The Trials of Tokyo Rose

Summary

Crimes of the Times: "The Trials of Tokyo Rose"

Host: Chris Goffard, L.A. Times Studios
Date: June 9, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of "Crimes of the Times," hosted by journalist Chris Goffard, delves into the real story behind the woman famously known as "Tokyo Rose." While the name evoked images of a seductive traitor broadcasting Japanese propaganda to demoralize American troops in World War II, the truth is far more complex, tragic, and reflective of the era’s paranoia and prejudice. Through interviews with journalists, historians, and those close to Iva Toguri, the episode uncovers the myth-making, miscarriage of justice, and enduring stigma that followed Toguri for the rest of her life as she sought to reclaim her name.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Myth of "Tokyo Rose"

• A Wartime Construct:

  • The term "Tokyo Rose" was never used by any single broadcaster; it was GI slang for many English-speaking women heard on Japanese propaganda radio.
  • "No one actually called herself that... it was a nickname used by the troops, a composite." (Goffard, 01:25)
  • Japanese authorities conscripted over a dozen English-speaking women across Asia to address U.S. troops.

• The Americans' Hunt:

  • At war’s end, U.S. journalists arrived in Tokyo searching for the mythical "Tokyo Rose," unaware it was never a single person.
  • Journalist Ron Yates recounts, "But when the reporters asked about Tokyo Rose, they didn't know what the hell they were talking about." (00:59)

The Real Woman: Iva Toguri

• Background and Ordeal:

  • Born in Los Angeles, July 4, 1916, with a degree from UCLA. She traveled to Tokyo in 1941 to care for her sick aunt—her fate changed by the outbreak of war.
  • Unable to leave Japan, she found work at Radio Tokyo, unwillingly drawn into propaganda broadcasts.
  • "Over and over she was pressured to renounce her American citizenship and she always refused." (03:59)
  • Noted for her patriotism: “A tiger doesn't change its stripes.” (Bill Curtis, quoting Toguri, 04:14)

• Her On-Air Persona:

  • Known on radio as "Orphan Ann," not “Tokyo Rose.”
  • Used humor and upbeat American music to slyly subvert the Japanese propaganda machine.
  • "She did hundreds of broadcasts for a news and music show called Zero Hour... Taguri maintained that she had been slyly subverting the propaganda machine the whole time." (04:48)

The Treason Trial

• Postwar Witch Hunt:

  • After attempts to return home, Toguri was arrested and tried for treason in San Francisco.
  • Stigmatized by the press and organizations like the Gold Star Mothers, who "raised a furor at the prospect of her coming back." (11:14)

• Flawed Testimony and Political Pressure:

  • The main evidence was weak, based on Coaching and pressured testimony: “They told us to cooperate or else. No. These guys were terrified.” (Ron Yates, 07:15)
  • Star witnesses admitted decades later that their testimony was false and coerced by U.S. authorities.
    • "We lied at her trial... we were forced to lie." (Ron Yates, 25:36)
  • The prosecution never produced actual recordings of the alleged treasonous broadcasts.

• Verdict and Fallout:

  • Convicted on a single count based on this testimony, she served six years in prison.
  • Barred from returning to Los Angeles, lost her child, and her husband was forced out of the U.S.

The Long Road to Redemption

• Living With Stigma:

  • Upon release, she worked quietly in her family’s Chicago store, avoiding press attention for years.
  • "She was terribly distrustful of the media, and she had planned for the rest of her life not to give any interviews." (Bill Curtis, 15:56)

• Revelations and Pardon:

  • Journalist Ron Yates of the Chicago Tribune tracked down the witnesses in the 1970s and exposed the government’s misconduct.
  • Publication of these revelations prompted a new public reckoning and, eventually, President Gerald Ford’s 1977 pardon.
  • "She never did anything treasonous. And I said, well, then why was she convicted? ...They said, well, I guess that’s our fault." (Ron Yates, 24:41 - 25:27)

• Enduring Prejudice:

  • Despite the pardon, many Americans (including a Hollywood agent) never let go of the myth.
  • "I receive mail like this all the time." (Barbara Tremblay, referring to hate mail, 32:16)

