the states in august she applied for a passport at the u.s embassy her request went to the state department once japan bombed pearl harbor on the 7th of december 1941 her request was refused and she found herself marooned in japan interestingly the japanese tried to pressure her to renounce her u.s citizenship which he refused to do instead she was permitted to do some clerical work in tokyo to support herself moving eventually to work at radio tokyo as a typist in november 1943 the japanese secret police the kempeitai selected taguri to become a radio program host of the instigation of major cousins determined that the broadcast he was being forced to make would be quite ridiculous and laughable to a western audience and he believed that taguri's voice would be perfect for such a show taguri already knew major cousins and captain ins it emerged after the war that taguri had actually smuggled some food to them as prisoners of war held at the radio station in fact it appears that although taguri would become closely associated with the tokyo rose supracay she remained a loyal u.s citizen and she cousins and ins were able to produce programs that any us listeners would view as largely devoid of enemy propaganda value the three of them were playing a dangerous game but the japanese station bosses never caught on to what taguri cousins and ints were up to and hence the kempei thai never punished them between the summer of 1943 and the japanese surrender in august 1945 taguri made 340 or so broadcast for the japanese she never called herself tokyo rose instead using the name orphan annie but even though taguri's broadcasts were essentially harmless she found herself in hot water when japan surrendered u.s reporters scrambled to find and interview tokyo rose offering up to two thousand dollars for her cooperation she wanted to use the money to return home to l.a and voluntarily came forward but was arrested in yokohama and jailed as an investigation was made into her alleged treason the problem for both general macarthur's headquarters in japan that delved into this matter as well as the fbi that launched a five-year-long investigation was the lack of incriminating evidence against taguri her scripts have been written for her by coerced allied pows and she herself had been pressured into broadcasting by her circumstances in 1943. she was no ideologue in 1948 taguri was transferred to san francisco there she was formally charged with treason an offense that carried the death penalty she had undoubtedly aided the government of japan against the united states and she eventually stood trial on eight counts of treason well i completely say i enjoyed entertaining ugi and as far as the news announcements were contained i admit a little confusing at times and i often wondered how many times the american feat was going to be fighting before the show was over her defence team was led by wayne collins an attorney who had a track record of defending japanese american rights following the forced internment of all japanese americans in special camps for the duration of the war a highly controversial order made by president roosevelt that remains a contentious subject even today major cousins was a witness for the defense after having been acquitted of treason by australia in 1946. in the end tiguri was found guilty on just one count that she had made a radio broadcast during which she had mentioned the loss of ships following the battle of leyte golf in 1944 however this accusation is in dispute as no record could be found in any of her scripts for the radio programs it appeared that some undue influence and duress had been applied on both the jury and the court to find her guilty and make an example of her she was fined ten thousand dollars and sentenced to ten years imprisonment she was paroled and released in 1956 in 1977 taguri received a presidential pardon from gerald ford on his last day in office and her citizenship was restored taguri died in chicago in september 2006 at the age of 90. her role as tokyo rose has been dramatized many times since the war and regardless of the truth of her actions she has been portrayed as an evil mouthpiece of japanese imperialism in reality taguri cousins and ins actually manage the difficult situation they found themselves in quite well and the propaganda value of the zero hour ended up being appropriately zero thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below you

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 467,149

Rating: 4.9659452 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton, Tokyo Rose, Axis Sally, Traitors

Id: HrT3rILfIzA

Length: 10min 49sec (649 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 28 2021