History Main / TokyoRose

The Germans also employed a male version, "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_haw_haw Lord Haw-Haw]]," the host of a regular program entitled ''Germany Calling.'' Though the program had several hosts, the name "Lord Haw-Haw" eventually became associated with a single individual: Anglo-Irish-American[[note]]It's complicated. He was born in Brooklyn to immigrant parents. His father was Irish, and his mother Anglo-Irish and raised in Britain (and hostile to Irish nationalism - so much so that her son was targeted by [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishRevolution the IRA all the way back in 1921]] because he was a notorious [[TheInformant informer]]. )[[/note]] William Joyce, who held the job beginning in 1940. He had a nasal drawl and so his opening line sounded like "This is Jairmany calling". Joyce was captured in Germany in 1945 and put on trial for treason in Britain, after some legal debate over whether an American citizen (as came out during the trial) could be charged with betraying the Crown. The ruling was that since he'd got a British passport (he'd lied about his citizenship to get it), he was supposed to have loyalty to the King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He was convicted and hanged in 1946. Incidentally enough, he was the last person imprisoned in the Tower of London, and the second-last to be executed for a crime other than murder. The Japanese equivalent was an Australian named Reggie Hollingsworth, about whom little is known but who has been described as sounding like "[[UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill Churchill]] broadcasting from Tokyo". UsefulNotes/FascistItaly partially subverted this trope by foregoing an alias personality altogether and getting noted American poet and mentor to Creator/TSEliot, Ezra Pound, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Pound#Radio_broadcasts to voluntarily give pro-fascist/anti-semitic/anti-American broadcasts until his eventual capture by the Allies following the Italian Campaign]]

During [[UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar both]] [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror wars]] in the Persian Gulf, stories circulated in the American media about an Iraqi broadcaster nicknamed "Baghdad Betty" [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer whose research was a little shaky]] ("Remember boys, back home in America, movie stars are seducing your wife. Creator/BurtReynolds is seducing your wife. [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Bart Simpson]] is seducing your wife." In reality, that line was a Creator/JohnnyCarson joke on ''Series/TheTonightShow''.) These may have been influenced by Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, AKA "Baghdad Bob"/"Comical Ali", the Iraqi information ministry official whose farcically inaccurate statements (culminating in the proclamation that "There are no American troops in Baghdad" while two American tanks were ''[[ImplausibleDeniability clearly visible maneuvering behind him]]'') amused and perplexed media observers.

* ''American Traitor: The Trial Of Axis Sally'' is a film about Mildred Gillars, mentioned above, on trial charged with eight counts of treason. It details her life in Germany, trial, disputed motives and the defense.
* ''Film/TheBakerStreetDozen'': The film ''Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror'' revolves around the titular Lord Haw-Haw-type who constantly pooh-poohs the British war effort and [[WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou wonders why the British are so determined to allow citizens to get killed with their stupid resistance to almighty Germany]]. The Voice of Terror is more proactive than your average broadcaster, though, being TheMole within British Intelligence and the leader of a saboteur ring.

%%** She also appears in ''VideoGame/{{Conflict}}: Vietnam''.

* ''Film/GreenForDanger'': After the doodlebug blows up the warden station, the radio survives the explosion and is heard broadcasting ''Germany Calling'' where the female announcer is telling the British about the invincibility of Germany's V-1 rockets.

* In ''film/WeveNeverBeenLicked'', Brad is suspected of being a spy because of his association with the Japanese students, and ends up joining their spy ring, hoping to sabotage it from inside. Finally, he ends up as a Tokyo Rose-style Japanese propaganda broadcaster.

