WEBVTT - The Trial of Tokyo Rose: Part One 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:05.359 You're listening to History on Trial, a production of iHeart 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:08.080 Podcasts Listener Discretion. 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:12.920 Advised Hi History on Trial Listeners. Today's story will come 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:16.480 in two parts. This episode will cover the lead up 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.239 to the trial, and the second episode will cover the 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:27.840 trial and its aftermath. Thanks for listening. Clark Lee and 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:33.000 Harry Brendage couldn't believe their luck. Out of all the 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:37.239 reporters in Japan, they were about to break one of 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:42.680 the biggest stories of the summer. It was August nineteen 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:47.040 forty five, only weeks after Japan's surrender in World War Two, 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:52.720 and Tokyo was flooded with journalists. All the reporters Lee 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:58.720 remembered were going after the same three stories. They wanted 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:02.480 to get an interview with Hideki Tojo, Japan's leader during 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:06.080 the war. They wanted to describe the wreckage of Tokyo, 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:13.800 and perhaps most of all, they wanted to identify Tokyo Rose. 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:23.160 Tokyo Rose, the name conjured glamour, romance, intrigue. Tokyo Rose 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:27.840 was famous all across the Pacific, from Alaska to Borneo, 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:33.280 a legend amongst soldiers and sailors alike. For two years, 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:37.640 as Allied forces fought their way across the ocean and islands. 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:42.840 Tokyo Rose had kept them company. No matter how remote 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:48.520 their ship or how wretched their conditions, Tokyo Rose had 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:53.680 been there. Her mythological status and far reach might make 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:58.280 her seem supernatural, but it was simpler than that. Tokyo 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:04.040 Rose was a radio host. Throughout World War Two, the 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:09.880 Japanese Broadcasting Corporation or NHK short for Nipoon Hoso Kyo Kai, 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:15.239 had broadcast English language propaganda radio programs throughout the Pacific. 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:20.560 Many of these programs used a female broadcaster. As the 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:25.799 war wore on, these broadcasters became legendary, and they were 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:31.440 often grouped together under a nickname Tokyo Rose. American press 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:37.280 reports depicted Tokyo Rose as a racialized fem fatale, a seductive, 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:43.600 exotic siren luring Allied Gis to abandon their cause. The 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:48.000 Gis themselves mostly had a less dramatic view of Tokyo Rose. 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:50.960 Many thought she was just good company. 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:55.440 She played popular music on her broadcasts, tease the men 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:59.920 and crack jokes. Many Gis, instead of seeing Tokyo Row 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:05.040 as a propaganda pusher, thought that she boosted morale the 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.880 Navy even issued Tokyo Rose a tongue in cheek citation, 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:14.920 saying Tokyo Rose has persistently entertained the men and inspired 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.840 them to a greater determination than ever to get the 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.880 war over quickly, which explains why they are now driving 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:25.840 onward to Tokyo itself, so that soon they will be 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:30.880 able to thank Tokyo Rose in person. Now that the 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:34.280 war had ended, the press was determined to find the 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:38.000 real Tokyo Rose, not to thank her, of course, but 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:42.000 to get an exclusive interview with her. When Clark Lee, 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:46.839 a reporter for Hearst's International news service, and Harry Brundage, 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:51.080 a writer at Cosmopolitan magazine, arrived in Japan in August 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:55.560 nineteen forty five, they decided to team up and find 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:57.880 Tokyo Rose first. 0:03:58.200 --> 0:03:59.840 The competition was stiff. 