0:01

You're listening to History on Trial,

0:03

a production of iHeart Podcasts.

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Listener Discretion Advised, Hello,

0:09

History on Trial listeners. This is

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the second part of a two episode series

0:14

on the case of Iva Toguri da

0:16

Kino. In today's

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episode will cover the trial and

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its aftermath. If you haven't

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listened to part one yet, I strongly

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recommend starting there to hear

0:27

the full story.

0:30

A brief reminder of what we covered in the last

0:32

episode. Iva Taguri

0:34

was the American born and raised daughter

0:37

of two Japanese immigrants. In

0:39

the summer of nineteen forty one, the

0:41

then twenty five year old Iva traveled

0:44

to Japan to visit her sick aunt. Five

0:47

months later, the Japanese attacked

0:49

Pearl Harbor and the United States

0:51

declared war on Japan. Iva

0:55

tried desperately to get home, but

0:57

was stymied by multiple obstacles,

0:59

including a lack of money and obstruction

1:02

by the State Department, who questioned

1:04

her citizenship status. Despite

1:07

Iva having lived her whole life

1:09

in southern California. Stuck

1:12

abroad, Iva took on part

1:14

time work, including a job

1:16

as a typist at the Japanese Broadcasting

1:19

Corporation or NHK.

1:22

At NHK, she met several

1:24

Allied prisoners of war who had

1:26

been forced to work on a Japanese propaganda

1:29

radio program called Zero Hour.

1:32

The men were trying to secretly sabotage

1:34

Zero Hour by filling it with music

1:37

and fun banter. Eventually,

1:40

the POWs asked Iva to join

1:42

the program as an announcer, both

1:44

because they knew she would support their sabotage

1:47

agenda and also because

1:49

she had an unappealing voice which

1:51

would make for entertaining broadcasts.

1:54

Iva agreed and began working on the program

1:57

in late nineteen forty three. When

1:59

her Japanese military bosses assumed

2:01

more control of the program and changed its

2:04

tone, Iva tried to quit,

2:06

but was told she could not. Conditions

2:09

in wartime Japan were extremely difficult,

2:12

and Iva lived in near starvation.

2:16

One bright spot of this dark period was

2:18

her marriage to Felipe Daquino,

2:20

a man who she had met at one of her jobs

2:23

and who shared her pro American stance.

2:26

In the meantime, Iva's family

2:29

in America was incarcerated, along

2:31

with approximately one hundred thousand other

2:33

Japanese Americans in camps

2:36

established by the federal government. The

2:39

terrible conditions at the Camps killed

2:41

her mother Fumi. After

2:44

the war's end, reporters identified

2:46

Iva as one of the English speaking female

2:49

broadcasters who had become legendary

2:51

to American gis in the Pacific

2:54

under the collective nickname Tokyo

2:56

Rose. Iva's role

2:58

as a Tokyo Rose sparked

3:00

an investigation by the U. S Military

3:03

and the Department of Justice into whether

3:05

she had committed treason. Iva

3:08

was arrested and held in prison for a

3:10

year without access to a lawyer.

3:13

Ultimately, both the military and

3:16

the DOJ concluded that there was no

3:18

evidence of treason and released her. However,

3:21

when Iva and Felipe tried to return

3:23

to America in nineteen forty seven, the

3:26

press started a crusade against her

3:29

and called for her to be prosecuted. Succumbing

3:32

to public and political pressure, the

3:34

Department of Justice reopened the case

3:36

against Iva and arrested her

3:38

in September nineteen forty eight. Iva

3:41

was brought to San Francisco and charged

3:43

with eight overt acts of treason.

3:46

Despite these extremely difficult circumstances,

3:50

Iva was optimistic. A

3:52

prominent civil rights attorney, Wayne

3:54

Collins, agreed to take her case

3:56

for free, and she was able

3:58

to reunite with her family in America.

4:02

Iva believed that the trial would establish

4:04

her innocence. She believed

4:06

that the justice system would operate

4:08

fairly, but as she would

4:10

soon learn, the prosecution

4:13

wasn't interested in fairness

4:16

or even in following the

4:18

rules. Welcome

4:21

to History on Trial. I'm

4:23

your host, Mira Hayward this

4:25

week the United States vi

4:29

Iva Toguri Taquino. Treason

4:33

is the only crime explicitly

4:36

defined in the Constitution. When

4:38

defining the crime, the Constitution's

4:41

framers were very careful with their words.

4:44

In England, treason law had frequently

4:46

been abused by the government to persecute

4:48

political enemies, and the new

4:50

American government wanted to prevent the

4:52

same abuses from occurring in the United

4:54

States. However, they

4:57

also wanted to make it clear that betraying the

4:59

government was a crime. The

5:01

phrasing they settled on, as recorded

5:03

an Article three, Section three,

5:06

Clause one is quote.

5:09

Treason against the United States

5:11

shall consist only in levying

5:13

war against them, or in adhering

5:16

to their enemies giving them aid

5:18

and comfort. No person

5:20

shall be convicted of treason in

5:23

less on the testimony of two witnesses

5:25

to the same overt act or on

5:27

confession in open court. The

5:30

grand jury charged Iva with eight

5:32

acts of treason with quote

5:35

treasonable intent and for the

5:37

purpose of, and with the intent

5:40

in her to adhere and give

5:42

aid and comfort to the Imperial

5:44

Japanese government. The

5:46

charges all regarded specific allegations,

5:49

not just that Iva was a radio broadcaster,

5:52

but that she had done specific actions

5:55

while in this role, including

5:57

making certain statements such

5:59

as one regarding the loss of American

6:01

ships. Though the acts

6:03

themselves were specific, the details

6:06

ended there. The charges did

6:08

not have exact dates for the acts,

6:10

simply giving date ranges instead.

6:14

Once the charges were brought, Iva's

6:16

lawyer, Wayne Collins, got

6:18

busy. He added two more

6:20

lawyers, Theodore Tamba and George

6:22

Olshausen, to the defense team. Like

6:25

Collins, Tamba and Olshausen

6:27

agreed to work for free. On

6:30

March first, nineteen forty nine, the

6:32

defense petitioned the government that forty

6:35

three witnesses living abroad be subpoenaed

6:37

and brought at government expense to testify

6:39

in the trial. The government

6:42

refused to issue the subpoenas,

6:44

claiming that it could not issue subpoenas

6:46

for residents of foreign countries. This

6:48

may have applied to some of the witnesses,

6:51

but many of the subpoenas the defense had requested

6:54

were four American citizens only

6:56

temporarily residing in Japan. In

6:59

an earlier treat trial for Mildred

7:01

Gillers, an American radio broadcaster

7:04

for the Nazis, the government had

7:06

agreed to pay to bring defense witnesses

7:08

from Germany, but in Iva's

7:10

case they refused. However,

7:13

the government did agree to provide limited

7:16

funds for a defense lawyer to travel to Japan

7:18

and collect depositions. The

7:20

funds allocated were so limited that

7:23

they did not cover a translator. June

7:26

to Guri, Iva's father agreed

7:28

to cover this cost, as he

7:30

would many of the trial costs, eventually

7:33

having to take out loans to cover the expenses.

7:38

In late March, defense attorney Theodore

7:40

Tamba traveled to Japan to seek out witnesses.

7:43

Once there, he quickly ran into

7:45

obstacles. When

7:47

the defense had submitted their request for

7:49

forty three subpoenas, the Justice

7:52

Department had immediately sent the witness

7:54

list over to the military headquarters

7:56

in Tokyo, which had then dispatched

7:59

an FBIA to speak

8:01

to all of these witnesses first, when

8:04

Tamba, his translator, and

8:06

No Story, a representative of the Attorney

8:08

General's Office who was there to perform costs

8:11

examinations of the witnesses, tried

8:13

to speak to witnesses. They found

8:15

that many were too frightened to speak.

8:18

Tomba later said, quote,

8:20

they appeared to mister Story and

8:23

to me to be genuinely

8:25

frightened of our troops and occupied Japan.

