World War II Anti-American Japanese Radio Personality. She was an American who was in Tokyo on a family mission of mercy and then unable to return due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Iva Toguri D'Aquino spent the duration of the war in Japan in collaboration after gaining employment with the Domei news agency as a typist which monitored U.S. military broadcast. She was promoted in 1943 and became an announcer and disc jockey for Radio Tokyo's propaganda broadcasts, playing American musical recordings on the "Zero Hour" a program which was beamed to U.S. servicemen. Calling herself "Orphan Ann" she was one of twelve women who broadcast for Radio Tokyo telling American forces in the Pacific that their cause was lost and that their sweethearts back home were betraying them. She made hundreds of broadcasts using the "Orphan Ann' moniker. Her activities resulted in treason charges and after the culmination of World War II, she was arrested, transported to San Francisco and lodged in the county jail where she spent a year until found guilty in a 12-week trial. Iva was sentenced to ten years in prison with a $10,000 fine followed by incarceration at the federal penitentiary in Alderson, West Virginia. She served more than six years in prison and was paroled but lost her citizenship and was forced to battle for years government deportation. She was born Iva Lkuko Toguri in Los Angeles to Jun and Ikuko Toguri both Japanese immigrants who were grocers. She was mainly raised in Compton, attended Compton High School and upon graduation was a student at Compton Junior College finishing her education at UCLA coming away with a degree in zoology in 1940. In the summer of 1941, she made her ill fated trip to Tokyo. Initial discomforts in Japan were swept away after taking a position with the Domei news agency. She even continued to work for Radio Tokyo after the cessation of hostilities while marrying Felipe D'Aquino a fellow employee in 1945. Her post prison life was spent living in Chicago working in an Asian grocery and gift shop that family members had opened after their release from a wartime internment camp in Arizona. She died in a Chicago hospital of natural causes at age 90. According to her request, she was directly cremated with no services. Legacy...The case and trial of Iva Toguri D'Aquino (Tokyo Rose) parallel that of European counterpart Mildred Gillars (Axis Sally). Both were tried and convicted of treason on basically the same charges then both were inmates at Alderson Federal Prison. However, Iva fared better after release from prison. A petition presented to President Ford for a pardon was successful as he determined that her activities were not of treason level. The edict was issued by Ford on his last day in office when many presidential pardons are traditionally rendered by outgoing heads of state. Not only were deportation proceedings halted but her citizenship was restored. The federal women's prison at Alderson, West Virginia is still in operation located on a hill by the river with its gracious brick buildings and wide expanse of sloping green lawn. It is a prison without cells, bars or razor wire. Some famous women prisoners...Billie Holiday, Mildred Gillars, Jynette "Squeaky" Fromme, Sara Jane Moore and Med Scott Phipps.
Bio by: Donald Greyfield