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.960 On August thirtieth, a group of reporters burst into the 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:08.720 NHK offices and began interrogating staff members there about Tokyo 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:13.440 Rose's real identity. The NHK employees claimed to have no 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:17.280 idea what they were talking about. People began wondering if 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:22.080 Tokyo Rose really existed. On August thirty first, an article 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:25.479 from the associated press claimed that she was real, but 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.279 acknowledged that she was more than one person. Lee and 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:33.240 Brendage were beginning to get discouraged. They reached out to 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:38.440 an old friend of Lee's, Leslie Nakashima. Nakashima, an American 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:42.800 of Japanese descent, had better luck at the NHK office. 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:47.000 Kenkichi Oki, an NHK employee, confirmed that there were five 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:49.880 or six women who had broadcast in English during the 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:53.640 war from the Tokyo station, but Oki would only give 0:04:53.720 --> 0:05:01.440 Nakashima one name, Iva Toguri Dakino. Excited, Nakashima called up 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:05.400 Lee and Brundage to report his progress. Brundage and Lee 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:09.240 told Nakashima that they would offer two thousand dollars or 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.840 close to thirty five thousand in today's money, for an 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:18.440 exclusive interview with Iva. When Nakashima visited Iva on September first, 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:22.800 she was reluctant to give an interview. Her husband, Felipe, 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:27.240 was also skeptical, but Nakashima told them that Iva's name 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.359 was already public. She was going to be the focus 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.560 of press attention anyways, so why not get paid for it? 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.800 And the Dacuinos needed the money. Post war, Japan was 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.880 economically devastated, and the pay that Nakashima was offering was 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:45.360 close to three hundred times what Iva made in a month, 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:49.719 so Iva agreed to speak with Lee and Brandage. 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:51.360 As the two reporters. 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:55.000 Sat in their hotel room awaiting Iva's arrival, they buzzed 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:55.880 with anticipation. 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:01.919 They had identified Tokyo Rose. They had gotten to her first. 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:04.080 Now all that. 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:09.360 Remained was seeing the woman behind the voice, and then 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:13.560 Iva came through the door. Whatever Lee and Brundage had 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:19.279 been expecting, she wasn't it. Instead of a glamorous siren, 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.800 Lee and Brundage found a tiny young woman. Iva was 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:28.320 barely five feet tall. Years of malnutrition during the war 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:32.440 made her seem even smaller. She wore her thick black 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:36.400 hair in pigtails. The reporters thought she looked maybe twenty 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:40.360 years old. In reality, she was twenty nine. She had 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:47.320 a forthright manner and unexpectedly a rather unremarkable voice. Things 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:51.280 only got stranger from there. If Lee and Brundage had 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.960 expected to find a die hard Japanese patriot, they could 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:58.880 not have been more wrong. Iva, it emerged, was an 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:03.880 American citizen. Her parents were both Japanese, but Iva herself 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:07.599 had been born and raised in California. In fact, she 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:12.200 barely spoke Japanese. Iva claimed that she had gotten stuck 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:14.360 in Japan when the war broke out while she was 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.520 visiting a sick relative there. She had been forced to 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:21.960 do the radio broadcast job to survive, She said. She 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.080 told the reporters that she was delighted America had won 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:29.160 the war, and that she had always believed they would. 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:32.720 This didn't make for a particularly compelling story, Lee and 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.920 Brendage thought. When Lee published his first story on Iva 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:41.760 on September third, nineteen forty five, he mentioned that quote 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:46.320 circumstances had forced her into broadcasting, but he also added 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:51.640 a little drama by raising the question of treason. Iva, 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:55.040 Lee wrote, does not feel that she was a traitor 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:57.120 to the US for the job of trying to make 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:02.120 American troops homesick. Iva had never even considered the question 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.600 of treason, nor was she concerned about the question now. 