8:28

A number of them had been led to believe

8:30

that if they testified against Missus Daquino,

8:34

they could avoid being charged and

8:36

put on trial for their own admitted

8:38

treasonable utterances and conduct. Tamba

8:41

and his translator struggled to get through

8:43

to these witnesses and ended up

8:46

having to stay in Japan for an additional

8:48

month, at further cost to June

8:50

Tagouri. This resulted

8:52

in a delay of the trial. The

8:55

prosecution, on the other hand, had

8:57

no shortage of resources. They

9:00

made for nineteen witnesses to travel

9:02

from Japan. The government

9:04

offered witnesses ten dollars a day,

9:07

or around three thousand, three hundred

9:09

yen, more than the monthly

9:11

salary of the average Japanese university

9:14

graduate at the time. Several

9:16

of these witnesses saved enough during

9:18

the trial that they were able to start businesses

9:21

upon their return to Japan. Despite

9:24

the wealth of witnesses, time, and

9:26

money, the prosecutors still

9:28

had concerns, namely,

9:31

they did not believe that they had a compelling

9:33

case. Frank

9:35

J. Hennessy, the United States

9:37

Attorney for the Northern District of California,

9:40

was originally the only prosecutor assigned

9:43

to the case. After Hennessy

9:45

reviewed the case, however, he recommended

9:47

to Attorney General Tom Clark that

9:50

the charges be dropped for lack of evidence.

9:53

The Justice Department, instead of following

9:55

Hennessy's recommendation, assigned

9:58

him a partner, Tom de Wolfe, an

10:00

Assistant Attorney General who specialized

10:02

in trees and cases. But, like Hennessy,

10:05

d wolf had concerns. He

10:08

had run the grand jury that charged Iva

10:10

back in October and privately

10:12

admitted shortly after that he had

10:14

pressured the jurors to indict. He

10:17

wrote to a colleague about how he had

10:19

promised that other American broadcasters

10:21

would be tried for treason despite

10:23

there being no plan to do so. If

10:26

the above action had not been taken

10:28

by me, De wolf wrote, I believe

10:31

the grand jury would have returned a no

10:33

true bill against Missus Daquino. In

10:36

other words, they wouldn't have charged her.

10:39

D Wolfe's doubts about the case were

10:41

long standing. In May

10:44

nineteen forty eight, he had written

10:46

a strongly worded memo to a colleague

10:49

in which he concluded that quote there

10:52

is no evidence upon which a

10:54

reasonable mind might fairly conclude

10:56

guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Despite

10:59

their concerns, Hennessy

11:01

and a wolf continued with the prosecution

11:04

under orders from Attorney General Tom Clark.

11:07

The prosecution team was rounded out by

11:09

James Knapp and John Hogan. On

11:12

July fifth, nineteen forty nine,

11:14

at ten am, Judge Michael

11:16

Roche, chief Judge of the United

11:19

States District Court of Northern California,

11:21

began the proceedings for jury selection.

11:24

Iva sat beside her lawyers, pale

11:27

and drawn. She had endured

11:29

the traumatic stillbirth of her first

11:31

child only eighteen months earlier,

11:34

and now suffered from recurring dysentery.

11:37

Her shoulder length black hair was held

11:39

back by a headband, and she wore

11:41

a modest plaid suit that she had

11:43

owned for years. She would

11:46

wear the suit every day of the trial.

11:49

Jury selection went quickly. The

11:51

defense team tried to screen jurors

11:53

for prejudiced attitudes towards Japanese

11:55

Americans. The prosecution team,

11:58

on the other hand, screened uors

12:00

by race using their peremptory

12:02

challenges, challenges that do not require

12:04

an explanation on every

12:07

non white juror. The practice

12:09

of being able to remove jurors of

12:11

certain races using peremptory challenges

12:14

was only stopped by a nineteen eighty

12:16

six Supreme Court case bats

12:18

In v. Kentucky, though it is

12:20

often hard to prove that challenges were racially

12:23

motivated. In the end,

12:25

Iva's jury was entirely white and

12:28

consisted of six men and six women.

12:31

Tom de Wolfe delivered the opening statement

12:34

for the prosecution the next day. He

12:36

told jurors that Iva had stayed in Japan

12:39

voluntarily and that she had participated

12:42

in the broadcasts enthusiastically

12:44

despite knowing that they were quote

12:47

nefarious and propagandistic.

12:50

He said that Iva had made certain statements

12:52

designed to ruin American morale.

12:55

Quote she told American

12:57

troops that their wives and sweetheart

13:00

arts were unfaithful, and

13:02

also that quote the Japanese

13:04

would never give up, so there was

13:06

no reason for Americans to stay

13:09

there and be killed. De Wolf

13:11

said she did this all with malicious

13:13

intent. In his May nineteen

13:15

forty eight memo, de Wolf had thought

13:18

otherwise, writing there

13:20

is no proof available that when subject

13:23

committed said acts, she intended

13:25

to portray the United States, but

13:27

that belief wouldn't stop him now. After

13:30

using his first witness to establish that

13:32

Iva had signed autographs as Tokyo

13:35

Rose after the war, d Wolf

13:37

called Shiitsugu Tsunaishi to the stand.

13:40

Sunaishi was the Japanese Imperial

13:42

Army officer in charge of the propaganda

13:44

program at NHK. He

13:46

testified that the purpose of Zero Hour,

13:49

the program IVA had announced for was

13:52

quote, to make Allied troops

13:54

homesick and tired or disgusted

13:57

with the war. He also claimed

13:59

that quote absolutely

14:02

no threatening or violent language

14:04

was used to compel prisoners of war to

14:06

work on the broadcast. On

14:08

cross examination, Wayne Collins

14:11

got Sunaishi to concede several

14:13

points that supported the defense. First,

14:16

he asked Sunaishi if any other Japanese

14:19

propaganda stations broadcasting to the

14:21

Pacific used English speaking

14:23

female broadcasters. Sunaishi

14:25

said that there were thirteen such stations.

14:28

The fact that the defense would use to great

14:30

effect later in their case. Next,

14:34

Collins pressed Sunaishi on the actual

14:36

propaganda content of Zero Hour. Sunaishi

14:39

admitted that the program had focused on entertainment.

14:43

His strategy had been to rope in American

14:45

listeners with an appealing program,

14:48

and then, once the Japanese began

14:51

winning the war, to introduce

14:53

more propagandistic content. But

14:56

unfortunately, Sunaieshi, continued

14:58

quote, the opportunity

15:01

did not present itself to do the real,

15:03

true propaganda program that I

15:05

wanted. Here

15:08

was Iva's Boss's boss, the

15:10

lead army official on the radio propaganda

15:13

broadcasts, admitting himself

15:15

that Iva's program had not contained

15:17

propaganda. Collins

15:20

also tried to pull holes in Sunniieshi's

15:22

claim that POWs were not forced

15:24

to work on the programs by bringing

15:26

up the story of George Williams. Williams

15:29

was a British civilian who had been held at

15:32

Bunka Camp, the prison where POWs

15:34

who worked at NHK were kept. When

15:37

Williams had refused to participate in broadcasts,

15:40

Sunniihi ordered guards to take him

15:42

away. Suoniihi then allowed

15:44

the POWs to believe that Williams

15:47

had been killed for his refusal In

15:49

reality, Williams had been transported

15:52

to a different pow camp, where

15:54

he lived for the rest of the war, but

15:56

the imagined threat struck fear into

15:58

the hearts of the POWs. They

16:01

understood that their choice was to participate

16:03

in the broadcasts or to die.

16:06

This was important information for the jury

16:08

to understand the culture of fear that

16:10

Ivo was steeped in during her time at NHK,

16:13

but unfortunately they did not get to hear

16:16

the full story. Tom de Wolf

16:18

had objected to the testimony, and

16:20

Judge Roche had agreed with him that

16:22

it was irrelevant. Another

16:25

thing the jurors did not get to hear, though

16:27

they may have deduced it for themselves, was

16:30

about Sunaishi's ulterior motives.

16:33

On July seventh, the day before he

16:35

testified, an article had appeared

16:37

about Sunaishi in the San Francisco Chronicle.

