10 American Traitors Who Were Hunted Down After the War

When World War II ended, the fighting stopped.

The search for Americans accused of helping the enemy did not.

Across Germany, Italy, Japan, and the shattered remains of Axis-controlled Europe, U.S. investigators began tracking American citizens who had broadcast propaganda, worked for enemy governments, abused American prisoners, or otherwise assisted countries the United States had been fighting.

Some were hiding.

Some tried to return home.

And some had spent years speaking directly to American soldiers over enemy radio.

In this video, we examine *10 Americans accused or convicted of aiding America's enemies during World War II—and what happened when investigators finally caught up with them.*

One of the most notorious was **Mildred Gillars**, better known as “Axis Sally.” From Nazi Germany, Gillars broadcast propaganda aimed at American servicemen. U.S. authorities arrested her after Germany's defeat, brought her back to Washington, and convicted her of treason in 1949.

Then there were **Robert Best, Douglas Chandler, and Herbert Burgman**, American broadcasters who worked for Nazi-controlled radio services and were eventually prosecuted for treason.

Poet *Ezra Pound* also broadcast pro-Fascist and anti-American propaganda from Mussolini's Italy. He was taken into U.S. custody after the war and indicted for treason, although he was ultimately found mentally incompetent to stand trial and confined at St. Elizabeths Hospital.

In the Pacific, *Tomoya Kawakita* returned to the United States after the war despite having worked as an interpreter at a Japanese industrial site where American prisoners of war were forced to labor. A former POW recognized him in California. Kawakita was arrested, convicted of treason, and initially sentenced to death before his sentence was later commuted.

And then there was **Iva Toguri D'Aquino**, the woman popularly labeled “Tokyo Rose.”

Her case was much more complicated.

Toguri was convicted of treason in 1949 after broadcasting from Radio Tokyo, but the FBI's own historical account now emphasizes serious problems surrounding the case. She was ultimately pardoned by President Gerald Ford in 1977 after questions emerged about testimony used against her.

That's why not everyone in this story fits neatly into the same category.

Some were convicted traitors.

Some were accused but never convicted.

Some cases collapsed.

And one of the most famous convictions was ultimately pardoned.

In this video, we trace what these Americans did during the war, how Allied investigators found them afterward, the extraordinary treason trials that followed, and why proving treason under the U.S. Constitution was far more difficult than simply proving that someone had worked for the enemy.

The war ended in 1945.

For the Americans accused of betraying their country, the reckoning was only beginning.

SOURCES:

FBI — Iva Toguri D'Aquino and “Tokyo Rose”
https://www.fbi.gov/history/cases-and...

Cornell Legal Information Institute — Kawakita v. United States
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremeco...

National Archives — Records Relating to World War II Treason Cases
https://www.archives.gov/research

U.S. Courts — Treason and the U.S. Constitution
https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federa...

#WW2 #WorldWar2 #Treason #AxisSally #TokyoRose #MilitaryHistory #AmericanHistory #WarHistory