Roses of War

When men went off to fight in WW II, women did their own part. They worked in factories, played in a women's baseball league, and raised families. One woman's family was bigger than the rest. Meet Margaret Chung, who called thousands of military men her sons.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart
Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Americans were struggling, food, clothing,

(00:23):
and gasoline were rationed on the radio. Disc jockeys played
the Andrew sisters dance hit, Boogie Woggie Bugle Boy, and
Johnny Mercer's g I Jive. During World War Two, these
upbeat songs kept spirits up and Americans bonded over a
common enemy. Several actually nations jostled to either declare war

(00:46):
against the US or become allies. In an uncertain world,
citizens relied on newspapers and the radio for information. To
combat food shortages, neighbors planted victory gardens. They exchanged flowers
to grace dinner tables, and crops that fed families. Men
stepped up to volunteer for service, leaving women behind to

(01:09):
raise families and care for the homes and gardens. When
it looked like baseball would be canceled, Women's League formed
to keep Americans entertained with their favorite sport, but the
country needed more. There was a shortage of munitions and
war supplies, and a desperate need for workers to make them.
Women whose husbands were at war, had to feed themselves

(01:31):
and their children, and just like in baseball, when the
factories called for help, women answered it wasn't easy. Some
of their male colleagues resented them and made work difficult.
To encourage more women to apply, and to alleviate men's
concerns that women would forever take over their jobs, America
looked to marketing to reframe women at work. Seventeen year

(01:55):
old Geraldine hoff Hoyle didn't think about the photographer who
snapped her photo at the ann Arbor Metal factory. She
had worn a polka dot scarf and cover rolls to work,
and twenty year old Nami Parker paid little attention to
a photographer who took her picture too. Like oil, Parker
also sported polka dots in her wardrobe should use the

(02:16):
spotted bandanna to hold back her hair as she bent
over a piece of machinery. In Westinghouse, artist J. Howard
Miller created the first Rosie the Riveter poster. A polka
dot headscarf held her hair out of her face. The
sleeves on her blue shirt were rolled up and Rosie
flexed to bicep. The caption above her red, we can

(02:39):
do it. Norman Rockwell created a cover for the Saturday
Evening Post featuring Rosie. In Rockwell's depiction, readers got the
message that while men were off fighting the war on
the front lines, women were doing their part on factory lines.
Kentucky born Rose Mundrow and her two children moved to
Michigan after her husband died. Rose had always been a

(03:02):
tomboy of sorts and handy with tools. Though Rose wanted
to become a pilot, she was passed over. Instead, she
took a job building b twenty four bombers. Later, she
became the only female member of a local aeronautics club.
Rose's work building the aircraft caught actor Walter pigeons Ie.
When Hollywood shot film footage to support war bonds, Rose

(03:25):
portrayed Rosie the Riveter, and there was yet another Rose. Rosalind.
P Walter came from a wealthy family. When the war
broke out, Rosalind went to work at the Vaught Aircraft Company.
Her dedication specific duty captured the attention of a newspaper columnist.
In turn, the column inspired two musicians to write the

(03:45):
song Rosie the Riveter, honoring all the women who worked
long and hard during wartime, Rosie had come to represent
the efforts of every working woman across America. And though
she wore a suit instead of a bandana, another one
and was about to overcome tremendous obstacles to make a
difference in wartime. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome to American Shadows.

(04:17):
Like nearly three hundred thousand others. From the Canton region
in China, Margaret's parents immigrated to the United States hoping
to escape poverty. Her mother, Ah Jane, was just five
when she arrived. Her father, Chung Wong, also arrived when
he was young. Around that time, Presbyterian missionaries were at

(04:37):
work convincing Chinese communities to convert to Christianity. The church
believed that if the children grew up christian did be
more likely to marry within the church and raise future
generations of Presbyterians, who would in turn convert more immigrants.
Records show that Margaret's father attended a missionary in Los Angeles,

(04:58):
while little is known of his or her mother's childhoods.
A mission homes often housed and fed immigrant children and
then contracted them out as servants. They weren't allowed to
leave their assigned positions and received no pay. In eighteen
eighty six, Margaret's father was the only Chinese immigrant to
receive baptism. He and her mother met through the church