16:41

In it, a former Bunka Camp inmate,

16:43

Mark Streeter, had accused Sunaishi

16:46

of being quote one of the

16:48

worst war criminals. Streeter,

16:51

who alleged that Suneishi had beaten

16:53

him at Bunka Camp, was shocked

16:55

to learn that the government was using Sunaishi

16:57

as a court witness and not instead

17:00

prosecuting him for the abuses he perpetrated

17:02

at Lunka Camp. Suniishi

17:05

then was clearly motivated to protect

17:07

himself and deny using any

17:09

coercion with NHK staff or prisoners

17:12

of war. In fact, he

17:14

would later admit to a reporter that

17:16

he had lied to Australian officials

17:19

who were investigating another POW's

17:21

involvement in broadcasts in order

17:23

to protect himself and his superiors

17:26

from prosecution. Sunaishi

17:29

was not the only witness whose testimony

17:31

was affected by fear of prosecution.

17:34

Kenkichi Oki and George Hideo

17:37

Mitsushio, Iva's supervisors on

17:39

Zero Hour, were also testifying.

17:42

Oki and Mitsushio, like Iva,

17:44

were nise American born

17:46

children of Japanese parents. Both

17:49

men had traveled to Japan before the war.

17:52

They had both become Japanese citizens,

17:55

but had not at this point renounced their American

17:57

citizenship. As directors

17:59

of Z Zero Hour, they were just

18:01

as vulnerable as Iva, if not

18:03

more so, to charges of treason.

18:07

The government was relying on Oki

18:09

and Mitsushio to serve as witnesses

18:11

for each of the eight acts of treason Iva

18:13

was charged with. The Constitution

18:16

stipulates that quote, no

18:18

person shall be convicted of treason unless

18:21

on the testimony of two witnesses to

18:23

the same overt act. Oki

18:26

and Mitsushio were to be those

18:28

two witnesses. Their testimony

18:30

was highly specific, even

18:33

using the exact language of the indictments.

18:35

In their answers when describing Iva's

18:37

alleged acts, Their

18:40

memory of the crimes was detailed.

18:43

Both men recited the same quote

18:45

that they claimed Iva had broadcast, quote,

18:49

now you fellows have lost all your ships.

18:51

You really are orphans of the Pacific. How

18:54

do you think you will ever get home? But

18:57

when Collins pressed Oki for any

18:59

other details of the day, when he claimed

19:01

that Iva had made this statement, Oki

19:04

could not recall any not

19:06

what breakfast he ate, not what

19:08

he wore, not the weather. He

19:11

could only remember, in exact

19:13

order the twenty four treasonous

19:16

words that Ivo was supposed to have said

19:18

that day. Oki also

19:20

admitted on cross that he was not testifying

19:22

voluntarily and had been brought

19:24

to San Francisco forcibly on the orders

19:27

of the U. S. Army. Mitsushio

19:29

and OKI's testimony as a whole

19:32

seemed suspect. At

19:34

the lunch recess, David say Yizo

19:36

Hyuga, a prosecution witness,

19:39

came up to the defense lawyers and told

19:41

them that he could prove that Mitsushiu

19:44

and OKI's testimony was false, but

19:46

the defense never got a chance to question

19:49

Hyuga. After the prosecution learned

19:51

he had been talking to the defense, they

19:53

sent him back to Japan, and he never

19:55

testified at all. In

20:00

nineteen seventy six, nearly

20:02

thirty years after the trial, Ronald

20:05

Yates published a bombshell report in

20:07

the Chicago Tribune. Yates

20:09

had interviewed prosecution witnesses living

20:11

in Japan, including Kenkichi

20:14

Oki and George Mitsushio. These

20:17

witnesses all alleged that they were

20:19

coerced to testify and a

20:21

lie on the stand under threat

20:23

of prosecution. The post

20:25

war sentiment against Japanese and

20:27

against Americans of Japanese ancestry

20:30

was tremendous, remembered one witness.

20:33

We were told that if we didn't cooperate,

20:36

Uncle Sam might arrange a trial for US

20:38

too. Cooperation in

20:41

this case meant lying on

20:43

the stand. One of the men

20:45

told Yates quote Iva

20:48

never made a treasonable broadcast in

20:50

her life, threatening

20:52

witnesses. Shocking as it

20:55

may be, was not the only

20:57

taint on the prosecution's witnesses.

21:00

There was also the question of

21:03

bribery. Remember Clark

21:05

Lee, the reporter who interviewed

21:07

Iva in August nineteen forty five.

21:10

In his May nineteen forty eight memo, de

21:13

Wolf had called Lee and Harry Brundage's

21:15

interview with Iva quote questionable

21:18

and of doubtful propriety.

21:20

But now he was relying on Lee's

21:23

testimony as part of his case. Lee's

21:26

testimony itself was also

21:28

questionable and doubtful. He

21:31

claimed that Iva had told him that

21:33

she had broadcast the words orphans

21:36

of the Pacific. You really are orphans?

21:39

Now, how are you going to get home?

21:41

Now that all of your ships are sunk? This

21:43

was very similar to the quote that Mitsushiu

21:46

and Oki had used, But this

21:48

phrasing appeared nowhere in

21:50

his original notes on the interview with

21:52

Iva. So that's

21:55

not great, But I promised

21:57

you for bribery. That little

21:59

issue came out on cross examination

22:02

when Wayne Collins asked Lee about

22:04

Hiromo Yagi, a witness

22:07

who had testified at the grand jury.

22:09

Now, mister Lee, Collins

22:12

asked, isn't it a fact

22:14

that you and mister Brundage requested

22:17

to me to go to the Saint Francis

22:19

Hotel on October twenty fifth,

22:21

nineteen forty eight, because you wish

22:23

to ascertain from me whether

22:26

or not I knew that Harry

22:28

Brundage had gone to Japan in

22:31

nineteen forty eight and advised

22:34

Yagi to come before the grand jury

22:37

and testify falsely

22:39

in this case. De Wolf

22:42

immediately objected, shouting, you

22:44

know that's nonsense. Judge

22:46

Roche shut the line of questioning down,

22:49

but the seed was planted, and

22:52

the truth or most of it,

22:55

came out in the testimony of the next

22:57

witness, FBI agent

22:59

Fred Tillman. On

23:01

cross Collins asked Tillman

23:04

if he had told defense lawyer Theodore

23:06

Tomba that Hiromu Yagi

23:09

had confessed that he had been bribed

23:11

to lie to the grand jury. De

23:14

Wolf objected again, but

23:16

after Collins argued that the jury

23:18

needed to know about a possible obstruction

23:21

of justice, Judge Roche

23:23

allowed the testimony. Tillman

23:26

admitted that the answer to Collins'

23:28

question was yes. A

23:31

witness at the grand jury which

23:33

had indicted Iva and sparked

23:35

these trial proceedings, had

23:38

indeed been bribed to lie

23:42

Roche did not allow Tillman to tell the

23:44

whole story, but it is a simple

23:46

and sordid one. Two

23:48

months after the grand jury indicted at

23:50

Iva, Assistant Attorney

23:52

General Alexander Campbell sent a

23:54

memo to Attorney General Tom Clark.

23:58

The memo revealed that Hiromu yah,

24:00

who had told the Grand jury that he had

24:03

personally seen Iva make a

24:05

broadcast where she taunted Americans,

24:08

had been bribed to lie on the stand

24:10

by reporter Harry Brundage.

24:13

When Brundage had gone to Japan in nineteen

24:15

forty eight to pursue the Tokyo Rose

24:18

story, he had tried to convince

24:20

at least two witnesses to lie

24:22

on the stand by plying them

24:24

with gifts and promises of a free

24:26

trip to America. One

24:28

of these witnesses had refused, but

24:31

Yagi had gone along with the plan. Yagi's

24:34

testimony had rung false to FBI

24:37

agent Tillman, so he had immediately

24:39

begun to look into the matter. After

24:42

an investigation in Japan and

24:44

a further interrogation of Yagi, the

24:46

truth came out, despite

24:49

the Justice Department knowing full

24:52

well that the grandeurors had

24:54

heard perjured testimony, and

24:56

that Harry Brundage had suborned

24:59

the perjury. The Department

25:01

decided to proceed with Iva's

25:03

case and also not

25:05

to pursue a case against Brundage.