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:10.040 In truth, the United States government also did not consider 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:14.640 the question seriously. After briefly questioning Iva, the Army let 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.640 her go and even asked her to participate in a 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.960 film about her time as Tokyo rose, but things were 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:27.040 about to take a drastic turn. Three years after Clark 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:31.480 Lee and Harry Brundage first interviewed Iva, to Gorri Daquino, 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:37.680 she would be standing trial in San Francisco, accused of treason. 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.720 In a shocking reversal largely driven by public pressure and 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:48.200 political motives, the United States Justice Department was pursuing Iva, 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:53.400 and they were determined to convict her, no matter the 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:57.120 illegal lengths they would have to go to do so. 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:04.000 Welcome to History on Trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward. 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:14.120 This week the United States v Iva Takori Dakino. Iva 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:18.439 Ikuko Toguri was the first American citizen in her family. 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:22.400 Her father, June, came to the United States from Japan 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.240 in eighteen ninety nine. On a trip back to Japan 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.959 in nineteen oh seven, he married Fumi Imuro, but had 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.520 had to return to America shortly after. The two spent 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.920 the first years of their marriage separated by an ocean, 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:42.600 with June only able to visit several times. Their first child, Fred, 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:46.880 was born in Japan, but in nineteen thirteen Fumi and 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.560 Fred were able to join June permanently. In America, and 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:54.319 thus their second child, Iva, was born in Los Angeles 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:58.000 in nineteen sixteen. In a fact that would seem too 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.400 on the nose if you scripted it, Iva was born 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:06.080 on July fourth. June to Goody added Iva to his 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:09.720 family register in Japan, which made her legally a Japanese 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:14.880 citizen too, But in nineteen thirty two, after Japan invaded Manchuria, 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:19.120 he took the advice of Japanese American community leaders and 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.600 removed Iva and her two younger sisters from the family register, 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:28.199 making the three girls entirely American citizens. Iva and her 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.960 sisters were nise, a term for the American born children 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:37.120 of Japanese immigrants. The Taguris moved frequently around southern California 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:40.680 while June searched for work, but by nineteen twenty eight 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:43.319 he had saved enough money to open a small store 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:48.040 in Los Angeles. It was a happy childhood. Iva and 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:52.040 her siblings attended school, helped out at their father's store, 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:55.760 and tended to their mother, who had diabetes and high 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:59.560 blood pressure. June wanted his children to assimilate to white 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:04.400 America culture, though the Tagories occasionally spoke Japanese at home. 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:08.920 And celebrated some Japanese holidays. June encouraged his children to 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:13.560 speak English and public, observe American holidays, and play mainly 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:18.520 with white children. Iva grew into a sporty, outgoing, good 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:22.600 humored teenager. She wanted to be a doctor, and in 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:27.200 nineteen thirty four she enrolled in Compton Junior College. After 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:31.360 six months, she transferred to UCLA, where she studied zoology. 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.559 She loved her coursework, choosing to spend her school holidays 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:39.240 out in the field on research trips with professors. She 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:43.280 also loved college life and attended football games and played 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:47.719 tennis with friends. After graduating in nineteen forty, I have 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:51.320 a plan to pursue graduate work in medicine. She started 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:55.640 taking more zoology and pre medical courses. The future seemed 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:59.280 wide open for her, but in the summer of nineteen 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:06.400 forty one, a letter changed everything. That June, the Tagoris 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:09.360 received a letter from Fumi's brother in law in Japan. 