The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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 what happened to him after the war

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. 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

propaganda, 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 Indonesia it was common for the Japanese government to produce English language

radio programming using female hosts for their show.

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