25:09

There were two reasons not to go after

25:11

Brundage, according to Assistant

25:13

Attorney General Campbell, First,

25:16

he believed that jurors would not convict

25:18

Brundage, a white man, on

25:20

the testimony of two Japanese men.

25:24

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly,

25:27

as Campbell wrote in his memo to Attorney

25:29

General Clark, quote, we

25:31

believe that instituting prosecution

25:34

against Brundage prior to

25:36

the completion of litigation would

25:38

completely destroy any chance

25:41

of a conviction. In Iva's

25:43

case, the Attorney

25:45

General's office chose a chance

25:47

at conviction over telling the

25:49

truth. So

25:52

far, nearly all the prosecution

25:54

witnesses testimony was corrupted

25:57

in some way, although

25:59

of course the jury did not know the

26:01

full extent of the problem.

26:04

Fortunately for the prosecution, their

26:06

next witnesses would not have the same credibility

26:08

issues, though their testimony

26:11

did have other problems. These

26:13

witnesses were the Pacific gis who

26:16

had heard Tokyo Rose broadcast

26:18

propaganda statements. These

26:20

servicemen testified to hearing a

26:22

woman who they said used Ivas

26:25

alias Orphan Anne, talk

26:27

about troop movements, taunt

26:29

them with allegations of their wives

26:31

and girlfriends infidelity in their

26:33

absence, and try to

26:35

make them homesick by talking about steak

26:38

and ice cream. Many

26:40

of these memories, as Collins was able

26:42

to reveal on cross examination, were

26:45

vague and amorphous. The

26:47

servicemen could not remember specific dates

26:49

or times, and often it

26:51

seemed likely that they were remembering rumors

26:54

about Tokyo Rose broadcasts, not

26:57

actual broadcasts themselves. However,

27:01

some of the testimony was emotionally compelling.

27:04

Marshall Hoot, a Chief Bosun's

27:06

mate, testified about hearing a

27:08

broadcast that he then made a note of

27:10

in a letter home to his wife. Judge

27:13

Roche allowed Hoot to read the entirety

27:16

of the emotional letter, where he

27:18

talked about how much he missed his wife and

27:20

how painful the war was. The

27:22

letter brought some jury members to tears.

27:26

Suddenly, Tokyo Rose's crimes

27:29

seemed very real. However,

27:32

the details of those alleged crimes

27:34

did not always line up. For

27:37

example, Marshall Hoot was

27:39

sure he had heard Tokyo Rose discussing

27:42

infidelity while he listened at dinner

27:44

between six and seven o'clock. That

27:48

was indeed when Zero Hour aired,

27:50

but in Tokyo in the

27:53

Gilbert Islands, where Hoot had been

27:55

at the time, the time was three

27:57

hours earlier, so Zero

27:59

Hour aired at three o'clock there not

28:02

six. Many other gis

28:04

testimony had similar time zone

28:06

issues. Other men's

28:09

statements contradicted earlier statements

28:11

they had given the FBI, although

28:14

neither the defense attorneys nor the

28:16

jurors knew this. For

28:20

the final piece of their case, the prosecution

28:22

introduced recordings and scripts

28:25

of Iva's broadcasts during

28:27

the war. American monitors had recorded

28:30

all of the Zero Hour broadcasts.

28:32

While she was in Sugamo prison. Iva

28:35

had been told that there were three hundred and forty

28:37

recordings. However, the

28:40

prosecution now only introduced

28:42

six recordings. None

28:44

of these recordings contained statements

28:47

that corroborated the overt acts. For

28:50

example, none of them referenced

28:52

the loss of ships. Instead,

28:55

the recordings were surprisingly trivial

28:57

and light. Hello you fighting orphans

29:00

in the Pacific? How's tricks? This

29:02

is Annie back in the air reception?

29:05

Okay, well it better

29:07

be because this is all request night, and

29:09

I've got a pretty nice program for my favorite

29:11

little family, The Wandering

29:14

Boneheads of the Pacific Islands, went

29:16

one broadcast. Her

29:18

announcements were interspersed with music,

29:21

and some jurors could be observed tapping

29:23

their fingers or feet to the beat. Before

29:26

the broadcast introduced one song, she

29:28

jokingly warned listeners, it's

29:30

dangerous enemy propaganda, so beware.

29:34

As de Wolf himself had said in his May

29:36

memo quote, the scripts

29:38

of her programs seemed totally innocuous

29:41

and might be said to have little, if any

29:44

entertainment value. On

29:46

this somewhat anti climactic note,

29:48

on August twelfth, the prosecution

29:51

rested. Though many of

29:53

their witnesses had had credibility issues.

29:56

Some of these credibility issues were unknown

29:58

to the jury, and the testimony

30:01

of the servicemen, while somewhat

30:03

vague, had been heart wrenching.

30:06

Could the defense offer a compelling

30:09

rebuttal. We're

30:11

going to take a quick break now. When

30:13

we return, we'll find out what Iva's

30:15

defense team had to say. On

30:19

August thirteenth, nineteen forty

30:21

nine, Theodore Tamba delivered

30:23

the defense opening. He

30:25

kept things simple. The defense

30:27

would show. He said that Iva

30:30

never had treasonous intent, and

30:32

that she had broadcast under threat

30:34

and duress. The defense's

30:36

first witness was Charles Cousins,

30:39

the Australian POW who had

30:41

worked with Iva on Zero Hour two

30:44

years earlier. Cousins himself had

30:46

been charged with treason in Australia,

30:49

but the charges were quickly dropped and

30:51

he had resumed his civilian life. When

30:54

he heard about Iva's trial, he

30:56

immediately volunteered to testify

30:58

in her defense. Iva was

31:01

so happy to be reunited with

31:03

Cousins, who she had last seen

31:05

in a POW hospital as he recovered

31:08

from a heart attack, that she broke

31:10

down crying when she saw him.

31:13

The defense team hoped that they could use

31:15

Cousin's experience to provide context

31:18

for the duress Iva might have experienced.

31:21

They asked him to talk about what he had seen

31:23

while in POW camps. As

31:26

Cousins began to tell the story of

31:28

Japanese guards beating a fellow prisoner

31:30

to death, the normally self possessed

31:33

man broke down into tears. When

31:36

he regained his composure, he continued

31:38

the story, but the prosecution objected.

31:41

After an argument out of the jury's hearing,

31:44

Judge Roche once again ruled that this

31:46

sort of background information was irrelevant

31:49

and admissible. Further

31:51

testimony about the broadcasting specific

31:53

threats that Cousins had endured, including

31:56

when Suniishi ordered him to participate

31:58

in broadcasts while pointedly

32:00

displaying his unsheathed sword, were

32:03

also objected to by the prosecution, and

32:06

Judge Roche struck the testimony. Roche

32:09

additionally barred Cousins from explaining

32:11

that Iva had brought food and medicine

32:13

to the POW's because she had heard

32:15

about the awful conditions at Bunka Camp.

32:18

All of this evidence, crucial

32:21

to explaining the environment Iva lived

32:23

and worked in, was not allowed.

32:26

Cousins was permitted, however,

32:29

to talk about his work with Iva at

32:31

NHK. He explained

32:33

that he had coached Iva in order to

32:35

make the material as enjoyable as

32:37

possible, teaching her comedic

32:39

timing and rhythm. He

32:41

had chosen Iva, he explained,

32:44

because of her terrible voice, which

32:47

he believed would make a quote complete

32:49

burlesque of any propaganda

32:51

content. He also testified

32:54

that he had explicitly told Iva

32:56

about the subversive intents of the program.

33:00

Cousin's testimony was backed up by the testimony

33:02

of two other POWs, Wallace

33:05

Ince and Norman Reyes. Next,

33:08

the defense called their own set of gis.

