Sally & Rose

While the State Department was getting around to the business of kicking a "highly improper" foreigner out of the country (see col. 1), the Department of Justice finally decided to do something about two U.S. traitors abroad. Last week "Axis Sally" and "Tokyo Rose," were started home to face trial for treason.

Their stories were almost identical. Maine-born Mildred Elizabeth Gillars, 47, went to Europe in 1929 to study music. When war came she stayed on in Berlin, broadcasting a mixture of sirupy music and defeatist propaganda to U.S. troops. Los Angeles-born Iva Toguri d'Aquino, 32, went to Japan in 1941 "to see a sick aunt," was caught there by Pearl Harbor. Along with half a dozen English-speaking Japanese girls, she became the corporate voice which Pacific troops nicknamed Tokyo Rose. Just before war's end, she married a Portuguese newsman.

In both cases the servicemen had found the broadcasts more entertaining than disturbing. Both Sally and Rose had almost been forgotten by everyone. When silver-haired Mildred Gillars stepped from an Army transport plane in Washington at week's end (see cut), the only real point of interest was why the Justice Department had suddenly decided to make up for two years' lost time.

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