American Hero & Stoic: Tokyo Rose?
Modern Stoics Exist
It’s not unusual for a president of the United States to pardon citizens on their last day in office. It’s not even unusual for controversial pardons to be issued. President Gerald Ford famously pardoned Richard Nixon, however this may not be his most notable pardon.
On January 19, 1977 President Ford pardoned Iva Toguri. What’s so significant about this? Toguri was arrested and convicted as “Tokyo Rose” after WWII. This sultry radio personality functioned as the propaganda arm for Imperial Japan during the war.
Tokyo Rose would play music of the day and between intervals would tell the American troops their girlfriends and wives were cheating on them at home. She’d also mention they were all going to die in a far off land and their cause was hopeless. Yup, she was a total peach.
Obviously you might wonder why an American president would ever pardon this character. However, there is much more to the story than you can ever imagine. Even the idea of “Tokyo Rose” is cloudy. There was never a single person named Tokyo Rose.
There were a number of women who were broadcasters. The title “Tokyo Rose” was given to the women by the American soldiers who listened to the broadcasts. Toguri was just one of the radio announcers. After examination of her story and…