33:11

These men testified that they had enjoyed

33:14

listening to Zero Hour, although

33:16

some also said that they were disappointed

33:18

that the g rated, somewhat bland

33:20

banter of Orphan ann didn't

33:22

live up to quote the

33:25

witty and smutty and entertaining

33:27

legend of Tokyo Rose. An

33:29

intelligence officer testified

33:31

that he had originally listened to the program

33:34

in order to learn about Japanese propaganda,

33:37

but Quote did not find

33:39

propaganda. One officer

33:42

stationed in Alaska recalled

33:44

the Alaskan command telling him and

33:46

his colleagues that the orphan An broadcasts

33:48

were good for troop morale. After

33:51

the servicemen's testimony, Yaneko

33:54

Konzaki took the stand. Kanzaki,

33:57

a Nisse born in New Jersey, had

33:59

met Iva in Japan during the war. Konzaki

34:03

had later gotten a job as an English

34:05

language announcer for a German radio

34:07

program. This program

34:09

had for quite some time aired

34:12

right before Zero Hour, but

34:14

unlike Zero Hour, German Hour

34:16

contained explicit propaganda content.

34:19

The point of Konzaki's testimony was

34:22

to establish that there had been other female

34:25

English speaking broadcasters who

34:27

were just as likely to be Tokyo Rose

34:29

as Ivo was. Another

34:31

Tokyo Rose candidate was Myrtle Lipten.

34:35

Lipton herself did not testify at

34:37

the trial, but her story was recorded

34:39

through the deposition of Ken Murayama.

34:42

Moriyama was a Nise reporter who

34:45

had worked for a Japanese news agency

34:47

in Manila during the war. While

34:49

there, Moriyama had written scripts

34:51

for Melody Lane, an English

34:54

language Japanese propaganda radio

34:56

program hosted by Myrtle Lipten.

34:59

Lipton. More Yama testified had

35:01

a quote, low pitched, husky

35:04

voice that appealed to listeners, just

35:07

the type of voice that the mythological Tokyo

35:09

Rose was said to have, Very different

35:12

from Iva's harsher tone. Moriyama

35:15

stated that Lipton's scripts were

35:17

quote designed to create a

35:19

sense of homesickness among troops in

35:21

the Southwest Pacific. We

35:23

had stories of girls having dates with men

35:25

at home while possibly their sweethearts

35:28

and husbands might be fighting. Buddy

35:31

Uno, a pow who had also

35:33

worked on Lipton's program, said

35:35

of the show, quote, it carried

35:37

a punch. It was sexy, She

35:39

had everything in it. She painted

35:42

horrible pictures of the jungles dropping

35:44

bombs and foxholes. Then

35:47

she described the good old days back home,

35:50

saying things like, what a pity

35:52

fellows have to die in the jungle without

35:54

even knowing what you were fighting for. This

35:57

kind of content was exactly

35:59

what Iva was accused of broadcasting.

36:02

Could witnesses have gotten her broadcast

36:05

mixed up with Lipton's. On

36:09

the forty sixth day of the trial, September

36:11

seventh, Iva herself took

36:14

the stand. Reflecting

36:16

on her decision to take the stand, Iva

36:18

told historian Messiah Deuce, if

36:21

I got on the witness stand and told

36:23

only the truth, then the truth

36:25

would win. I thought. Collins

36:28

began by leading Iva through her early

36:30

life in America. As she

36:32

spoke, reporters and jurors

36:34

alike listened closely. Did

36:37

this woman's voice align with the

36:39

allegedly seductive, alluring

36:41

voice of Tokyo Rose. Most

36:45

did not think so. The San Francisco

36:47

Chronicle called it a hard voice,

36:50

and The Pacific Citizen described her voice

36:52

as harsh and jerky. Personally,

36:56

I think her voice is charming. It

36:58

isn't sultry or smooth. But it

37:00

has personality and energy. If

37:02

you'd like to hear Iva's voice for yourself,

37:05

you can hear it in a film she recorded for

37:07

the Army in nineteen forty five, which

37:10

you can find on the History on Trial, Instagram

37:13

or online.

37:15

The direct examination went smoothly

37:17

until Collins began questioning Iva

37:19

about her time in Japan. The

37:22

prosecution immediately began objecting

37:24

that this testimony was irrelevant, and

37:26

Judge Roche once again agreed. So

37:29

the background about the military and

37:31

police harassment Iva had faced

37:34

and the terrible condition she had heard

37:36

about from the POW's was

37:38

all excluded, and

37:41

how she had repeatedly tried to get back

37:43

to the United States on repatriationships

37:46

was all excluded. Without

37:49

hearing this information, the jury

37:51

had little chance of understanding Iva's

37:54

circumstances when she took the broadcasting

37:56

job. Iva was, however,

37:58

allowed to testify about how she was not

38:01

allowed to quit the program when

38:03

she had tried to. She said her Army

38:05

supervisors told her that she was not permitted

38:08

to. She also testified

38:10

that her only reason for working on the program

38:13

was to quote stick by

38:15

the POW's. She explained

38:18

how she had consistently resisted helping

38:20

the Japanese war effort despite

38:22

constant pressure by refusing

38:24

to buy war bonds or give to the Japanese

38:26

Red Cross. Collins

38:29

then walked Iva through the statements

38:31

that the prosecution's witnesses had claimed

38:33

to have heard her say. Iva

38:35

denied making each statement. Then

38:38

Colins read through the indictment, asking

38:41

Iva, did you at

38:43

any time adhere to our enemies,

38:46

the Imperial Japanese Army. Never

38:51

did you ever do any act whatsoever

38:53

with the intention of betraying the United

38:56

States. Never did

38:59

you, at any time whatsoever commit

39:02

treason against the United States.

39:05

Never. By the end of

39:08

the three and a half day direct examination,

39:11

Iva was shaking with exhaustion and

39:13

emotion. She had suffered

39:15

a recurrence of dysenteria month earlier,

39:18

causing a brief delay in the trial, and

39:20

her strength was low. Now

39:23

she had to endure a cross examination, which

39:26

would last for an additional three days.

39:29

De Wolf pushed Iva to specify

39:31

what kind of duress she had experienced.

39:34

You were not forced by physical force, Missus

39:36

Dequino to go on the air and broadcast.

39:39

Were you not forced

39:41

just fearful? Iva replied? And

39:44

you were never jailed by the Japanese police authorities.

39:47

No, And of course,

39:50

you were never personally assaulted or

39:52

beaten or whipped or suffered any

39:54

physical torture, were you. No,

39:58

there had never been any physical thing. This

40:01

was likely the most damaging part of the cross

40:03

examination. For the rest of it, Iva

40:06

largely managed to retain her composure,

40:09

giving simple, straightforward answers.

40:12

After the cross examination ended on

40:14

the morning of September fifteenth, Wayne

40:17

Collins asked Iva a final

40:19

redirect question, missus

40:21

Daquino, do you still want to be a

40:23

citizen of the United States.

40:26

It had been seven years since the State

40:28

Department had prevented her from returning

40:30

home on a repatriation ship, four

40:33

years since the military had held

40:35

her in jail for a year with no warrant

40:37

and no explanation, a

40:40

year since she had been taken into custody

40:42

again in Japan and brought to the United

40:44

States as a prisoner, and fifty

40:47

three days since her grueling trial

40:49

had begun. But Iva did

40:51

not waiver. Did she still

40:53

want to be a citizen of the United States?

40:57

Yes, she said.

40:59

Days later, on September nineteenth, the

41:02

defense rested, Closing arguments

41:04

would begin the next day. US

41:07

Attorney Frank J. Hennessy delivered

41:09

the first closing argument for the prosecution.

41:12

Despite having earlier expressed doubts

41:15

about the validity of the case, he

41:17

now displayed no qualms about

41:19

condemning Iva. She was

41:21

neither ordered, threatened, or coerced

41:23

a broadcast on the Zero Hour program

41:26

beamed at American troops fighting in the South

41:28

Pacific. She did not conspire

41:30

with other prisoners of war to sabotage

41:32

the defeatist propaganda aims of the broadcasts,

41:35

said Hennessy. Attorney

41:37

George Olshausen gave the defense closing

41:40

argument. He reminded jurors

41:42

that the government needed to prove their case beyond

41:44

a reasonable doubt. He then

41:47

walked through all of the ways in which the

41:49

government's case was lacking. He

41:51

discussed the ulterior motives of two

41:54

key prosecution witnesses, Mitsuhio

41:56

and Oki, saying the witnesses

41:59

were perjuring themselves to bring a conviction.

