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about

Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino was one of a number of women radio hosts who worked for the Japanese during World War II and were collectively known to American GI’s as Tokyo Rose. On the air she actually called herself Orphan Ann and always claimed that the Japanese forced her to make the broadcasts after she was stuck there while visiting her Grandmother when the war broke out. Iva was an American citizen, born in California, who moved with her family to Chicago after the war and after she was released from the prison term she got when she finally was able to come home from Japan. President Ford eventually pardoned her after it became clear that she was telling the truth.

lyrics

TOKYO ROSE
© Bob Wright


whatever happened
to Tokyo Rose?
I heard she got married
and she moved to Chicago
it is hard to imagine her
there in the snow
sinister smoky voiced
Tokyo Rose

all of the boys
back from the war
swore that they’d always
remember her voice
a phantom a fantasy
they came to know
their jitter bug baby
old Tokyo Rose

father forgive me
we say to the priest
when we’re humbled and broken
and down on our knees
when you can not take back
all the bad things you did
forgiveness does wonders
for dealing with guilt

she was born in L A
on the fourth of July
she came home and
everyone called her a spy
a few years in prison
was how it would go
for the woman we all know
was Tokyo Rose

who would have thought
that she moved to a place
surrounded by all of the
United States
the President pardoned her
but I suppose
forgiveness came harder
for Tokyo Rose

father forgive me
we say to the priest
when we’re humbled and broken
and down on our knees
when you can not take back
all the bad things you did
forgiveness does wonders
for dealing with guilt

whatever happened
to Tokyo Rose?

credits

from GINGERBEARD WHISKERCHIN, released July 14, 2020

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about

Bob Wright/ Harbortown New York, New York

He is a multi-instrumentalist, an award winning songwriter and Bob Wright songs are often mistaken for traditional songs because their immigrant roots run deep beneath the surface of America and back to the places they came from for nurturing and inspiration. They surface in a modern world, constructed with a modern sensibility and a comforting resonance with the past. ... more

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