Only one person was ever prosecuted for these broadcasts: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iva_Toguri_D%27Aquino Iva Toguri D'Aquino,]] an American daughter of Japanese immigrants who was stranded in Japan while visiting a sick aunt there at the beginning of the war, admitted to broadcasting under the name "Orphan Ann".[[note]]The name "Tokyo Rose" was coined before she began broadcasting[[/note]] Though neither the occupation authorities nor the FBI could find sufficient evidence to prosecute her in Japan, she was prosecuted on multiple counts of treason upon her return to the United States in 1948. Her prosecution was a pet project for politicians seeking to make a name for themselves with help from some particularly unscrupulous journalists. Despite the complete lack of credible evidence against her and considerable evidence that she'd risked her life aiding the allied prisoners forced to write and produce the broadcasts (Japanese society looked down on American-born Nisei like her, and the [[SecretPolice Kempei-tai]] would have [[FateWorseThanDeath taken a dim view]] of her smuggling food and medical supplies into POW camps -- which she did a lot), she was convicted on only one count in 1949 and served six years of a ten year sentence. Still, she was forcibly separated from her husband, an Italian national who was denied entry to the United States, and was warned that if she left the country, she would not be allowed back in (made even worse when you remember that the stress of her wrongful prosecution caused her to miscarry their baby). She received a full pardon in 1977 due to the proven unreliability of her key accusers (who both claimed they'd been coerced into perjuring themselves) and the lack of any proof that she had actually said anything treasonous. An FBI case study found that her effect on Allied morale was, if anything, positive, and in a crowning irony, the US World War Two Veteran's Committee gave her their highest award for her bravery and patriotism in aiding Allied [=POWs=] at the risk of her own life shortly before she died in 2006.

Creator/JaneFonda, who [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Fonda#Controversial_visit_to_Hanoi made some broadcasts denouncing the US bombing of North Vietnam and their military policy in general during a visit to Hanoi in 1972,]] acquired the nickname "Hanoi Jane" as a reference to Tokyo Rose and Hanoi's own female propaganda broadcaster "Hanoi Hannah". She later apologized for this.

* ''WesternAnimation/PrivateSnafu'': When Tokyo Rose begins spewing her anti-American propaganda over the airwaves in "Tokyo Woes", Seaman Hook is inspired to fight back, using War Bonds as literal weapons against her.

* Gonzalo Queipo de Llano and his pro-Nationalist "Radio Sevilla" programmes in ''Literature/SovietsInTheSun''.

* Heard from as the shore party is rigging up their radio in a cave by the beach in ''Film/Destinationokyo''. Crosses with CoincidentalBroadcast when Rose talks about how no American ship dares come within 500 miles of the Japanese home islands and how the U.S. submarine fleet has been destroyed.

* ''ComicBook/CaptSavageAndHisLeatherneckRaider'': Colonel Sakata runs a Japanese propaganda broadcast. He plans to torture captured American ace pilot [[ComicBook/TheThing Ben Grimm]] into confessing to atrocities such as bombing hospitals and strafing civilians. It doesn't quite work out that way.

[[folder:Film]]

In the European theater, the [[ThoseWackyNazis Axis]] employed two American women as broadcasters who were both given the nickname "Axis Sally" by American troops. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Zucca Rita Zucca]] broadcast from Rome and used the on-air name "Sally," while [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Gillars Mildred Gillars]] broadcast from Berlin and usually called herself "Midge." Unlike their Japanese counterparts, both were known Nazi sympathizers who willingly collaborated.[[note]]Zucca renounced her American citizenship in order to protect her family's property from expropriation by Mussolini's government and, one year before she got her radio gig, had been fired from a typing job for copying anti-fascist pamphlets.[[/note]] Both served prison terms for treason after the war, but in yet another cruel irony, neither trial got anything like the attention focused on Toguri's prosecution.

** She also appears in ''VideoGame/{{Conflict}}: Vietnam''.

The Germans also employed a male version, "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_haw_haw Lord Haw-Haw]]," the host of a regular program entitled ''Germany Calling.'' Though the program had several hosts, the name "Lord Haw-Haw" eventually became associated with a single individual: Anglo-Irish-American[[note]]It's complicated. He was born in Brooklyn to immigrant parents. His father was Irish, and his mother Anglo-Irish and raised in Britain (and hostile to Irish nationalism - so much so that her son was targeted by [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishRevolution the IRA all the way back in 1921]] because he was a notorious [[TheInformant informer]]. )[[/note]] William Joyce, who held the job beginning in 1940. He had a nasal drawl and so his opening line sounded like "This is Jairmany calling". Joyce was captured in Germany in 1945 and put on trial for treason in Britain, after some legal debate over whether an American citizen (as came out during the trial) could be charged with betraying the Crown. The ruling was that since he'd got a British passport (he'd lied about his citizenship to get it), he was supposed to have loyalty to the King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He was convicted and hanged in 1946. Incidentally enough, he was the last person imprisoned in the Tower of London, and the second-last to be executed for a crime other than murder. The Japanese equivalent was an Australian named Reggie Hollingsworth, about whom little is known but who has been described as sounding like "[[UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill Churchill]] broadcasting from Tokyo". UsefulNotes/FascistItaly partially subverted this trope by foregoing an alias personality altogether and getting noted American poet and mentor to Creator/TSEliot, Ezra Pound, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Pound#Radio_broadcasts to voluntarily give pro-fascist/anti-semitic/anti-American broadcasts until his eventual capture by the Allies following the Italian Campaign]].