42:01

He brought up the alleged bribery of Hiromo

42:04

Yagi by Harry Brundage. He

42:06

pointed out that the testimony of the gis

42:08

was unreliable, noting the

42:10

errors made in time differences and memories

42:14

Most importantly, he reminded jurors

42:16

that none of the broadcast recordings

42:18

or scripts that the prosecution produced

42:21

had contained any treasonous material.

42:24

In short, he showed how thin, if

42:26

not nonexistent, the evidence really

42:29

was. To conclude, Olshausen

42:32

framed Iva in a new light, not

42:35

as a trader, but as a patriot. In

42:38

effect, he said, she had

42:40

really been working behind the enemy lines.

42:43

I think she served the United States very

42:45

well, and all she got for her trouble

42:48

was a year in jail. The least

42:51

and the most we can do at this

42:53

time is to acquit her. Assistant

42:57

Attorney General Tom de Wolfe delivered

42:59

the prosecut Hustin's final closing argument.

43:02

In his May nineteen forty eight memod.

43:04

Wolf had written, quote, the

43:07

government's case must fail as

43:09

a matter of law because the testimony

43:11

of the government will disclose that

43:14

subject did not adhere to the enemy

43:16

or possess the requisite disloyal state

43:18

of mind. Further, he

43:21

had written, all those who

43:23

had known Iva during her time at NHK

43:26

quote will testify to

43:28

facts which show that subject

43:30

was pro American, wished

43:32

to return to the United States, and tried

43:35

to do so prior to Pearl Harbor attempted

43:37

unsuccessfully to return to the United

43:39

States in nineteen forty two, and

43:42

beamed to American troops only the

43:44

introduction to innocuous music recordings.

43:47

The evidence likewise will show that

43:49

subject was a trusted and selected

43:52

agent of the Allied prisoners of war.

43:55

But now de Wolf delivered

43:57

a scathing denunciation of

43:59

this same subject Iva

44:01

to Gouri. He called her

44:04

a quote betrayer

44:06

of her native land and a betrayer

44:08

of her government in time of need.

44:11

He said she was a female

44:13

Benedict Arnold. Her

44:16

trial, he told jurors

44:18

should serve as a warning to others

44:21

that they cannot, in an hour of

44:24

great peril, adhere to

44:26

the enemy with impunity. With

44:29

that, after two and a half months,

44:32

the trial concluded on September

44:34

twenty sixth, Judge Roche instructed

44:37

the jury. Roche was exhausted,

44:40

so tired that he had regularly been observed

44:42

nodding off during the defense case, but

44:45

he pulled together enough energy to read nearly

44:47

fifty pages of instruction. As

44:50

Roche instructed the jury, the

44:52

reporters in the back of the courtroom took an

44:54

informal poll amongst themselves. The

44:57

ten of them, who had watched nearly all

44:59

of the tree, voted nine

45:01

to one that Iva would be acquitted.

45:07

The jury was sent to deliberate. The

45:09

hours ticked by with no result, and

45:11

at eleven pm the jurors told Roche

45:14

they were going to pause for the night and resume

45:16

in the morning. They returned at

45:18

nine am the next day, September twenty

45:20

seventh, and debated all day,

45:23

periodically coming to the courtroom to ask

45:25

for copies of exhibits or transcripts

45:27

of testimonies. At ten

45:29

oh four pm, the whole jury came

45:31

into the courtroom and jury foreman

45:34

John Mann informed Judge Roche,

45:36

we cannot reach a unanimous verdict. Judge

45:39

Roche was not going to accept that answer.

45:43

This is an important case, he told

45:45

jurors. The trial has been

45:47

long and expensive to both the prosecution

45:50

and the defense. If you

45:52

should fail to agree on a verdict, the

45:54

case is left open and undecided.

45:57

Like all cases, it must be disposed of

46:00

sometime. He told the jurors

46:02

to return the next morning and try again.

46:05

A decision was not forthcoming. The

46:07

jurors spent all of September twenty eighth arguing,

46:10

only stopping at eight pm September

46:13

twenty ninth was much the same, but

46:15

around five point thirty the jurors returned

46:17

to the courtroom. They wanted clarification

46:20

on a portion of Roche's instructions.

46:23

Roche had said, quote acts

46:25

of an apparently incriminating nature, when

46:28

judged in the light of related events,

46:31

may turn out to be acts which were

46:33

not of aid and comfort to the enemy.

46:36

The jury wanted to know what related

46:38

events meant in this context. Roche

46:42

basically refused to answer the question,

46:44

telling the jurors that they should not pay attention

46:47

to any specific part of the instructions, but

46:49

instead consider the instructions as a whole.

46:52

Then he told the jury that he was hungry, that

46:54

it was time for the dinner break, and that they should

46:57

pause their deliberations for the day. But

46:59

the jury did not want to have to start again

47:01

in the morning. They wanted to

47:03

be done only thirty minutes

47:06

later, after nearly four full

47:08

days of deliberation, the jury

47:10

returned to the courtroom with a verdict. In

47:13

the case of the United States vi

47:16

Iva to Guri ta Quino on

47:18

the charge of treason. The

47:21

defendant had been found guilty.

47:28

Iva did not react when she

47:30

was found guilty of treason. She

47:32

seemed to be dazed. She

47:35

turned to her lawyers and said, I

47:37

just can't believe it. The

47:40

jury had found Iva not guilty

47:42

on seven of the eight counts of treason,

47:45

but they had found her guilty on the eighth,

47:48

which charged her with having broadcast

47:50

this familiar phrase referenced

47:53

by Mitsushio and Oki and

47:55

Lee quote orphans

47:58

of the Pacific. You are really or now

48:01

how will you get home? Now that your ships are sunk?

48:04

The government was happy with the outcome,

48:07

with Tom de Wolf saying quote, the

48:09

United States feels that the verdict

48:12

was a just one, but many

48:14

other people seemed unhappy with the verdict,

48:17

including the jurors. Speaking

48:19

to the Associated Press, jury

48:22

foreman John Mann said that the

48:24

jury had wanted to free Iva and

48:27

quote, if it had been possible under

48:29

the judge's instructions, we would

48:31

have done it. The full picture

48:33

of the jury deliberations reveals

48:36

just how much Judge Roach's actions

48:38

influenced the verdict. On

48:40

the first ballot, the jurors had voted

48:42

ten to two to acquit on all charges.

48:46

However, after further discussion of

48:48

whether or not Iva had intended to betray

48:50

the United States. The vote shifted

48:53

to six to six by

48:55

the next day, after nearly twenty

48:57

hours of deliberation. The jury

48:59

felt that they could not reach a unanimous verdict.

49:02

However, when they shared this position

49:04

with Judge Roche, he did not accept

49:06

it. Instead, he gave them a

49:09

lecture about how expensive the trial

49:11

had been, how it would have to be decided

49:13

sometime, and how the jurors ought

49:15

to keep working on the problem. This

49:18

kind of instruction, in which a judge

49:20

tells a hung jury that they should reach a verdict,

49:23

is not uncommon. It is known

49:25

as an Allan charge after the eighteen

49:27

ninety six Supreme Court case that allowed

49:30

for this type of instruction. Since

49:32

that ruling, states have come to different

49:34

conclusions on whether or not their courts

49:37

will allow Allen charges, and

49:39

if they will, what language judges

49:41

are allowed to use in issuing the charge.

49:45

The specific type of Allan charge

49:47

that Judge Roche delivered would likely

49:49

not be allowed in California today. A

49:52

nineteen seventy seven California Supreme

49:54

Court case People v. Gainer

49:57

ruled that it was improper for judges to discuss,

50:00

among other things, quote the

50:02

expense or inconvenience of

50:04

a retrial, or the statement

50:07

that the case must at some point be decided.