Personal Reflections and Legacy

• Stoicism and American Identity:
  • Taguri remained proud of never renouncing her U.S. citizenship, even at the cost of freedom.
  • “Never, never, never, never, never. That was so in her. She's not a myth. She's a human being.” (Barbara Tremblay, 34:15)
  • On bitterness: "We are taught not to be bitter. What that meant for her was that what is? What is? Why be bitter? You can't change it." (Bill Curtis, 33:28)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Myth vs. Reality:
  • Ron Yates, on the press’s confusion: “Who do you mean Tokyo Rose? There's no Tokyo Rose.” (00:59)
• Patriotism Under Duress:
  • Bill Curtis: “Everybody else in Radio Tokyo...would sign a paper giving up their American citizenship and she declined. And her famous quote is a tiger doesn't change its stripes.” (03:59 - 04:14)
• False Testimony Confessions:
  • Ron Yates: “Straight up. We lied at her trial...They said, yes, but we were coerced...They said we can hang you both if we want to.” (06:39, 25:36)
• Impact of the Myth:
  • Bill Curtis: "You know, our boys will never be coming home, but Tokyo Rose is coming." (11:25)
  • Barbara Tremblay, on resistance to telling Taguri’s story: “My cousin died on the march to Bataan, and my aunt had a heart attack when she heard about it. And I won't do anything for that woman.” (31:11)
• Resilience and Forgiveness:
  • Bill Curtis: "I asked her that straight, and she said, no, I'm not bitter. We are taught not to be bitter." (33:28)
  • Barbara Tremblay: “She knew she was innocent, and she always had her faith in the American story...” (34:15)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• Introduction to the Tokyo Rose Case: 00:00 – 01:25
• Who Was Iva Toguri? / Early Life and Wartime Ordeal: 02:36 – 04:25
• Inside the Zero Hour Broadcasts: 04:32 – 04:48
• Treason Trial and Media Frenzy: 05:48 – 14:29
• Post-Prison Life & Distrust of Media: 15:25 – 17:40
• The Turning Point—Journalistic Investigation: 18:12 – 28:16
• Confession by Witnesses: 25:27 – 28:16
• Movement Toward Presidential Pardon: 28:24 – 29:48
• Lasting Trauma & Attempts to Tell Her Story: 30:32 – 32:16
• Enduring the Legacy and Finding Peace: 32:28 – 34:41

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Episode Tone & Style

The episode is journalistic, methodical, and empathetic—layering archival reporting, interviews, and personal anecdotes to reconstruct the truth behind a decades-old injustice. Voices of witnesses, family, and allies blend with poignant realization about the human cost of wartime hysteria.

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Conclusion

"The Trials of Tokyo Rose" dispels one of America’s enduring WWII myths, exposing how fear and prejudice warped justice and forever altered one woman’s life. Iva Toguri’s story is revealed as a lesson in patriotism, perseverance, and the slow, imperfect reckoning with the truth.

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Transcript

[Chris Gofford]

This is an LA Times Studios podcast. Chris Gofford here at LA Times Studios, thanks for joining us on Crimes of the Times. Today we discuss the case of the woman known to history as Tokyo Rose, a Los Angeles woman who was branded a traitor for her radio broadcasts during World War II. Tell us what you think in the comments below. As World War II ended in the summer of 1945, journalists went looking for stories in the ruins of bombed out Tokyo.

[Ron Yates]

There were three people, people that journalists were looking for when they came into Tokyo.

[Chris Gofford]

Ron Yates was a Chicago Tribune journalist.

[Ron Yates]

One was Emperor Hirohito and they were never going to get to him. The other was Prime Minister Tojo, who was the mastermind much of the war. And the other one was Tokyo Rose. And people who in Tokyo knew about the Emperor and they knew about Tojo. But when the reporters asked about Tokyo Rose, they didn't know what the hell they were talking about. Who do you mean Tokyo Rose? There's no Tokyo Rose. And then they began to say, well, she was doing.