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:14.560 He wrote that Fumi's sister Shizu, was gravely ill and 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.679 wished to see Fumi while she still could after more 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:22.000 than thirty years apart. Fumi herself was too ill to 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:25.600 make the trip, so the Tagories decided to send Iva 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:29.600 in her place. Iva was not happy about this plan, 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:34.080 but agreed to travel to Japan. In July, June wrote 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:36.800 to the State Department in Washington to apply for a 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:41.160 passport for Iva. Unlike today, passports were not required for 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.480 international travel at the time, but June wanted to make 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.440 sure that Iva's documents were all in order. However, as 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:52.720 the date of Iva's departure grew closer, no passport arrived. 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.439 June got in contact with the Immigration office in Los Angeles, 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:00.360 who told him that Iva could substitute a notarized stificate 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.440 of identification for her passport and then apply for a 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:08.880 passport for the American consulate in Tokyo. However, the passport 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:13.360 requirements were about to change in ways that would profoundly 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:18.080 affect Iva's life. In November nineteen forty one, the State 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:20.920 Department declared that, due to the advent of the war, 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:26.000 all international travel to or from the United States after 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:31.199 January fifteenth, nineteen forty two, would now require a passport. 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.880 Iva's trip to Japan in the summer of nineteen forty 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:38.840 one would not be impacted by this change, but her 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:42.920 plan returned to America scheduled for the spring of nineteen 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:48.559 forty two would be impossible without a passport, and despite 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:54.240 the Immigration Office's recommendation, getting a passport while abroad would 0:13:54.240 --> 0:14:00.160 turn out to be extremely challenging. Ignorant of this change, 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:04.040 Iva departed for Japan on July fifth, nineteen forty one, 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:08.640 a day after her twenty fifth birthday. Nearly three weeks later, 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:13.000 on July twenty fourth, Iva disembarked at Yokohama and met 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:16.440 her uncle and cousins for the first time. Her mother's 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:21.120 family was welcoming and friendly, but Iva felt ill at ease. 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:27.600 Japan impressed me as very, very strange. I've remembered all 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:32.000 the customs were strange to me. The food was entirely different, 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:36.640 the apparel was different, the houses were different. I felt 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:41.040 like a perfect stranger, and the Japanese considered me very queer. 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.400 She was shocked by the poverty she saw in Japan. 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:47.600 The country had been at war with China for four 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:52.160 years at this point, and the economy was devastated. Food 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:57.400 and other essential resources were scarce. After years of speaking 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:01.760 mainly English, her spoken Japanese was a extremely rusty, and 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.120 she could not read or write at all. Iva also 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:08.280 had a hard time communicating with her family back in America. 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.920 Tensions between Japan and the United States steadily increased over 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:16.640 the summer and fall of nineteen forty one, although Iva 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:20.280 was largely unaware of just how bad things were because 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:24.120 she could not read Japanese newspapers and her relatives tried 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:28.400 to protect her from the news. In early August, Iva 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.400 went to the American Consulate to apply for a passport. 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:34.520 The consulate told her that they would first have to 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:38.120 verify her identity with the State Department in Washington, which 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:42.000 could take some time. By November, Iva still hadn't heard 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:46.239 anything from the consulate and she was becoming increasingly homesick. 