Creator/JaneFonda, who [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Fonda#Controversial_visit_to_Hanoi made some broadcasts denouncing the US bombing of North Vietnam and their military policy in general during a visit to Hanoi in 1972]], acquired the nickname "Hanoi Jane" as a reference to Tokyo Rose and Hanoi's own female propaganda broadcaster "Hanoi Hannah". She later apologized for this.

* ''ComicBook/HowlingCommandos'': The fourth issue featured, Lord Ha-Ha, a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Lord Haw-Haw, who was in fact an English nobleman named Percival '''Haw'''ley.

* ''ComicBook/SgtFuryAndHisHowlingCommandos'': The fourth issue featured, Lord Ha-Ha, a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Lord Haw-Haw, who was in fact an English nobleman named Percival '''Haw'''ley.

Only one person was ever prosecuted for these broadcasts: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iva_Toguri_D%27Aquino Iva Toguri D'Aquino,]] an American daughter of Japanese immigrants who was stranded in Japan while visiting a sick aunt there at the beginning of the war, admitted to broadcasting under the name "Orphan Ann".[[note]]The name "Tokyo Rose" was coined before she began broadcasting[[/note]] Though neither the occupation authorities nor the FBI could find sufficient evidence to prosecute her in Japan, she was prosecuted on multiple counts of treason upon her return to the United States in 1948. Her prosecution was a pet project for politicians seeking to make a name for themselves with help from some particularly unscrupulous journalists. Despite the complete lack of credible evidence against her and considerable evidence that she'd risked her life aiding the allied prisoners forced to write and produce the broadcasts (Japanese society looked down on [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment American-born Nisei]] like her, and the [[SecretPolice Kempei-tai]] would have [[FateWorseThanDeath taken a dim view]] of her smuggling food and medical supplies into POW camps -- which she did a lot), she was convicted on only one count in 1949 and served six years of a ten year sentence. Still, she was forcibly separated from her husband, an Italian national who was denied entry to the United States, and was warned that if she left the country, she would not be allowed back in (made even worse when you remember that the stress of her wrongful prosecution caused her to miscarry their baby). She received a full pardon in 1977 due to the proven unreliability of her key accusers (who both claimed they'd been coerced into perjuring themselves) and the lack of any proof that she had actually said anything treasonous. An FBI case study found that her effect on Allied morale was, if anything, positive, and in a crowning irony, the US World War Two Veteran's Committee gave her their highest award for her bravery and patriotism in aiding Allied [=POWs=] at the risk of her own life shortly before she died in 2006.

Tokyo Rose was actually pretty popular with Allied servicemen. Either [[SoBadItsGood out of the comedy value of the obvious propaganda]], or because it was a female voice to people that might not have heard another for quite some time (and might not live to hear one again). Probably both. The moniker "Tokyo Rose" itself almost certainly orginated with the servicemen themselves, since it does not appear in any of the surviving broadcast scripts or documentation. The surviving scripts also show that rumors that she was remarkably well-informed about Allied intentions, units, and movements were purely apocryphal.