[Chris Gofford]

Broadcast to countless American troops, Tokyo Rose was the siren of the Pacific, a voice they heard on scratchy radios as they served on Allied ships and bases waiting for combat. Lonely for home, she could be heard on propaganda broadcasts from the Japanese government meant to SAP the morale of the Allied troops. Ask a World War II veteran today, particularly one who served in the Pacific theater, and the name Tokyo Rose will be familiar. But no one actually called herself that. It was a nickname used by the troops, a composite. In reality, Japanese propaganda chiefs had pressed more than a dozen English speaking women into radio service. The women broadcast from Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul and Bangkok. Some of the women spoke of the hopelessness of the fight against Imperial Japan. They urged American fighting men to quit. They said their wives and girlfriends were cheating on them. Back in the States, when journalists descended on Tokyo, they found a soft spoken woman from Los Angeles who loved America.

[Ron Yates]

She had never done anything wrong. She wasn't some kind of an Asian siren trying to seduce all the GIs in Asia.

[Chris Gofford]

This is the journalist Ron Yates.

[Ron Yates]

She was just this Japanese American woman who was trapped in Tokyo, trying to get out. And this is the way she made a living.

[Chris Gofford]

Her name was Iva Taguri, and later Iva Taguri Diakino. She was born in Watts to Japanese parents on July 4, 1916 and had a degree in zoology from UCLA. She wanted to be a doctor, but she traveled to Tokyo in 1941 to care for a sick aunt. Her timing was disastrous. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. War was declared and Taguri was stuck. She had made the trip without a passport, which doomed her desperate efforts to board a ship home. She was hounded by Japanese police who were suspicious of her loyalty. Neighbors and authorities harassed her relatives for harboring her. She moved out to spare them further pain. She could not read Japanese and spoke it spottily. But she found a job as a typist at Radio Tokyo, which enlisted POWs in its propaganda division and recruited her in late 1943 as a disc jockey. Over and over she was pressured to renounce her American citizenship and she always refused.

[Bill Curtis]

Everybody else in Radio Tokyo who happened to be a non citizen would sign a paper giving up their American citizenship and she declined. And her famous quote is a tiger doesn't change its stripes.

[Chris Gofford]

The journalist Bill Curtis covered her story and got to know her.

[Bill Curtis]

So she was through and through. Born on the 4th of July.

[Barbara Tremblay]

Hello, you fighting orphans of the Pacific. How stick. This is after her weekend Annie. Back on the air.

[Chris Gofford]

On the radio, she spoke in a chirpy melodic voice in unaccustomed, accented American English. She called herself Orphan Anne,

[Barbara Tremblay]

the wandering boneheads of the Pacific Island.

[Chris Gofford]

She did hundreds of broadcasts for a news and music show called Zero Hour. She would address the troops as my boneheads in the South Pacific. Taguri maintained that she had been slyly subverting the propaganda machine the whole time, entertaining Americans with facetious language no one could take seriously and introducing upbeat American music that the GIs actually loved. A post war questionnaire found that the vast majority of troops regarded Zero Hour as harmless entertainment rather than psychological poison. But she was hauled into federal court in San Francisco to face eight counts of treason in 1949. It was the same year that another jury had convicted her supposed Nazi counterpart, the so called Axis Sally, of treasonous broadcasts from Berlin. A federal prosecutor called Tagore a betrayer of her native land and a betrayer of her government in time of need. She was a, quote, turncoat and a female Benedict Arnold. The case against her was threadbare, a product of post war rancor, false testimony and manipulative journalists who had preyed on her naivete. Ironically, her stubborn patriotism also helped to damn her. If she had renounced her American citizenship as the wartime Japanese government demanded, she would not have been prosecutable. She was convicted and sent to prison for six years. She became synonymous with the name Tokyo Rose, inextricably linked to a lingering wartime myth, even as she tried to lead a quiet life and reclaim her name

[Ron Yates]

straight up. We lied at her trial. You mean you perjured yourselves I said, you know, not being accusatory, just repeating what they had said. And they said, yes, but we were coerced. We were forced to lie. We were told that if we didn't say what the FBI and the Justice Department wanted us to say, that the government would arrange a trial for us, too. They threatened us with prison time. They said we were still technically US Citizens. And one guy said, look, we can hang you both if we want to.