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.640 At the end of the month, she made an expensive 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:53.320 international telephone call and begged her father to buy her 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:58.480 passage home. June, concerned about Iva's well being, agreed and 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.240 said he would work on getting her a ticket, But 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:05.200 when Iva's family contacted the steamship office, they learned that 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:09.080 she would need a passport to return to America. Iva 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:12.200 tried to speed things up the consulate. The consulate told 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.040 her to get a new letter of identification, but this 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:19.320 paperwork would in turn require several other forms, scrambling to 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:22.520 get the paperwork together before the ship left. On December tewod, 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:29.320 Iva encountered obstacle after obstacle, the red tape was insurmountable 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:34.400 and Iva missed the ship, and then five days later, 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.640 the Japanese attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:44.800 All travel between Japan and America was immediately shut down. 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:49.960 Two days after Pearl Harbor, a man from the Japanese 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:54.280 Special Security Police showed up at Iva's family's home. The 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:58.240 officer told Iva that she needed to renounce her American citizenship. 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:03.280 When Iva refused, the man left, but then returned every 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.520 day for the next two weeks to continue to pressure her. 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:11.959 Iva was one of the approximately ten thousand Japanese Americans 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.720 who were stuck in Japan after Pearl Harbor. Many of them, 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:21.520 like Iva, were nise second generation Japanese Americans. It was 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:25.919 extremely difficult for these people who found themselves caught between 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.880 two countries who were both suspicious of them. In Japan, 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.639 they were pressured to give up their American citizenship by 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:37.800 the military and the Special Police. It was difficult to 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:41.120 obtain a ration card or get a job while still 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:47.560 holding American citizenship, so many ultimately renounced that citizenship. Iva, however, 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:53.280 held out. Things were no easier for Japanese Americans in America. 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:59.200 In February nineteen forty two, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:04.440 Order nine six six. This order authorized the removal of 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:09.719 Japanese Americans, both foreign and American born, from any quote 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:13.280 military areas, which came to be defined as the. 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:14.439 Entire West Coast. 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.760 This order was based on suspicion that Japanese Americans might 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:24.000 collaborate with Japan. Between March and August nineteen forty two, 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:28.680 more than one hundred thousand Japanese Americans were forcibly removed 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:32.400 from their homes and sent to prison camps, where conditions 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:37.240 were horrible. The mass removal and incarceration of these people, 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:41.800 two thirds of whom were American citizens, was a sickening 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:45.840 violation of their human rights and civil liberties, and is 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:50.560 an enduring stain on American history. When Iva heard that 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:53.760 her family had been sent to a prison camp in Arizona, 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:56.879 she did not believe that such a thing could happen 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:01.680 in America. She thought that the story be Japanese propaganda. 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.760 In February, Iva had been delighted to learn that the 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:10.359 Swiss Consulate was organizing a repatriationship for Americans in Japan. 