She was the enemy - and I'll miss her dearly (ex-Marine on Tokyo Rose)

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/457345p-384722c.html

I learned last week that Iva Toguri D'Aquino passed away at age 90, although I never knew her by that name.
This Japanese-American lady, born in Los Angeles to Japanese immigrants, was someone Marines in the Pacific Theater were huge fans of.

In the early 1940s, Marines and sailors, en route to invade Japanese-held islands, shared many pleasant hours listening to her radio broadcasts.

Because of these particular broadcasts, this lady we knew only as Tokyo Rose was charged, at war's end, with treason. She spent six years in the brig before, much later, she was pardoned by former President Gerald Ford.

Treason? Hell, she was the only source of entertainment we had during those war years.

To those of us huddled around a radio aboard ship, this lady was not only funny but also gave us Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, The Andrews Sisters and the big bands like Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Charlie Barnet and Woody Herman. Where were we going to hear the latest tunes if it weren't for good ol' Rosie?

American born, she happened to be visiting family in Japan when the war started. She didn't have much choice about what happened to her as an alien. Great article, thanks for posting.

And a hard-headed and successful businesswoman who was liked by the people in her neighborhood. I never knew her, but used to live a few blocks away from her. From what I have read, she did lots of good things for the people she cared out.

From what I heard on NPR, among the news media involved was Vanity Fair, which was nothing like what it is today.
She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was framed in order to sell papers/magazines. Witnesses perjured themselves to get her convicted.

He called her a traitor. I did a great deal of research on Tokyo Rose for an article and can't remember where I read the part about Winchell. It is in the archives somewhere!!!! Several GIs testified in her favor at her trial. From what I remember from the research, she thought she would be treated as a heroine after the war.

By Adam Blenford
BBC News

Iva Toguri D'Aquino, widely known as Tokyo Rose, who has died in Chicago aged 90, remains the only US citizen convicted of treason and pardoned by her country.

When she was convicted by a court in San Francisco in 1949, few worried that the case against her rested almost entirely on the word of two US-born men who worked on a Japanese propaganda radio station during World War II.

A US citizen of Japanese descent trapped in Japan when war broke out, Toguri had worked under their supervision, allegedly broadcasting fictitious propaganda to US troops in an effort to undermine their morale.

Even the FBI would later admit that the station's broadcasts did little harm, and may in fact have raised US spirits ..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5389722.stm

The obit in the NYT suggested that she may have even been sending coded messages, in the form of slang or innuendo that her Japanese bosses could not understand, that were designed to encourage the American troops in the Pacific.