Tokyo Rose Withers and Dies

Iva Toguri D’Aquino was born in LA in 1916. She was the daughter of Japanese immigrants. After graduating from UCLA in 1940 she went to Tokyo to visit and ailing aunt in the summer of 1941. A few months later Japan attacked and Iva ‘Ikuko’ was stranded in Tokyo.

She couldn’t speak Japanese and refused Japanese citizenship and was thus refused a food ration card.

She finally got a job with Japan’s Domei news agency monitoring American military broadcasts in 1942. A year later she became an announcer for Radio Tokyo’s propaganda broadcasts.

After the war during an interview she claimed to be ‘Tokyo Rose.’ Whether is was so or not didn’t matter. She ended up spending six years of a 10 year prison sentence until pardoned by President Ford.

She moved to Chicago until her ‘rose’ withered up and she died of natural causes at the age of 90.

Perhaps had Rose not been born of Japanese descent she would have been permitted to return to the states at the beginning of the war.

The way the Japanese-Americans were treated during the war was discraceful.

I can imagine Rose reading her propaganda on the radio knowing that the American servicemen would not take her serious, but rather would enjoy rhe American musical recordings she picked out for them.

I am not sad or happy that she is gone…I just wonder what might have been.

What do you think?