May 17

WIT Life #234: Tokyo Rose

Events, Translating/Interpreting, Uncategorized, WIT Life, Writers Comments Off on WIT Life #234: Tokyo Rose

WIT Life is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.

Last night I had the chance to see the play Iva: The Myth of Tokyo Rose at Asia Society.  Prior to seeing the performance I had heard of Tokyo Rose, but was not aware of what the story behind this name was.  It was actually created by Allied forces in the South Pacific during WWII to describe English speaking female broadcasters of Japanese propaganda, which was intended to disrupt the morale of the Allied force listeners.

The play’s protagonist is Iva Toguri D’Aquino, a Japanese-American who later married a Filipino.  She had the misfortune of going to Japan to take care of a sick relative in 1941, and being stuck there once war broke out.  When the Japanese government asked her to renounce her American citizenship and she refused, she was forced to work at Radio Tokyo as an announcer.  The program was The Zero Hour, which consisted of propaganda-tinged skits and slanted news reports, as well as popular American music.

Iva was made into a scapegoat when she was wrongly identified as the original Tokyo Rose.  Post-war she was detained in Japan’s Sugamo Prison for a year and investigated by the U.S. military, but eventually released due to lack of evidence.  When she attempted to return home, her case was reopened by the FBI amidst much media pressure.  After her 1949 trial she was found guilty of treason, and sentenced to 10 years in prison (of which she served over six years).  In 1974, journalists found that key witnesses claimed they were forced to lie during testimony, and that Iva’s broadcasts had been innocuous.  She was pardoned by President Ford in 1977.

The production of this play was part of Asia’s Society’s commemoration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, which began in 1977 as a 10 day period and was later extended.  You can find a variety of events associated with this celebration, including a festival being held by the Coalition of Asian/Pacific Americans in Chinatown tomorrow afternoon.