(05:20):
and married. They had eleven children together, though only seven
survived past childhood. Margaret Chung was born in eighteen eighty nine.
As the eldest, she helped care for her younger siblings.
Her father, desperate to keep his large family fed, started
his own business raising and selling produce. When that venture failed,

(05:42):
he tried selling traditional Chinese herbs or working in other
farmers fields to find jobs. They moved frequently. A Mexican
Americans were evicted to make room for other Americans heading
west a Chinese immigrants moved in to work as railroad laborers.
As population increased, racial tensions grew, sparking and anti Chinese

(06:04):
movement riots targeting Chinese Americans erupted in Los Angeles and
Santa Barbara. Like other immigrants, Chong Wong moved his family
into more Chinese populated communities for safety. In addition to
caring for her siblings, Margaret worked to help her family.
She also had an insatiable appetite for learning and studied hard,

(06:26):
hoping that one day she could become a doctor and
the medical missionary for the church. The church saw missionary
hospitals as a way to create converts while also tending
to them. Inspired by the community's charismatic local doctor who
wrote a bicycle to house calls, Margaret planned for her
future and scoped out colleges and scholarships. When the family

(06:48):
moved to Los Angeles in nineteen o two, Margaret took
care of her siblings and ailing parents while still attending school.
She earned a scholarship to the University of Southern California
from The l A Times by selling newspaper subscriptions. While
studying at usc Margaret also held a variety of jobs.
She worked at the school cafeteria, sold surgical instruments, and

(07:11):
entered debate contests that offered pride money. While women did
attend medical schools at the time, it wasn't the norm.
Several schools catering to only women closed their doors citing
the number of co ed medical colleges becoming available. While
Margaret attended classes at the university, she dressed in men's clothing,
complete with shirt, pants, jacket, and tie, and went by

(07:34):
the name Mike Tragedy struck when her mother passed away
from tuberculosis. Her father's health was also failing, and she
still had younger siblings who depended on her. Although she
still had two more years of school, Margaret refused to
give up her dream and managed to do it all.
In nineteen sixteen, she and her fellow students posed for

(07:57):
their graduation day photo. Margaret wore her hair slicked back
to look more like her male classmates, along with her clothing.
Anyone glancing at the photo wouldn't immediately know she was
the only woman in her class. With a hard earned
degree and a lifetime of preparation, Margaret applied to become
a medical missionary in China. At last, her dream of

(08:19):
working as a doctor for the Church seemed within her grasp.
Except for one detail. Her application was immediately rejected. The
rejection confused Margaret. All her life, the Church had led

(08:40):
her to believe she sought the highest honor by helping others.
Thinking that the rejection had been an oversight, she reapplied
several times. Finally, she learned that even in her home country,
the Church didn't want Chinese Americans, and especially women, to
work as medical missionaries. Though the rejections stung, Margaret kept

(09:02):
applying at hospitals around the country. She persisted even when
more rejections rolled in. Her schoolmate Agnes Shall, who had
won several prestigious awards, also received rejections. Meanwhile, male colleagues
quickly found employment in hospitals that specialized in women's care,
and despite her higher degree of medical training, Margaret took

(09:24):
a lower level internship as a surgical nurse at the
Santa Fe Railroad Hospital. While the patients were diverse, the
majority were Hispanic workers from Mexico. Though her coworkers often
treated them poorly, Margaret offered compassion. She continued to send
out applications. In nineteen sixteen, she received an offer from

(09:45):
doctor Bertha van Husen, a woman physician at the Mary
Thompson Women's and Children's Hospital in Chicago. Dr van Husen
was committed to helping other women doctors find work in
the field that they had been trained in. A van
Husen wasn't married and often referred to Margaret and the
others as her surgical daughters. Margaret settled right in her

(10:07):
personal dress code, continued use of the name Mike, and
popularity with some of the hospital staff raised a few
societal eyebrows, though in response, the hospital administration implemented a
new rule no two employees could sleep in the same bed.
While Margaret's autobiography doesn't mention the sleeping arrangements, it appears

(10:29):
that the hospital frowned on her sexual preference for women.
But in the early nineteen hundreds, women weren't supposed to
have much of a sex drive, and certainly not before marriage,
so two women living together drew far less suspicion than
two men. In addition to working at the hospital, Margaret
secured an internship at the Juvenile Psychopathic Institute. While other