Only one person was ever prosecuted for these broadcasts: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iva_Toguri_D%27Aquino Iva Toguri D'Aquino,]] an American daughter of Japanese immigrants who was stranded in Japan while visiting a sick aunt there at the begining of the war, admitted to broadcasting under the name "Orphan Ann".[[note]]The name "Tokyo Rose" was coined before she began broadcasting[[/note]] Though neither the occupation authorities nor the FBI could find sufficient evidence to prosecute her in Japan, she was prosecuted on multiple counts of treason upon her return to the United States in 1948. Her prosecution was a pet project for politicians seeking to make a name for themselves with help from some particularly unscrupulous journalists. Despite the complete lack of credible evidence against her and considerable evidence that she'd risked her life aiding the allied prisoners forced to write and produce the broadcasts (Japanese society looked down on [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment American-born Nisei]] like her, and the [[SecretPolice Kempei-tai]] would have [[FateWorseThanDeath taken a dim view]] of her smuggling food and medical supplies into POW camps -- which she did a lot), she was convicted on only one count in 1949 and served six years of a ten year sentence. Still, she was forcibly separated from her husband, an Italian national who was denied entry to the United States, and was warned that if she left the country, she would not be allowed back in (made even worse when you remember that the stress of her wrongful prosecution caused her to miscarry their baby). She received a full pardon in 1977 due to the proven unreliability of her key accusers (who both claimed they'd been coerced into perjuring themselves) and the lack of any proof that she had actually said anything treasonous. An FBI case study found that her effect on Allied morale was, if anything, positive, and in a crowning irony, the US World War Two Veteran's Committee gave her their highest award for her bravery and patriotism in aiding Allied [=POWs=] at the risk of her own life shortly before she died in 2006.

During [[UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar both]] [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror wars]] in the Persian Gulf, stories circulated in the American media about a broadcaster nicknamed "Baghdad Betty" [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer whose research was a little shaky]] ("Remember boys, back home in America, movie stars are seducing your wife. Creator/BurtReynolds is seducing your wife. [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Bart Simpson]] is seducing your wife." In reality, that line was a Creator/JohnnyCarson joke on ''Series/TheTonightShow''.) These may have been influenced by Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, AKA "Baghdad Bob"/"Comical Ali", the Iraqi information ministry official whose farcically inaccurate statements (culminating in the proclamation that "There are no American troops in Baghdad" while two American tanks were ''[[ImplausibleDeniability clearly visible maneuvering behind him]]'') amused and perplexed media observers.

* ''American Traitor: The Trial Of Axis Sally'' is a film Mildred Gillars, mentioned above, on trial charged with eight counts of treason. It details her life in Germany, trial, disputed motives and the defense.

* In the Vietnam War flashbacks in ''Film/Da5Bloods'', the Bloods listen to a radio broadcast by Hanoi Hannah specifically targeted towards Black G.I.s like the Bloods. The program aims to get them to desert by pointing out they're risking their lives for a country that still has deep racial inequality. The Bloods learn about the MLK assassination this way and seem convinced by the propaganda.

* ''Series/HogansHeroes'' has multiple propaganda broadcasters. The first, "Axis Annie," wants to record [=POWs=] admitting that the Germans follow the Geneva Conventions so she can persuade Allied troops to surrender more easily or to desert. The Heroes cut a deal with her in order to get into town and pass on a message to an Underground cell (and then destroy the recordings to prevent getting court-martialed for treason). The second, "Berlin Betty," is used by the Heroes to get a time-sensitive coded message to London after their radio is damaged.

* ''Series/TheRatPatrol'' episode "[[Recap/TheRatPatrolS1E20TheLastChanceRaid The Last Chance Raid]]" features Lord Haw-Haw {{Expy}} "Colonel Windsor", a British traitor who broadcasts propaganda meant to demoralize American soldiers. He focuses on how the Nazis are winning [=WW2=], and the US should stop fighting "Churchill's war" and ally itself with Germany. The Rats don't think much of Windsor, which they get to tell him in person when [[WeInterruptThisProgram they commandeer his program]] to send an emergency message to the British army via BBC personnel who monitor his show.

* ''VideoGame/HaloInfinite'' has a [[TheGoomba Grunt]] named Glibnub who broadcasts from propaganda towers on behalf of the Banished. Initially taunting the surviving UNSC troops over their recent defeat and precarious situation on Zeta Halo, his messages [[VillainousBreakdown gradually become desperate attempts to shore up Banished morale]] as Master Chief keeps winning battles.

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', there's a Chinese Propaganda radio station that broadcasts in Arlington Cemetery out of an old cannery that echoes this trope.

Creator/JaneFonda, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Fonda#Controversial_visit_to_Hanoi who made some broadcasts denouncing the US bombing of North Vietnam and their military policy in general during a visit to Hanoi in 1972]], acquired the nickname "Hanoi Jane" as a reference to Tokyo Rose and Hanoi's own female propaganda broadcaster "Hanoi Hannah". She later apologized for this.