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:14.200 She applied for a spot, but when the Swiss Consulate 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:18.760 telegraphed the State Department to confirm Iva's citizenship, the department 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:23.000 replied that there were doubts about her status. These doubts 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:26.520 are impossible to explain. Iva had been born in the 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.359 United States and had never left the country for the 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:32.720 first twenty five years of her life. Thanks to the 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:36.240 State departments in action, Iva could not get on the ship, 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:40.919 and things were only getting more difficult in Japan. The 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:45.399 harassment by the military and secret police only intensified the 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:50.199 longer Iva refused to give up her American citizenship. In June, 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:53.480 she decided to leave her uncle and aunt's home because 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:56.200 she didn't want her family to suffer for their connection 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.240 with her. Iva now had to pay rent at a 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.639 boarding house, but the money that she had taken to Japan, 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:06.040 which was only meant to cover six months, was fast 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:10.240 running out. Struggling to make ends meet, she tried to 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:13.879 find a job. It wasn't easy, no one wanted to 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:18.639 hire American citizens, but after a three month search, Iva 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:21.200 managed to get a part time position at the Domain 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:25.479 News agency. The late night schedule was miserable and the 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:28.960 pay was barely enough to cover her rent. By the 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:32.840 time the next repatriationship left in September nineteen forty two, 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:37.320 Iva had exhausted her meager savings and could not buy 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:41.000 a ticket. It seemed that she was stuck in Japan. 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.479 But there was one silver lining of that difficult summer. 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:49.480 In mid July, Iva met a new hire at Dome 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:55.560 named Felipe Dakino, of Portuguese and Japanese descent. Felipe had 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:59.159 grown up in Japan and attended Catholic schools, so he 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:03.240 spoke fluent English. Iva was delighted to have someone to 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:06.600 talk to, and the pair quickly bonded over their shared 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:10.399 support for the American cause, something no one else around 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:14.879 them agreed with. Once Felipe even got into a fistfight 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:19.200 with a colleague over pro American remarks Iva had made. 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:24.080 A year later, in June nineteen forty three, Iva was hospitalized. 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:29.080 She was extremely weak from lack of food and essential nutrients. 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:32.840 The military police had at one point blocked her from 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:35.879 getting a ration card when she continued to hold on 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:40.639 to her American citizenship. Iva eventually recovered, but her medical 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:43.560 bills put her in debt, and she decided to find 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.159 another part time job to pay back her bills. In 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:50.880 late August, Iva was hired as a typist at NHK. 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:54.800 Her job was to type up the broadcast scripts and 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:59.200 correct grammatical mistakes. There was quite a bit of work 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:03.600 for Iva to do in this regard. NHK, like many 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:07.280 other Japanese news agencies, had been co opted into the 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:12.240 war effort. The agency now produced propaganda under the command 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:18.520 of Major Shikitsugu Suneishi. Suneishi had no propaganda experience, and 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:22.840 he and his subordinates spoke limited English, so their broadcasts 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:26.560 were littered with errors. To try to fix this problem, 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:30.239 NHK began to hire native English speakers to serve as 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:35.399 radio announcers. Suneyishi also forced prisoners of war with radio 0:22:35.480 --> 0:22:39.280 experience to participate in his programming. One of the first 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:44.399 POWs brought in was Major Charles Cousins, an Englishman who 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:48.199 had worked as a radio announcer in Australia. Cousins had 0:22:48.240 --> 0:22:52.400 initially refused to help the propaganda effort and was subsequently 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:57.000 shipped off to a brutal labor camp. Suneishi eventually brought 0:22:57.040 --> 0:23:00.520 Cousins back to Tokyo and threatened the man with death 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:04.920 if he did not participate. Cousins reluctantly agreed to work 0:23:04.960 --> 0:23:09.400 at NHK. He was soon joined by two other POWs, 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:14.320 Norman Reyes and Wallace Ince, who had been similarly coerced 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:17.520 with death threats. The men were put in charge of 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:21.960 a program called Zero Hour, which broadcast