[Chris Gofford]

During his reporting, Ron Yates elicited startling admissions from the key witnesses against Tigouri.

[Ron Yates]

They told us to cooperate or else. No. These guys were terrified.

[Chris Gofford]

Today on Crimes of the Times, the story of the California woman who came to be known as Tokyo Rose and her long path to reclaiming her name.

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[Chris Gofford]

The nickname Tokyo Rose was in use among American GIs long before IVA Taguri reached the broadcast booth at Radio Tokyo during World War II. It referred to any of the English speaking women whose voices came through the radio. But the journalists who descended on Tokyo after the war did not know this, and they went looking for the mythical broadcaster with the evocative name. Two US journalists found Taguri in Tokyo and promised her $2,000 for the exclusive rights to her story. She was desperate for money. She signed a contract attesting that she was, quote, the one and only Tokyo Rose. She never got the money. Instead, she became a flashpoint for post war anger. The American government in Japan threw her in prison for a year before deciding there was no case against her. But rancor reignited when she tried to return to the States with her husband, a Radio Tokyo journalist whose name she had taken. She was pregnant and wanted their baby to be born in America. The Los Angeles City Council voted to bar her return, and her child died at birth. Walter Winchell, the feared and powerful gossip columnist, raged against her Gold Star mothers. American women who had lost sons in the war raised a furor at the prospect of her coming back.

[Bill Curtis]

The Gold Star mothers were thought to be one reason why they went ahead and prosecuted Iva when she was ready to come to the States.

[Chris Gofford]

Here's Bill Curtis.

[Bill Curtis]

You know our boys will never be coming home, but Tokyo Rose is coming. You know, what's the American government going to do about it? So it didn't take much.

[Chris Gofford]

So Tagoree's effort to resume her life in the United States backfired, and under mounting pressure from the Truman administration, prosecutors put her on trial in a San Francisco courtroom. Testifying on Taguri's behalf was Charles Cousins, a major in the Australian army who had been captured by the Japanese and forced to work at Radio Tokyo. He said she had smuggled food and medicine to allied POWs. He had recruited her for the Zero hour broadcast, he explained, because he thought her gin fog voice would help create a complete burlesque of a propaganda show. Couzens had written her scripts and offered a sample. Hello there, enemies. How are tricks? This is Anne of Radio Tokyo. And we're just going to begin our regular program of music now and the zero hour for our friends, I mean our enemies in Australia and the South Pacific. So be on your guard and mind the children don't hear. All set. Okay. Here is the first blow at your morale. The Boston Pops playing Strike up the Band. The star prosecution witnesses were Kenkichi Oki and George Mitsushio, two California born men who had become Japanese citizens and supervised her at Radio Tokyo. With implausibly identical language, they testified that they had heard her speak of sunken Allied ships after a naval battle in October 1944. Orphans of the Pacific, she supposedly said. You are really orphans now. How will you get home now that all of your ships are sunk?

[Bill Curtis]

Now, one would presume, especially if you're on the jury, that, okay, well, there it is. They've got the testimony, right? They've got the gold, and they're going to play it for us so we can hear it ourselves. Never did, because they never had the words of Ava recording her treasonous statements.

[Chris Gofford]

And Taguri vehemently denied ever saying it.

[Bill Curtis]

So I thought that was kind of a dirty trick. They also would come out of the trial and every day issue a pr. We call it a PR Today press release on how the trial had gone. And of course it was always written in favor of the prosecution. Now, at the time, it's hard for us today to imagine the hatred that was saturated throughout the United States.

[Chris Gofford]

But the jury decided she had made the recording and after a 13 week trial, the sunken ship broadcast allegation led to the sole count on which she was found guilty. Years later, Judge Michael J. Roche remarked, I always felt there was something peculiar about that girl's going to Japan. When she did, I always thought she might have been up to something. She spent six years at a federal women's prison in West Virginia. On her release, a Chicago Tribune headline read, tokyo Rose Quits Jail Shows no Repentance. She fended off deportation proceedings and went to work at the family gift store in Chicago. During the war, her parents had been wrenched from their home and imprisoned at the Gila river camp in Arizona, where her mother died. Taguri avoided the press.