50:10

Gaynor, as well as numerous other cases

50:12

across the country, ruled that

50:14

expense or inconvenience should be irrelevant

50:17

to a jury's decision, which should be

50:19

based only on the evidence and arguments

50:22

presented in court. The

50:24

idea that a case will inevitably be

50:26

decided, another argument Roche

50:28

used with the jurors, is prohibited

50:30

under Gaynor because it is incorrect.

50:33

The government may at any point decide

50:35

not to retry a case that has ended

50:38

in a mistrial. In a twenty twenty

50:40

panel on Iva's trial, US

50:42

District Court Judge John Tiger said

50:45

the judge Roche's charge would today

50:47

be considered unconstitutional. Though

50:50

Roche's behavior was allowable at the time,

50:53

it certainly exerted undue pressure

50:55

on the jurors. After his

50:57

charge, the jurors reluctantly went by

51:00

to work, though their deliberations

51:02

assumed a new tone. Instead

51:05

of debating the facts of the case, the

51:07

discussions became more emotion based.

51:10

The two jurors who had originally favored

51:12

conviction began appealing

51:15

to the other jurors feelings.

51:17

Imagine, they said, being

51:19

a lonely soldier on a remote

51:21

Pacific island, and hearing

51:23

that your ships had been sunk, it

51:26

would be awful. This

51:28

argument worked on many of the jurors, who

51:31

one by one switched their vote to convict.

51:34

Roche's final interaction with the jury

51:37

also seems to have influenced the verdict.

51:39

By late evening on September twenty ninth,

51:42

after four days of deliberation, the

51:44

jurors were exhausted. The current

51:47

vote was nine to three to

51:49

convict. The three holdouts

51:51

were losing their will to push back they

51:54

had begun to feel Foreman John

51:56

Mann later told reporter Catherine Pinkham

51:59

that by acquitting Iva, they

52:01

would perhaps be seen as traders themselves.

52:05

But in a last ditch effort to strengthen

52:07

their resolve, Man sent a

52:09

note to Roche asking for clarification

52:11

on the instructions. Roche

52:14

chose not to explain himself and

52:16

simply told the jury to keep working. The

52:20

holdouts, Man said, gave

52:22

up after that and reluctantly

52:24

agreed to vote to convict on one

52:26

charge. Man had

52:28

trouble living with the decision and

52:31

barely slept in the week between the verdict

52:33

and the sentencing. On

52:35

October sixth, Judge Roche

52:38

sentenced Iva to ten years in prison

52:40

and a ten thousand dollars fine.

52:43

This was a harsher sentence than most

52:46

people had expected. Roche's

52:48

sentence may have been influenced

52:50

by his own feelings about the case.

52:54

Reporter Catherine Pinkham, who covered the

52:56

trial, said that after the trial, Roche

52:59

told her that the emotional letter read

53:01

aloud by one Gi Marshall

53:03

Hoot had convinced him that Iva

53:06

was guilty. He made other

53:08

comments to Pinkham throughout the trial that

53:10

indicated that he thought Iva going

53:12

to Japan in nineteen forty one was

53:15

suspicious. Five weeks

53:17

later, on November fifteenth, Iva

53:20

boarded a train in Oakland, bound

53:22

for the Federal Reformatory for Women in

53:24

Alderson, West Virginia. Iva

53:27

was a model prisoner, working in the prison

53:29

infirmary and eventually training as

53:31

a laboratory assistant. Her lawyers

53:34

filed constant appeals on her behalf,

53:36

but all were rejected. At

53:39

the time of her sentencing, most people

53:41

expected that she would serve only three

53:43

or four years in prison. She

53:45

served more than six. When

53:47

her early release was considered, a

53:49

wave of negative press condemned the idea

53:52

of letting her out of prison. When

53:54

Iva was finally released on January

53:56

twenty eighth, nineteen fifty six

54:00

of reporters showed up at the prison gates

54:02

and bombarded her with questions.

54:04

When asked where she was going next, Iva

54:07

said, I really don't know. I'm

54:09

going out into the darkness. When

54:12

asked if she maintained her innocence, Iva

54:15

said, the trial and the feelings

54:17

then are past. I

54:19

hate to open up wounds. Unfortunately,

54:23

she would have no choice but to open

54:25

those wounds because her battle

54:27

was not yet over. On

54:30

March thirteenth, after Iva had

54:32

settled into her father, June's house in Chicago,

54:35

the United States Immigration and Naturalization

54:38

Service announced that Iva had

54:40

to voluntarily leave the country

54:42

within thirty days or else

54:44

be subject to deportation. After

54:47

her conviction, Iva had lost

54:49

her American citizenship. Now

54:52

the government was declaring her an undesirable

54:54

person and trying to deport her.

54:57

Iva vowed to fight the decision. This

55:00

is my country, she said in a press conference.

55:03

I was born here, I belong

55:05

here, am going to stay. Wayne

55:08

Collins once again stood by her side,

55:11

even moving Iva into his San Francisco

55:13

home so that they could fight the case more efficiently.

55:17

It would be more than two years before the

55:19

matter was resolved. In July

55:21

nineteen fifty eight, the I n S

55:24

canceled the deportation order, saying

55:26

that they had nowhere to deport her to since

55:28

she held no other citizenship. Additionally,

55:31

a recent Supreme Court ruling about convictions,

55:34

citizenship and deportation had

55:36

been interpreted to mean that Iva was not

55:38

deportable. However, I

55:41

have a citizenship was not restored. She

55:44

was declared a stateless person. This

55:47

meant that she could not get a passport, which

55:49

had one major consequence. She

55:52

could not see Felipe, her husband.

55:56

Felippe, a Portuguese citizen living

55:58

in Japan, had come to America

56:00

to testify at her trial. Upon

56:03

his arrival, the government had forced

56:06

him to sign a document stating that he

56:08

would not set foot on American soil

56:10

again in exchange for being

56:12

allowed to testify. Without

56:15

a passport, Iva could not visit

56:17

him in Japan. Felipe

56:19

and Iva would never see each

56:21

other again. For years,

56:24

Iva lived in relative anonymity in

56:26

Chicago, working as a clerk

56:28

in her father's store, but every

56:31

time a news article about Tokyo Rose

56:33

cropped up, she would be inundated

56:35

with hate mail and threatening phone

56:37

calls. In nineteen sixty

56:40

nine, TV journalist Bill Curtis,

56:42

who is now the announcer on NPR's

56:45

Weightwait Don't Tell Me, befriended

56:47

Iva and convinced her to tell her

56:49

story one more time. Curtis's

56:52

resulting program was sympathetic

56:54

and thoughtful, but it did

56:56

not have a big enough reach to change

56:58

Iva's national reputation. However,

57:04

in the mid nineteen seventies, public

57:07

opinion began to change.

57:10

During Iva's trial, Japanese

57:12

American community organizations had

57:15

distanced themselves from her, afraid

57:17

of being accused of supporting a traitor,

57:21

but his anti Japanese sentiment cooled

57:23

somewhat in the intervening decades. The

57:25

Japanese American Citizens League, or

57:28

JACL, took a new

57:30

look at her case. In nineteen

57:33

seventy four, the JACL

57:35

sent a formal letter of apology to

57:37

the Tagouri family and promised

57:40

to help advocate for Iva's exoneration.

