was the first of over a dozen live

radio programs A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio networ ...

broadcast by

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

during the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

. To reach a large geographical area these transmissions included

shortwave radio Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...

frequencies in the 31 m band. The program featured

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

(POW) reading current news and playing prerecorded music, and sending messages from POWs to their families back home and to Allied soldiers and sailors serving in the Pacific theater. These messages were interlaced with demoralizing commentary and appeals to surrender or sabotage the Allied war effort. ''The Zero Hour'' also featured the female announcer dubbed

Tokyo Rose Tokyo Rose (alternative spelling Tokio Rose) was a name given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to all female English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The programs were broadcast in the South Pacific ...

. ''The Zero Hour'' was the brainchild of Major Shigetsugu Tsuneishi, who joined the

Japanese Imperial Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

's 8th Section G-2 (

Psychological Warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...

) unit as the Army representative to the Information Liaison Confidential Committee, which oversaw the coordination of the nationalized news agencies, in November 1941. His first effort was a propagandistic photographic magazine called ''Front'', based on the format of the American magazine ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

''. Major Tsuneishi established an office at

Radio Tokyo , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestria ...

(NHK) and issued orders to the NHK Overseas Bureau's American, European, Asian, Editorial and Administration Divisions through Bureau Chief

Yoshio Muto Yoshio is both a masculine Japanese given name and a Japanese surname. Possible writings Yoshio can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *義雄, "justice, masculine" *義男, "justice, man" ...

. Thereafter, all news broadcasts became official announcements of the

General Headquarters (GHQ). The American Division radio announcers section was headed by

Yuichi Hirakawa Yūichi, Yuichi, or Yuuichi is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yūichi can be written using different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *勇一, "courage, 1" *祐一, "to help, 1" *祐市, "to help, cit ...

, a native Japanese with a degree in Dramatics from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. Tsuneishi acquired a veteran radio announcer with the capture of

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

Major

Charles Cousens Charles Hughes Cousens (26 August 1903 - 9 May 1964) was an Australian radio broadcaster, television presenter and army officer. Cousens was a radio and television personality known for his programs on 2GB and Channel 7 in Sydney. However, he i ...

, who had been a popular and highly regarded news commentor in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

before the War. During an interrogation at the General Staff HQ in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

on August 1, 1942, Tsuneishi made it clear to Cousens that he had to broadcast for the Japanese or face execution before putting him to work at 6 p.m. that same evening. Cousens was subsequently tasked with writing and broadcasting "radio essays" on the need to have high ideals as a human being, collections of platitudes with no

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

value.

References

External links

Broadcasts of ''The Zero Hour''
* ''The Zero Hour'' show 8-14-1944, music with "Ann the Orphan,"

Iva Toguri D'Aquino Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino ( ja, 戸栗郁子アイバ; July 4, 1916 – September 26, 2006) was a Japanese-American disc jockey and radio personality who participated in English-language radio broadcasts transmitted by Radio Tokyo to Allied t ...

, a Japanese-American dubbed "

" by the American military {{DEFAULTSORT:Zero Hour (Ww Ii) Propaganda radio broadcasts