(10:52):
doctors there rejected pro bono cases, she eagerly took them
on for the experience and to learn different treatment and
surgery methods. Even with the opportunities in the work, Margaret
felt there had to be more. She disliked Chicago's weather
and missed California, so when the news arrived that her
father had died from a street car accident, she resigned

(11:15):
from her position and returned home. She returned to the
Santa Fe Railroad Hospital as a staff surgeon. She also
built a thriving private practice. Most of her patients were poor,
but she never turned them away, even if they couldn't pay.
She excelled a surgery, A word of Margaret's ability to

(11:36):
perform surgeries that left smaller scars, attracted circus performers, banned
Hollywood professionals, actresses, Anime Wong, Mary Pickford, and others became
clients and eventually friends. Soon Margaret began hosting dinner parties
for her patients, further growing her clientele base and influence.
In the early nineteen twenties, she accompanied two clients to

(11:59):
San Francisco and instantly fell in love with the city.
In nineteen two, she left her job and moved to Chinatown.
Her luck of a husband, manner of dress, and training
in Western medicine was met with distrust among the Chinese community,
and still her practice thrived. She was one of the
few to be discreet while attending to women seeking abortions

(12:22):
and early forms of birth control. Margaret began a close
relationship with the openly gay poet Elsa Gidlow. Elsa was
in an open relationship, giving her freedom to pursue Margaret.
The two enjoyed dinners and lunches, fueling rumors about Margaret's
sexual preferences, Elsa wrote in her journal, but the two

(12:42):
shared a passionate kiss. She brought Margaret flowers and wrote
her poetry, and Margaret took Elsa for car rides throughout
the city in her new convertible. The community began to
talk about them. Though Elsa and Margaret seemed to share
each other's affection, Margaret knew the career and practice she
had fought so hard for couldn't survive a scandal. After

(13:04):
ending the relationship with Elsa, Margaret fully dedicated herself to work.
When U. S. Navy Reserves Ensign Stephen G. Bancroft came
to her with an odd request in the early nineteen thirties,

(13:27):
Margaret couldn't have foreseen how the turn of events would
shape the rest of her life. A few Americans knew
that the Japanese had invaded Manchuria, northeastern region of China
in one and the strike was successful, encouraging the Japanese
to attack Shanghai. Bancroft wanted to go abroad to fight

(13:47):
the Japanese and asked if Margaret could make arrangements with
the Chinese military. American born Margaret didn't have the influence
their connections he needed, but curious and impressed with this
call us, she invited him and his housemates to dinner,
and Bancroft arrived with a handful of pilots, all in
their twenties, and Margaret and her guests hit it off

(14:09):
so well that she invited them back. For months. The
group went on camping and hunting trips and continued to
dine together. Before Bancroft and the pilots, Margaret's personal life
had suffered. The men provided her with much needed companionship,
and the group grew close. They spent so much time
together that during one particular dinner, a young pilot announced

(14:31):
that they had decided to adopt Margaret as their surrogate mother,
and then he kidded her, saying that they had no father.
Margaret quipped back that this made them all her fair
haired bastards. The group broke into laughter. The name stuck,
and Doctor Margaret Chung quickly became Mom Chung. By seven,

(14:51):
she had over five hundred sons and the media's wrapped attention.
In nine, her devotion to her son's inspired Holly Would
and the film King of Chinatown. The movie starred Margaret's
friend and client anime Wong. The comic book series Real
Heroes followed in it. Margaret's likeness shared pages with President

(15:12):
Franklin D. Roosevelt. Margaret became the center point for Chinese
American relations during the start of World War two. By
one she had covertly drafted a hundred pilots that made
up the famous Flying Tigers Squadron. The Flying Taggers flew
p forty Tomahawk fighters, all flying under Chinese colors. The

(15:33):
nose of each had been painted with rows of gleaming teeth.
Bounties were awarded to pilots for their aerial victories. All told,
Margaret adopted thousands of pilots, along with submariners and even admirals.
Celebrities followed, including a young Ronald Reagan and Robert Young,
and she referred to them as Kiwi's since the movie

