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of the Japanese Imperial Army’s psychological warfare unit. He had already published a successful propaganda magazine entitled Front which copied the format of the popular American magazine Life .
Tsuneishi established an office at Radio Tokyo and brought in a captured Australian officer, Major Charles Cousens, who had been a widely respected radio news commentator in Sydney before the war. Cousens was given the choice of broadcasting for the Japanese or being executed. He chose to broadcast and was joined a short while later by an American, Captain Wallace ‘Ted’ Ince and a Philippine Army lieutenant, Normando Ildefonso Reyes, known as ‘Norman’. Until their capture, Ince and Reyes had been in charge of Allied Voice of Freedom propaganda broadcasts at Corregidor in the Philippines. Ince produced for the Japanese a show called From One American to Another while ‘Norman’ broadcast his show, Life in the East .
The Zero Hour was the most effective of the propaganda broadcasts as well as the most damaging. By 1943 the Japanese had found a way to monitor medium-wave domestic radio broadcasts in the United States and learned from these about train crashes, natural disasters and major traffic accidents in America. They then forced the POWs to broadcast a news programme about these incidents to demoralise American soldiers. The first show was broadcast at 5.15 p.m. on 31 March 1943, consisting of fifteen minutes of jazz and news and popular music delivered by ‘Norman’ Reyes. The New York Times reported that ‘The fellows like it very much because it cries over them and feels so sorry for them. It talks about the food that they miss by not being home and tells how the war workers are stealing their jobs and their girls.’
The programme was extended to forty or fifty minutes in length and Cousens read the messages from POWs, Ince read the US news and Reyes played records. However, even though the Japanese watched every move they made, the three men made attempts to undermine the propaganda message by reading items in jokey or inappropriate tones.
The Japanese considered the programme to be a success and decided in November 1943 to extend it further, to seventy-five minutes. They also decided to soften the message with the addition of a female voice. Cousens suggested the station typist, Iva Toguri D’Aquino, who had befriended the POWs and was unashamedly pro-American in her views. For the POWs, she would make a better announcer than someone they would be unable to trust. Perhaps they would also be able to involve her in their subversive approach to the broadcasts. She launched herself on the airwaves on 13 November as ‘Orphan Ann’, the name coming from the abbreviation ‘Ann’ for Announcer in her scripts and from her description of the Allied troops in the Pacific as ‘Orphans of the Pacific’.
The new show, broadcast from 6-7.15 p.m. seven days a week, started with Strike Up the Band , played by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra. There were then five or ten minutes of twenty-five word messages from POWs, read by Cousens. Then Iva would do a twenty minute ‘Orphan Ann’ segment, the only part of the show that was not out-and-out propaganda. Tokyo Rose broadcasts usually opened with ‘Rose, Rose I Love You’, recorded in 1940 by Yao Lee, one of China’s greatest singing stars. Iva would play three or four records and read from a script written by Cousens. Then, it was the turn of Ince to read five or ten minutes of ‘American Home Front News’, followed by pop music and jazz from Reyes and Ince again, reading ‘Ted’s News Highlights Tonight’. The man known as ‘the ‘Japanese Lord Haw-Haw’, Nisei Charles Yoshii sometimes delivered a commentary on the news and Ince would sign off for the evening. On Sundays, Ruth Hayakawa would stand in for Iva.
By December 1944 Iva was writing her own material and earning around 150 yen per month, around $7. Although she was not a seasoned
Tsuneishi established an office at Radio Tokyo and brought in a captured Australian officer, Major Charles Cousens, who had been a widely respected radio news commentator in Sydney before the war. Cousens was given the choice of broadcasting for the Japanese or being executed. He chose to broadcast and was joined a short while later by an American, Captain Wallace ‘Ted’ Ince and a Philippine Army lieutenant, Normando Ildefonso Reyes, known as ‘Norman’. Until their capture, Ince and Reyes had been in charge of Allied Voice of Freedom propaganda broadcasts at Corregidor in the Philippines. Ince produced for the Japanese a show called From One American to Another while ‘Norman’ broadcast his show, Life in the East .
The Zero Hour was the most effective of the propaganda broadcasts as well as the most damaging. By 1943 the Japanese had found a way to monitor medium-wave domestic radio broadcasts in the United States and learned from these about train crashes, natural disasters and major traffic accidents in America. They then forced the POWs to broadcast a news programme about these incidents to demoralise American soldiers. The first show was broadcast at 5.15 p.m. on 31 March 1943, consisting of fifteen minutes of jazz and news and popular music delivered by ‘Norman’ Reyes. The New York Times reported that ‘The fellows like it very much because it cries over them and feels so sorry for them. It talks about the food that they miss by not being home and tells how the war workers are stealing their jobs and their girls.’
The programme was extended to forty or fifty minutes in length and Cousens read the messages from POWs, Ince read the US news and Reyes played records. However, even though the Japanese watched every move they made, the three men made attempts to undermine the propaganda message by reading items in jokey or inappropriate tones.
The Japanese considered the programme to be a success and decided in November 1943 to extend it further, to seventy-five minutes. They also decided to soften the message with the addition of a female voice. Cousens suggested the station typist, Iva Toguri D’Aquino, who had befriended the POWs and was unashamedly pro-American in her views. For the POWs, she would make a better announcer than someone they would be unable to trust. Perhaps they would also be able to involve her in their subversive approach to the broadcasts. She launched herself on the airwaves on 13 November as ‘Orphan Ann’, the name coming from the abbreviation ‘Ann’ for Announcer in her scripts and from her description of the Allied troops in the Pacific as ‘Orphans of the Pacific’.
The new show, broadcast from 6-7.15 p.m. seven days a week, started with Strike Up the Band , played by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra. There were then five or ten minutes of twenty-five word messages from POWs, read by Cousens. Then Iva would do a twenty minute ‘Orphan Ann’ segment, the only part of the show that was not out-and-out propaganda. Tokyo Rose broadcasts usually opened with ‘Rose, Rose I Love You’, recorded in 1940 by Yao Lee, one of China’s greatest singing stars. Iva would play three or four records and read from a script written by Cousens. Then, it was the turn of Ince to read five or ten minutes of ‘American Home Front News’, followed by pop music and jazz from Reyes and Ince again, reading ‘Ted’s News Highlights Tonight’. The man known as ‘the ‘Japanese Lord Haw-Haw’, Nisei Charles Yoshii sometimes delivered a commentary on the news and Ince would sign off for the evening. On Sundays, Ruth Hayakawa would stand in for Iva.
By December 1944 Iva was writing her own material and earning around 150 yen per month, around $7. Although she was not a seasoned
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