During World War II, Allied soldiers would often spend their time listening to the radio.

They could, at least for a little while, be transported back home by listening to popular music

with the soothing sounds of a female radio host with a flawless American accent.

And along with the music, the troops would also get a healthy dose of enemy propaganda.

Learn more about Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally, how they got stuck doing radio and Happened to him after the War on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. Back in World War II, radio was the only mass broadcast medium.

There was no television, so radio was how people entertain themselves and were informed.

While there were many ways to spread popaganda, radio was uniquely suited to do so. It required very little investment.

It was very low risk compared to dropping leaflets.

And it could reach an enormous number of people.

It was for this reason that both sides during the war used radio to try to reach their opponents.

The British would broadcast BBC shows in German, and the Americans created their own radio

shows in German and Japanese, which were intended for an enemy audience.

German-born actress and singer Marlene Dietrich recorded radio broadcasts in German

for the American Office of Strategic Services, which were used in Europe.

So it came as no surprise that both the Germans and the Japanese did the same thing.

In the Pacific and in Asia it was common for the Japanese government to produce English language radio programming using female hosts for their show.

These programs would be broadcast out of cities like Manila, Shanghai, and Tokyo, which were occupied by the Japanese.

They would play popular American music, interspersed with heavily slanted news updates which were intended to demoralize American troops.

American soldiers did in fact listen to these broadcasts because there wasn't much else to listen to.

In Asia, the hosts of these programs became known as Tokyo Rose.

It should be noted that there was no one person who was Tokyo Rose. It was a generic name

given to any female host who worked for the Japanese.

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