Text/Fast Wind
After Japan's surrender, the american journalists who flocked to japan were most eager to interview two people: emperor Hirohito and a woman.
Pictured: Mysterious Tokyo Rose
A Japanese witch who has destroyed countless American soldiers: "Tokyo Rose".
One
After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese military used radio stations to play psychological warfare in order to break the "war will" of American soldiers. A group of female DJs who are proficient in English, with a gentle voice, carried out English broadcasts to the US military, inciting their war-weary homesickness.
Pictured: The Japanese military fights a major airwave war
Among them, there is one of the most famous DJ, who calls himself "Orphan Ann".
She spoke pure English and her voice was very sweet, suggesting that American soldiers would fight to the death, and that wives and lovers at home would be lonely and lonely, making soldiers lose their fighting spirit. Because of her gentle, sweet and witty broadcast style, accompanied by authentic American music, she became the most popular female DJ among American soldiers in the Pacific Theater.
Pictured: Tokyo Rose in an American movie incites American soldiers
American soldiers gave this dreamy Oriental witch a very romantic name: Tokyo Rose.
Pictured: American soldiers' imagination of the Tokyo Rose
After many years of retirement, an American Marine soldier still remembers the mysterious radio waves: "(Listen to Tokyo Rose) My heart was pushed into the abyss of despair. But strangely enough, I like to listen to her hoarse voice, listening with fascination, and there is a wonderful pleasure in my heart. ”
Pictured: The Old American Movie "Tokyo Rose" from the 1940s
MacArthur, commander of the U.S. Pacific Theater of Operations, also heard the voice of Tokyo Rose, admitting that her "temptation" had caused many U.S. soldiers to lose their morale. After the war, MacArthur, who was the supreme commander in Japan, ordered the "female war criminal" to be tracked down.
Two
After a rigorous investigation, a total of six women were identified as possibly Tokyo Roses. Finally, a Japanese-American woman named Toguri Ikuko was arrested, and she was testified by witnesses as Tokyo Rose. Yuko is a Japanese-born American who came to Japan to visit relatives and worked as a female anchor to earn a living because she could not return to China after fighting.
Pictured: Toguri Ikuko
However, when they saw the true face of the Oriental Witch, American journalists and soldiers were disappointed: because she looked ordinary, far less charming and beautiful than the Dreams of American Soldiers. Yuko argued in court that she had never betrayed the country, that she had deliberately used puns to motivate the U.S. military during the broadcast, and that her voice on the radio did not resemble her own voice.
Ikuko was soon released and returned to the United States, but was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine by the U.S. government for "treason."
Pictured: Ikuko is surrounded by American journalists
In the 1970s, Ikuko wrote to U.S. President Ford to complain about her grievances and was able to reopen the trial, and both witnesses claimed to have been pressured by the U.S. judiciary to commit perjury, and Ikuko was finally pardoned and her nationality restored. In January 2006, the American Veterans Association recognized him as a "patriotic citizen" for not giving up his U.S. citizenship in difficult times. At that time, Ikuko, who was 90 years old, was left in tears and died of illness in September of the same year.
Pictured: Ikuko in her later years
Since Toguri Ikuko was rehabilitated after 60 years, who is the real Tokyo Rose?
Three
According to the U.S. military survey, there may have been 4 to 20 female announcers broadcasting to the U.S. military at that time.
Because the English of "Tokyo Rose" is very authentic and pure, several such expressions were born in the United States.
1. American pilot Amelia Earhart.
Pictured: Amelia Earhart
She was the first female pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone, but disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 when she attempted the world's first round-the-world flight. President Roosevelt also sent warships to search the crash site, but there was no trace. This account speculates that she was shot down by the Japanese near Saipan, then became a prisoner and forced to broadcast to the United States.
Pictured: Amelia and her plane
2. The American wife of Japanese diplomat Saburō Raisu. Laiqi's wife, Alice Jay Lit, was an American who married Laiqi in 1914.
3, Hideki Tojo's American lover...
Obviously, these statements are very unreliable.
Pictured: Photos of several suspects at the FBI
In recent years, Japan's TV Asahi has obtained a top-secret document from the US FBI that year, and there are several photos of the suspects of the "Tokyo Rose" in the document, saying that the real "Tokyo Rose" is in this photo. Among them, there are three regular English announcers, and the names and identities of others are unknown.
Pictured: One of the suspects, Japanese announcer Yako Kato, who is fluent in English
More than 70 years later, the legendary "Tokyo Rose" is still a mystery.
References: The Cruel Tale of the Tokyo Rose, Tokyo Rose: Wartime Strategy