[Bill Curtis]

The joke was for the newspapers to send the cub reporter down and get an interview with Tokyo Rose because they knew that she had never given an interview since release from the West Virginia reformatory.

[Chris Gofford]

If you recognize this golden voice, that's because you may have heard Bill Curtis in the film Anchorman or on the NPR quiz show. Wait, wait, don't tell me but in the late 1960s, he was a TV reporter in Chicago. He wanted to meet her.

[Bill Curtis]

So I went in and we became friends. It was a Japanese grocery store where she was working. And one reason that she didn't kick me out of immediately was she said, I think I recognize you from television. She was nice to describe her, she was coquettish, she was bright, and she could hold a conversation. Fluent in America. Of course, she's American. She was terribly distrustful of the media, and she had planned for the rest of her life not to give any interviews. She went to work for her father because she was terr. Terribly embarrassed for the family. I didn't want to spring upon her the fact that I'd like to do an interview and a story. But in the friendship, what she needed was trust. She needed to trust the press because she had been screwed by the press, but finally said, would you give me an interview and we'll tell your story the way that you want it? Because she had convinced me that she was indeed innocent of treason. I convinced her simply by saying, I believe you. I believe your story. She said, yes. She said, I'd like to wear sunglasses. I think it was the last kind of security blanket that she. That she used. So, sure enough, you can wear sunglasses.

[Chris Gofford]

The result was a half hour TV documentary in 1968. It was the first serious counter thrust to the official narrative.

[Bill Curtis]

It is first time we've heard her voice. I let her essentially talk, and she told me the whole story. Ultimately, the interview wound up in the Library of Congress. So that becomes history in itself.

[Chris Gofford]

Other media outlets profiled her, including 60 Minutes, and the momentum began to shift.

[Ron Yates]

Like everybody else, I'd grown up watching those old World War II movies and stuff, and they were always talking about Tokyo Rose and Tokyo rose.

[Chris Gofford]

In the mid-1970s, the journalist Ron Yates was working in the Tokyo bureau of the Chicago Tribune. He decided to find the two men who had been the government's star witnesses against her.

[Ron Yates]

So I assumed, like everybody else, that she was a traitor. But as I read through this dozens and dozens of stories, I began to feel something was wrong.

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[Bill Curtis]

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[Ron Yates]

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[Chris Gofford]

mid-1970s, the journalist Ron Yates found himself on a golf course in Japan talking to a local journalist.

[Ron Yates]

I asked if you knew who Iva Taguri was. AK Tokyo Rose and he said sure, I knew her. I worked with her at Radio Tokyo on the Zero Hour. And he says, well, you know, she was railroaded. And I said what do you mean? And I said but you know, she was convicted of treason, wasn't she? And I said yeah, but what a joke that was. She never did anything wrong. And, and I said, what do you mean she was tried and convicted? He says, yeah, but I'm not saying anymore. He said, there's one hell of a story here, and if you're willing to dig for it, it'll be a great story for you. And that did it. So he gave me these names.

[Chris Gofford]

Two of them were Kenkichi Oki and George Mitsushio. These were the two California born men who had supervised her at Radio Tokyo and given damning testimony against her at trial.

[Ron Yates]

And it was up to me then to kind of track them down, which I did. And I, that's how I eventually got into this whole story. I tracked down Oki and Mitsushio. So I decided to talk to Oki and Mitsushio. And we met at the Foreign Correspondence Club bar in late February of 76, and we talked for about an hour. And I could see they were nervous. They were nervous as hell. And so I had the feeling that two men were kind of checking me out. I mentioned Hanoi Hana, now hanoihani, was a woman broadcasting out of Hanoi to American troops in South Vietnam. And I thought that might be a good segue into Tokyo Rose. And I, you know, she was North Vietnamese version of Tokyo Rose. I said, you know, and I fully, I fully understood, of course, that the analogy was kind of flawed, but Okie took the bait. Then he said, yeah, but that's like apples and oranges. And I said, well, how, how do you mean? He said, well, there's a, you know, they came to kind of pause a little bit. He said, well, Iva was no Hannah Ohana, not even close. And Mrs. Sheol, he jumped in and changed the subject real fast. So I could see they were a little nervous. They didn't want to get into this stuff very much. But I didn't know that they had perjured themselves as much as they had. I just knew that they were somehow involved in her conviction. But you kind of feel something when you're talking to somebody. You kind of know there's more behind the facade you want to dig into a little bit deeper. But how do you want to do that? So you have to be kind of careful.