57:43

In September nineteen seventy five, the

57:45

JACL published a booklet entitled

57:48

Iva Taguri Daikino, Victim

57:51

of a Legend, which told Iva's

57:53

story. The booklet declared

57:55

that Iva was quote a

57:58

victim of a World War II fantasy,

58:01

a powerful and persistent legend

58:03

that continues to plague her today some

58:06

thirty years later. Six

58:09

months later, in March nineteen seventy

58:11

six, Ronald Yeates published

58:13

his bombshell exposee of the prosecution's

58:16

witnesses in the Chicago Tribune. His

58:19

article revealed that many of these witnesses,

58:21

including George Mitsushio and Kinkicheoki,

58:25

had been pressured by the government until lying

58:27

on the stand. Since

58:30

Iva's release from prison, her

58:32

lawyers had petitioned for Iva to receive

58:34

a presidential pardon. Now,

58:37

momentum for the pardon grew. The

58:39

California State Assembly and State

58:42

Senate passed resolutions supporting

58:44

her pardon. Veterans associations

58:47

supported the movement, and the press,

58:50

who had spent years condemning Iva,

58:52

now took up her cause. On

58:55

the morning of January nineteenth, nineteen

58:57

seventy seven, the day before

58:59

he was due to leave office,

59:02

President Gerald Ford signed the necessary

59:04

documentation. The Justice

59:06

Department announced that Iva had received

59:08

a full and unconditional pardon.

59:11

As a result, she could once again

59:14

be a United States citizen. Iva

59:17

was delighted. Unfortunately,

59:20

the pardon came too late for some of

59:22

her closest supporters to celebrate alongside

59:24

her. Her beloved

59:27

father, June, had died in nineteen

59:29

seventy two at age ninety. He

59:32

had left his daughter a final gift,

59:35

though she had begged him not to. He

59:37

had stipulated in his will that his estate

59:39

be used to pay the remains of the

59:41

ten thousand dollars fine that

59:44

Roche had sentenced Iva to pay. A

59:47

year later, her lawyer, Theodore Tamba,

59:49

died of a heart attack age seventy

59:51

two, and a year after that,

59:54

Wayne Collins died suddenly on a

59:56

flight age seventy four. His

59:59

son, Wayne Collins Junior, who

1:00:02

had first met Iva as a child while

1:00:04

she lived in his home during her deportation

1:00:06

fight, took over her case. Reflecting

1:00:10

on her ordeal to historian Messiah

1:00:12

Duce in the late seventies, Iva

1:00:15

was remarkably gracious. I

1:00:18

have no regret, she said, and

1:00:20

I don't hate anyone for what happened. Personally,

1:00:24

I have a hard time being so generous.

1:00:27

I try to stay reasonably objective

1:00:29

while researching these cases, but

1:00:32

I hope you'll understand why I had a hard

1:00:34

time maintaining distance while learning

1:00:37

about Iva's story, at

1:00:39

times while reading about the constant

1:00:41

persecution that Iva endured, seeing

1:00:44

again and again the way that the

1:00:46

government abused its power, twisted

1:00:49

evidence, and subverted justice,

1:00:52

all in a misguided attempt to satisfy

1:00:55

public pressure. I was overwhelmed

1:00:57

by rage and grief. At

1:01:00

every step of the way. There were

1:01:03

people who knew that what was happening

1:01:05

was wrong. The military

1:01:08

investigators who held Iva without

1:01:10

charge or access to a lawyer in

1:01:12

nineteen forty six found

1:01:14

no evidence against her. The

1:01:17

lead FBI agent in Iva's investigation,

1:01:19

Frederick Tillman, discovered

1:01:21

that Harry Brundage bribed a witness.

1:01:24

The prosecutors, Frank Hennessy and

1:01:27

Tom de Wolf, both believed

1:01:29

that there was not enough evidence to

1:01:31

bring the case to trial. Multiple

1:01:34

witnesses chose to lie out

1:01:36

of fear. At many

1:01:38

points. As this unjust

1:01:40

campaign against Iva continued,

1:01:43

any number of people could have stepped

1:01:46

up and tried to stop it, but

1:01:49

none of them did. I don't

1:01:51

want to portray Iva as a perfect person.

1:01:54

She, like all people, was complicated.

1:01:58

She was naive, naive about

1:02:00

her role at NHK, naive

1:02:03

about the way others might view her work,

1:02:05

or how that work might impact people naive

1:02:08

about the potential downsides of press attention.

1:02:11

But it's hard to compare the sin

1:02:14

of naivete to the sin

1:02:16

of pursuing a prosecution based

1:02:18

on perjured and coerced

1:02:21

testimony. Ivo

1:02:23

was pardoned, yes, but

1:02:26

a pardon is not an exoneration.

1:02:29

The government has never said that Iva's

1:02:31

case was a miscarriage of justice.

1:02:34

They have never declared her innocent, though

1:02:37

no evidence has ever been found

1:02:40

to show that she was guilty. The

1:02:43

FBI, whose investigation of Ivo

1:02:45

was instrumental in her prosecution, maintains

1:02:48

a web page about her case which makes

1:02:51

no mention of the coercet testimony

1:02:53

and describes her as quote voluntarily

1:02:57

staying in Japan during the war. As

1:03:00

many of those who knew Iva personally

1:03:02

remarked, one of the grimmest

1:03:05

ironies of the case is how faithfully

1:03:08

Iva loved the United States.

1:03:11

One of her NHK colleagues, who

1:03:13

had testified against her, told

1:03:16

Ronald Yates quote, it

1:03:18

was that flare for patriotism that

1:03:21

proved to be her downfall. As

1:03:24

Wayne Collins put it,

1:03:26

it can truly be said that the United

1:03:29

States government abandoned and betrayed

1:03:31

her rights, but she did

1:03:33

not abandon the United States.

1:03:38

Fortunately, another group

1:03:40

of patriots did eventually

1:03:42

recognize Iva's service. In

1:03:45

January two thousand and six, the

1:03:48

American Veterans Center's World

1:03:50

War II Veterans Committee presented

1:03:53

eighty nine year old Iva with its

1:03:55

Edward J. Hurlihy Citizenship

1:03:57

Award. Ronald Yates,

1:04:00

the Chicago Tribune reporter who had done

1:04:02

so much to clear Iva's name, accompanied

1:04:05

her to receive the award.

1:04:08

Iva told Yates that this day, where

1:04:11

her steadfast support for the United States

1:04:13

was finally recognized, was

1:04:16

the most memorable day of

1:04:18

her life. Two months later, on

1:04:20

September twenty sixth, two thousand

1:04:22

and six, Iva Toguri

1:04:24

Daquino passed away, aged

1:04:27

ninety. Though

1:04:29

Iva acknowledged the damage caused

1:04:31

by her trial, telling Messiah

1:04:34

Deuce quote, my life

1:04:36

has been very lonely. They

1:04:38

robbed me of the most important part

1:04:40

of it. She tried to focus

1:04:43

on the future, not the past.

1:04:46

You can either sit in a room and feel

1:04:48

sorry for yourself, or

1:04:50

you can go outside and look

1:04:53

ahead. I've tried to

1:04:55

look ahead, she said. Her

1:04:58

attitude is a beautiful and admirable

1:05:01

one. But her story also

1:05:03

reminds us of the importance of looking

1:05:05

back and learning about the

1:05:07

past. Stories like

1:05:10

Iva's, as heartbreaking

1:05:12

as they are, are crucial

1:05:14

components of American history, and

1:05:17

we should not forget them. Thank

1:05:20

you for listening to History on Trial. My

1:05:23

main sources for this episode were Messiah

1:05:25

Duce's book Tokyo Rose Orphan

1:05:28

of the Pacific and Yasuhide

1:05:30

Kawashima's book The Tokyo Rose

1:05:32

Case. Treason on Trial Special

1:05:35

Thanks to the Gerald R. Ford

1:05:37

Presidential Library for providing

1:05:39

me with a copy of Tom de Wolf's May

1:05:41

nineteen forty eight memo, and

1:05:43

to Dion and Hugo Hagen for Japanese

1:05:46

language assistance. For a full

1:05:48

bibliography, as well as a transcript

1:05:50

of this episode with citations, please

1:05:53

visit our website History on

1:05:55

Trial podcast dot com.

1:05:59

T is written and hosted by

1:06:02

me Mira Hayward. The show

1:06:04

is edited and produced by Jesse Funk,

1:06:06

with supervising producer Trevor Young and

1:06:09

executive producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander

1:06:12

Williams, Matt Frederick, and Mira

1:06:14

Hayward. Learn more about the show

1:06:16

at History on Trial podcast

1:06:19

dot com and follow us on Instagram.

1:06:21

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1:06:26

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