Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino (July 4, 1916 – September 26, 2006) was an American disc jockey and radio personality of Japanese descent who participated in English-language radio broadcasts transmitted by Radio Tokyo to Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II on The Zero Hour radio show.
Toguri called herself "Orphan Ann", but she quickly became inaccurately identified with the name "Tokyo Rose", coined by Allied soldiers and which predated her broadcasts. After the surrender of Japan, Toguri was detained for a year by the United States military before being released for lack of evidence. U.S. Department of Justice officials agreed that her broadcasts were "innocuous", but when Toguri tried to return to the U.S. a popular uproar ensued, prompting the Federal Bureau of Investigation to renew its investigation of Toguri's wartime activities.
She was subsequently charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office with eight counts of treason. Her 1949 trial resulted in a conviction on one count, for which she spent more than six years out of a ten-year sentence in prison. Journalistic and governmental investigators years later pieced together the history of irregularities with the indictment, trial, and conviction, including confessions from key witnesses who had perjured themselves at the various stages of their testimonies. Toguri received a pardon in 1977 from then-U.S. President Gerald Ford.
1945Sep, 5
Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama.
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Events on 1945
- 23Feb
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World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces. - 25Feb
Turkey
World War II: Turkey declares war on Germany. - 9Mar
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
World War II: The first nocturnal incendiary attack on Tokyo inflicts damage comparable to that inflicted on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki five months later. - 6Aug
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning. - 30Aug
Douglas MacArthur
The Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur lands at Atsugi Air Force Base.