[Chris Gofford]

Soon after, they agreed to meet him again.

[Ron Yates]

And there over pasta and Chianti, and these two guys began recounting their life in Tokyo during the war once again. And they talked about the air raids and the fire bombings and all that stuff about the war years and why they came to Japan from America in the 30s. By now, I think the two, these two guys figured out that why I was really talking to them. I said, what. What can you tell me about this woman, Tokyo Rose? And I said. Okie says, well, there never was such a person. And I said, what do you mean? So? Well, she's. It's all a myth. It's a lie. So I pressed the two guys for more details, and Okie said it. First of all, she was never called Tokyo Rose. She never called herself Tokyo Rose. She was always Orphan Ann. And second, she never did anything treasonous. And I said, well, then why was she convicted? And this is the. This is the big point right here. These two guys sitting across the table from me, they looked at each other, and I could see something in their eyes, just a flash of remorse, whatever, guilt, something. And both men looked down to the table, cleared his throat, okay, took a sip of his Chianti. And look, he says, the truth is, Ivan never did anything wrong. She never did anything treasonable. This is Mitsushio talking. And Oki nodded in agreement. And then I said, well, why was she convicted? And these two guys looked at one another again, and they said, well, I guess that's our fault.

[Chris Gofford]

The two men acknowledged that they had perjured themselves. They had done so, they explained, under intense pressure from the US Government.

[Ron Yates]

There's no way to really say it, but straight out, Okie said. And Mitsushiyo nodded in agreement. We lied at her trial. You mean you perjured yourselves? I said, you know, I mean, not being accusatory, just repeating what they had said. And they said, yes, but we were coerced. We were forced to lie. We were told that if we didn't say what the FBI and the Justice Department wanted us to say, that the government would arrange a trial for us, too. They threatened us with prison time. They said we were still technically US Citizens. And one guy said, look, we can hang you both if we want to. They told us to cooperate or else. Well, these guys were terrified. This is the occupation forces. This is. There is nobody in charge in Tokyo or Japan except the U.S. army and the U.S. forces. And they were terrified. I get it. I mean, they thought they were going to be hanged. So Mitsushiyo explained that the two guys were coached for hours, every day for a month leading up to their. The trial in San Francisco in 1949. And they just coached them day after day after day. And we were told again and again and again what to say, what not to say. We were told to say that we ordered IVA to make treasonous broadcasts, to commit treason, and that she did. The fact is she didn't.

[Chris Gofford]

In fact, they said she might have been the most pro American person at Radio Tokyo.

[Ron Yates]

It was just the opposite. They said she supported the American pow. She risked her life at risk, her freedom to take stuff, medicine, fruit, clothing, stuff like that to POW camps.

[Chris Gofford]

The men who had helped to put her in prison for six years and made her name a byword for treason seemed consumed by guilt.

[Ron Yates]

They kind of both got a little teary eyed. Okie wiped his eyes with a napkin and with the shield, did the same. And they said, we're ashamed of what we did back in 1949. We're sorry. And I've heard. I was very bitter about our. Our testimony. I understand her bitterness and I feel she has the right to feel that way. But I just wish I had the opportunity to talk with Iva and tell her why we had to do it. This was Mitoshio talking. I said, look, I've never met Iva. I don't even know if she's a forgiving woman or not. However, the fact that you have both come forward now could have a huge impact on her life and certainly on her getting a pardon. And her conviction was a huge miscarriage of justice.

[Chris Gofford]

Yates wrote a series revealing that the FBI had pressured and coached the two star witnesses.

