Nobody was able to take America out of Tokyo Rose.
July 4, 1916: Iva Toguri, a.k.a. Tokyo Rose, was born in Los Angeles, California
Iva Toguri was a proud American — born on the Fourth of July.
When World War II broke out, she was visiting a sick relative in Japan and got trapped behind enemy lines. Refusing to renounce her American citizenship, she was considered suspicious by both sides.
Then came The Zero Hour, a propaganda radio show the Japanese government used to try to demoralize Allied soldiers. Iva was forced to participate. They gave her scripts designed to break the spirits of U.S. troops.
Instead, she got clever.
She read the lines — but she laced them with sarcasm and humor, even calling herself “your favorite enemy” and referring to the soldiers as her “favorite family of boneheads.” Far from spreading fear, her style amused the GIs. Some said they even looked forward to her voice — calling it a “comforting connection to home.”
The nickname “Tokyo Rose” didn’t come from her. It was a term U.S. soldiers coined to refer to the group of female voices they heard on the airwaves. Iva and the others actually used the name “Orphan Ann” on the broadcast itself.
But after the war, she became a scapegoat.
A reporter offered her $2,000 for an exclusive interview — money she needed to return to America. But once she accepted, her identity was exposed. She was arrested, tried for treason, and convicted in a trial many historians now say was deeply flawed. She also never received the promised money.
Years later, key witnesses recanted — in fact, they were threatened and forced by the FBI to cooperate at the time. The U.S. government admitted wrongdoing. And in 1977, President Gerald Ford granted her a full presidential pardon. She became the only American convicted of treason and pardoned by her country.
Still, Iva Toguri is remembered as Tokyo Rose.
But she should also be remembered as a proud American who never stopped loving her country — even in the darkest of times.