(15:54):
stars were flightless and didn't serve as pilots. Her group
of Kiwi's grew three hundred and consisted of celebrities, politicians,
and various military personnel. And though her number of sons
had grown well into the thousands, she had considered each
true family. Letters and gifts from the men filled her
office for the U. S government. Margaret made for great

(16:18):
propaganda for her fair haired bastard sons. She had become
a compassionate surrogate mother. Margaret thrived in her personal life,
no longer felt empty. She was free to wear what
she wanted among her sons and engaged in more masculine
hobbies and interests. The public no longer scrutinized her. After

(16:39):
the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in she sent thousands of
care packages to those sons sent to fight in the war.
Additions to her famous sons included John Wayne and Admirals
William Bull Halsey and Chester W. Nimitz. Her family grew
by including daughters like Amelia Earhart. In nineteen forty three,

(17:01):
an elite group of submariners known as the Golden Dolphins
were added. She presented each of the members, who included
Henry Fonda, with a leather notebook. She wrote letters to
those sent to fight overseas and gifted her pilots with
a small jade Buddha on a neck chain. Her role
wasn't limited to recruitment letters and care packages. Margaret tended

(17:24):
to the injured, and she helped create and promote fundraising
events for humanitarian efforts, including the popular Rice Full parties.
Women's rights were still near and dear to her, and
Margaret lobbied for women's inclusion in the military. Her efforts
paid off, and in nineteen forty two, the military created
a reserve corps in the Navy called WAVES, or Women

(17:47):
Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. Her application to WAVES was
rejected due to her race and reported sexuality. All of
these pulls on her time affected her practice. When fair
haired Bastard children learned she could no longer pay for
her home, they pitched in to pay her mortgage. Her
adopted children often visited her when they returned home, and

(18:10):
Mom Chung prepared dinners for them, and when she retired
from practice, they pitched and again, buying her a home
out in Marin County. Mom Chung took to her new
home and old age with grace, for her home was
where of love blossomed, and though she became increasingly frail,
she was always delighted when her children, whom she loved

(18:32):
so deeply, came home for dinner. Margaret Chung lead a
full life. She retained the love of her heritage and

(18:52):
committed herself to Chinese American communities while remaining very patriotic.
She had been a caring daughter, insist, a hard working student,
an intern and nurse dedicated to helping those less fortunate,
a devoted physician, and a staunch supporter of women's rights.
Margaret changed social norms with her sexuality and broke glass

(19:13):
ceilings in her professional life. But nineteen fifties brought changes
to America. While most of her adopted sons and daughters
remained loyal, the public began to see those of Chinese
heritage as part of the Red Scare. She wrote an
autobiography that sold few copies, where it would have likely
been a best seller a decade before. In nineteen fifty eight,

(19:36):
after feeling unwell for some time, she went to the doctor.
The resulting tests revealed a varying cancer. It would be
decades before the medical world would develop a more effective
treatment against this highly aggressive and deadly disease. Margaret didn't
need the doctors to tell her that surgery was just
borrowed time. She underwent the procedure anyway. After recouper eating,

(20:00):
Margaret went home to plan one last event. Her funeral.
Vice Admiral Charles Lockwood visited after her surgery and noted
that she was in good spirits. Her prognosis of five
months to live didn't bother her in the least. Margaret
Chung passed away on January five, ninety nine. Her sons

(20:20):
and daughters ensured that her funeral went precisely how she
had planned. Admiral Nimitz and his wife, Catherine, attended. The
Admiral's wife noted in her journal that hundreds of people
of all races and walks of life came to pay
their respects to Mom Chung and say their final goodbyes.
San Francisco's Mayor to admirals, including Nimmits, a couple of privates,

(20:43):
and an ensign were her paul bearers. They laid her
casket into her final resting place. Later, Admiral Lockwood wrote
one last tribute, God bless and rest her very beautiful soul.
There will never be another Mom Chung. There's more to
this story. Stick around after this brief sponsor break to

(21:05):
hear all about it. There's another Rose who became nearly
as famous as Rosie the Riveter, though for different reasons.
At least in the beginning. Iva Toguri was born on
Independence Day of nineteen sixteen. Her father, June, had immigrated