[Ron Yates]

Well, it had huge. I had no idea the kind of impact it had because I wrote a series of three or four stories and those were picked up by everybody. Then it went all over the world and people. I began getting calls and. And finally I got a call from the White House from some staffer. Because Ford had read the stories, Tagouri

[Chris Gofford]

filed a petition for a presidential pardon to restore her stripped U.S. citizenship. Age is creeping up on me, and I can't wait forever. She said, America is my home. It will always be my home. The state of California belatedly lent its support, and President Gerald Ford granted the pardon in 1977. At one point, the journalist Ron Yates was working with Iva Taguri Diacchino to write a book about her experience. He told her she should go on Oprah.

[Ron Yates]

She said, oh, God, no, I don't want to do that. I don't want to have that kind of exposure. That would be deadly. I'm afraid somebody will throw a bomb through my store window. The store window, you know. She was terrified of all these Americans who still thought she was a traitor. A lot of American GIs from the World War II, they still think Iva Taguri was the one and only Tokyo Rose. There were no Other women, and she did all these terrible broadcasts. They just can't get past it.

[Chris Gofford]

Yates said that his own father, a former serviceman, remembered hearing Japanese propaganda broadcasts during his time in the Pacific during World War II. He associated Tagore with the enemy, someone who'd said terrible things. Yates said he had to disabuse his own father of the lie. When Tagore's husband came to the United States to testify for her at her trial in 1949, the US government demanded that he promise never to return. This, in effect, kept her from her husband for the rest of her life. He found another woman until her death at age 90 in 2006. She did not remarry.

[Barbara Tremblay]

Yes, it was a terrible sadness. Not only her life, but the life of her husband.

[Chris Gofford]

Barbara Tremblay is a Hollywood producer who has tried to make a film about Iva Tagore Dikino's life.

[Barbara Tremblay]

She told me later, she said, well, maybe if the baby had lived, we would have gone to Portugal. And I have letters from him to her telling him, you know, this is while she was in jail. This wasn't years later when they got the divorce. You know, please go on with your life.

[Chris Gofford]

Trembli says she first met Taguri in the late 1990s.

[Barbara Tremblay]

She knew what had happened, and she said when she had her story done, she wanted to make sure it had warts and all. That was her big thing. She owned it, and she was proud of the way she handled herself in prison. And we started looking for a film idea, or we started looking for a television project idea, but I found that a lot of the gates were closed, that because of past prejudice. In fact, I remember speaking to a very prominent agent at William Morris, and he said, I know you, Barbara, you're a lovely person, but I won't do anything for that woman. He said, my cousin died on the march to Bataan, and my aunt had a heart attack when she heard about it. And I won't do anything for that woman. And he said, so I'm sorry, Barbara.

[Chris Gofford]

At one of the early meetings with Trembli, Taguri reminded them that she was still receiving hate mail. She did not want to do anything to bring further trouble to her family.

[Barbara Tremblay]

She brought out a newspaper article that showed her face, and it had a big X across it. And she says, I receive mail like this all the time.

[Chris Gofford]

In an article in Reason magazine, historian James J. Marie Martin described the case as a glittering press agent spectacle aimed at trying the personification of a World War II soldier's legend, not a person with civil and constitutional rights. It was an illustration, he argued, that the word treason is far more a political term than it is anything else. Long after she went free, Tagore lived with the stigma and carried the peculiar allure of the moniker history had saddled her with for years. Letters poured in threatening death and offering marriage. Every time the case is recalled in the papers, she would say, I seem to hear from every maniac in the country. Bill Curtis knew Tiguri until she died. I asked if he sensed bitterness in her.

[Bill Curtis]

I asked her that straight, and she said, no, I'm not bitter. We are taught not to be bitter. What that meant for her was that what is? What is? Why be bitter? You can't change it. Now I sensed that probing a little more, you could have gotten a different answer. Because her whole life was ruined and changed.

[Barbara Tremblay]

She was so American. And remember, she was raised in California. Very, very free.

[Chris Gofford]

Trembley said Tagoree never regretted her decision not to renounce her American citizenship.

[Barbara Tremblay]

Never, never, never, never, never. That was so in her. She's not a myth. She's a human being. She's a human being who continued through great loss. She knew she was innocent, and she always had her faith in the American story and in.

[Bill Curtis]

Sam.