every evening. The 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:25.280 Japanese had conceived of Zero Hour as a way to 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:28.879 lure allied gis into listening to more of their programming, 0:23:29.440 --> 0:23:33.080 so they told the POWs to make Zero Hour appealing 0:23:33.119 --> 0:23:37.640 to Western listeners. The POWs realized that they could use 0:23:37.760 --> 0:23:42.800 this premise to their advantage. As the historian Messiah Deuce 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:47.159 writes in Tokyo Rows Orphan of the Pacific, the men 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:52.359 quote made Zero Hour into an entertainment program that would 0:23:52.480 --> 0:23:56.640 boost GI morale rather than destroy it. They did their 0:23:56.680 --> 0:24:01.159 best to downplay propaganda, reading up jects actionable news items 0:24:01.240 --> 0:24:05.240 hurriedly or in a joking tone of voice. Zero Hour 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:11.120 quickly became a hit. In November nineteen forty three, Suniishi 0:24:11.160 --> 0:24:15.399 decided to expand Zero Hour The POWs were concerned that 0:24:15.480 --> 0:24:18.840 an expansion would dilute their control of the program and 0:24:18.960 --> 0:24:23.520 thus their ability to sabotage the propaganda content, but Cousins 0:24:23.600 --> 0:24:27.119 had an idea. When Iva to Gory had arrived at 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:32.040 NHK in August, she had immediately tried to befriend the POWs, 0:24:32.640 --> 0:24:37.199 grateful to have more pro American English speaking contacts. The 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:41.400 men were initially suspicious, but once they realized how sincere 0:24:41.440 --> 0:24:47.679 she was, they became friendly. Iva had even begun smuggling food, medicine, 0:24:47.720 --> 0:24:52.359 and warm clothing for the POWs. These items were gratefully 0:24:52.400 --> 0:24:56.359 received by the POWs, who lived in wretched conditions at 0:24:56.359 --> 0:25:00.280 bunka Camp, a prison specifically for captured men, were working 0:25:00.320 --> 0:25:06.480 on broadcasts. When Cousins was ordered to expand a zero hour, 0:25:07.200 --> 0:25:10.000 he decided to find staff who would aid in his 0:25:10.080 --> 0:25:14.240 sabotage efforts. He had to be careful with who he trusted, 0:25:15.080 --> 0:25:17.879 and in a station full of the enemy, there were 0:25:17.960 --> 0:25:23.480 few options. But that's when he thought of Iva. He 0:25:23.560 --> 0:25:27.600 could bring her on, and then he had an even 0:25:27.840 --> 0:25:32.760 better idea. They needed a new announcer for the program. 0:25:33.119 --> 0:25:37.959 The station had many talented female broadcasters, but Cousins didn't 0:25:38.000 --> 0:25:42.280 want a talented broadcaster. He wanted a person with a 0:25:42.520 --> 0:25:46.760 bad voice, a comic voice, a voice that would do 0:25:47.040 --> 0:25:52.199 anything but sell propaganda. And Iva, whose voice would be 0:25:52.240 --> 0:25:58.359 described as crow like, rough, and hacking, was just such 0:25:58.400 --> 0:26:03.439 a person. Iva was reluctant to join Zero Hour, but 0:26:03.600 --> 0:26:07.120 once Cousins explained what he and the other POWs were 0:26:07.160 --> 0:26:10.439 trying to do with the program, she agreed to become 0:26:10.520 --> 0:26:15.960 an announcer. Sometime in mid November nineteen forty three, Iva 0:26:16.000 --> 0:26:18.919 Taguri sat down in front of a microphone at the 0:26:19.040 --> 0:26:25.200 NHK offices and broadcast for the very first time. It 0:26:25.240 --> 0:26:29.159 was a broadcast that would help birth a legend and 0:26:29.320 --> 0:26:34.160 haunt Iva for the rest of her life. We're going 0:26:34.200 --> 0:26:37.240 to take a little break now. When we return, we'll 0:26:37.280 --> 0:26:45.160 pick Iva up in the broadcasting studio. Zero Hour came 0:26:45.200 --> 0:26:49.760 on air every night at six pm Tokyo time. The 0:26:49.800 --> 0:26:53.480 program ran for an hour, always following the same schedule. 0:26:54.400 --> 0:27:00.440 First music, then messages home from Allied POW's, then Iva's segment. 0:27:01.440 --> 0:27:03.560 Iva did not want to use her real name in 0:27:03.560 --> 0:27:08.680 her broadcasts, so Cousin suggested a nickname. He proposed Anne, 0:27:09.080 --> 0:27:13.720 short for announcer, and later added orphan, in a cheeky 0:27:13.760 --> 0:27:18.240 nod to the Japanese propaganda term for Allied sailors Orphans 0:27:18.359 --> 0:27:22.080 of the Pacific. The name referenced the fact that, like 0:27:22.160 --> 0:27:26.480 these gis Iva I was stuck far away from home. 0:27:27.200 --> 0:27:27.480 Orphan. 0:27:27.560 --> 0:27:31.320 Anne's portion of Zero Hour lasted fifteen to twenty minutes, 0:27:31.720 --> 0:27:35.399 but it mainly consisted of music. Iva only spoke for 0:27:35.440 --> 0:27:39.560 two to three minutes, always reading directly from Cousins's script. 0:27:40.240 --> 0:27:45.040 The tone of her announcements was always playful greetings everybody 0:27:45.280 --> 0:27:49.879 went one script, How are my victims this evening already 0:27:49.880 --> 0:27:53.720 for a vicious assault on your morale? The vicious assault, 0:27:53.880 --> 0:27:58.520 in this case, being playing popular American music. After Iva's 0:27:58.520 --> 0:28:02.480 segment came news segments, then more music than a sign off. 0:28:03.160 --> 0:28:05.760 She would come into the NHK studio for two to 0:28:05.840 --> 0:28:09.200 three hours every evening to prepare for and broadcast the show, 0:28:09.920 --> 0:28:14.160 except for Sundays, when another female announcer replaced her. During 0:28:14.200 --> 0:28:17.000 the day, Iva worked as a secretary for the Danish 0:28:17.040 --> 0:28:20.240 consul in Tokyo. She had had to quit her job 0:28:20.280 --> 0:28:23.199 at Domain after getting into a vicious argument over the 0:28:23.240 --> 0:28:25.080 war with her Japanese colleagues. 0:28:25.119 --> 0:28:25.399 There. 0:28:26.040 --> 0:28:28.920 Iva became close to the Danish consul and his family, 0:28:29.600 --> 0:28:33.160 and they generously shared some of their special diplomatic rations 0:28:33.200 --> 0:28:34.960 with her, including. 0:28:34.600 --> 0:28:36.360 Matches, soap, and sugar. 0:28:37.160 --> 0:28:40.600