(21:28):
from Japan in eight Fumi. Her mother followed in. As
a child, Iva enjoyed her time as a girl scout. Later,
she turned her attention to education, receiving a degree in
zoology from the University of Southern California in ninety Iva's
life was full of family and friends and active social life,

(21:50):
but that changed when her aunt in Japan became ill
in ninety one and needed help recovering. Iva packed her
bags and boarded a ship from San Pedro with only
a certificate of identification as proof of her citizenship. When
her aunt recovered, Iva contacted the U. S. Vice Consul
in Japan for a passport to return home. The paperwork

(22:12):
was still in progress when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The
Japanese government insisted that she renounced her U S citizenship.
Iva refused. As punishment, Iva was declared an enemy alien
without a war card, that is, a government issued card
that would have allowed her to receive food and other necessities.
Iva needed a job. The Domain News Agency offered her

(22:35):
position as a typist. Soon after, she learned that her
parents and other Japanese Americans had been taken to an
internment camp in Arizona. She also learned that Allied soldiers
had been taken to a Japanese prisoner of war camp
known for their horrific treatment. Iva took a second job
with the propagandist radio station Radio Tokyo. The station had

(22:57):
forced three prisoners, Australian Captain char Girl's cousins, American Captain
Wallace Ince, and Philippine Lieutenant Normando Reyes, to go on
air and demoralize American troops who might listen to their show,
called The Zero Hour. Iv A befriended the men and
smuggled them food. Unaware of the friendship, the station assigned
her to work on the show with the men. Going

(23:20):
by the pseudonym Orphan Anne or Orphan Annie, Iva played
music and assisted in a few comedy sketches. After shows
that received criticism for their poor English grammar, responsibility for
writing the scripts fell the cousins, Ins and Reyes. The
language barrier worked in the men's favor, and they took
to using double entendres and sarcasm in their scripts. Iva

(23:43):
also joined in telling any Allied forces listening that she
was their best enemy. In short, she told listeners that
she was on their side. Japanese officials never caught on.
Iva's voice became well known during the show's a year
and a half run, though her identity remained into mystery.
Troops began calling her and other unknown Japanese women propagandists

(24:05):
Tokyo rose In Iva married one Philippe Takino, who she
met through the station, and with the war over, Iva
looked forward to returning home. Though she had little money,
time was not on her side. She needed to get
home to her parents, and the US was looking for

(24:26):
radio propagandists, so when two reporters offered up two thousand
dollars for an interview with the mysterious Tokio, rose Iva answered.
She never received a penny, though, and US officials and
Yokohama quickly arrested her. They kept Iva in custody for
a year while General Douglas MacArthur's staff and the FBI

(24:48):
investigated her. Neither found any evidence that suggested she had
committed treason. Iva, now pregnant, was free to return home.
News for clearance and her interview detail allowing her attempts
to help the POWs and Allied forces had spread across
the country, but radio personality and gossip columnist Walter Winchell

(25:09):
launched a campaign against her. His rhetorics sold plenty of
newspapers and gained him the support of the American Legion.
Even those in General Douglas's army of counter intelligence couldn't
convince them of her innocence, Winchell and the Legion pushed
to try Iva on US soil. On September twenty five,

(25:31):
Iva was arrested on eight counts of treason. The prosecution
found Japanese Americans who claimed Iva had bad mouth to
the United States during her broadcasts. The testimony didn't match
the broadcasts, but that didn't matter to the court. Neither
did the rumor that the witnesses had been coached. Her
citizenship was revoked and the court sentenced her at a

(25:53):
time in the Federal Reformatory for Women in West Virginia.
After six years and two months, she was granted role. Afterward,
I've relocated to Chicago and worked for her father, though
she could never restore her reputation, at least not until
nineteen sixty nine, when Sixty Minutes investigated her story of

(26:14):
prompting the change she saw President gerald Ford pardoned her
in and in two thousand and six, just months before
her death, the World War Two Veterans Committee presented the
ninety year old Iva with the Edward J. Hurleyhy Citizenship
Award for her courage, spirit and unyielding patriotism. American Shadows

(26:43):
is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was written by
Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed, and produced by Miranda
Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mackey, Alex Williams,
and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show at
grim and mil dot com. From more podcasts from I
Heeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or

(27:06):
wherever you get your podcasts. H