The Zero Hour ( World War II ) " for the Rod Serling radio anthology , see The Zero Hour ( radio series ) " " The Zero Hour " was the brainchild of Major Shigetsugu Tsuneishi , who joined the Japanese Imperial Army ' s 8th Section G - 2 ( Psychological Warfare ) 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 " . Major Tsuneishi established an office at Radio Tokyo ( NHK ) and issued orders to the NHK Overseas Bureau ' s American , European , Asian , Editorial and Administration Divisions through Bureau Chief Yoshio Muto . Thereafter , all news broadcasts became official announcements of the Japanese Imperial Army General Headquarters ( GHQ ) . The American Division radio announcers section was headed by Yuichi Hirakawa , a native Japanese with a degree in Dramatics from the University of Washington . Tsuneishi acquired a veteran radio announcer with the capture of Australian Army Major Charles Cousens , who had been a popular and highly regarded news commentor in Sydney before the War . During an interrogation at the General Staff HQ in Tokyo 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 value . On October 15 , 1942 , Cousens was joined at Radio Tokyo by American Army Captain Wallace " Ted " Ince and Philippine Army Lieutenant Normando Ildefonso " Norman " Reyes , both captured at Corregidor , where they ' d been in charge of the " Voice of Freedom " Allied propaganda broadcasts . Ince produced " From One American to Another " and Reyes " Life in the East " under the direction of Japanese Army overseers . In 1943 , the Japanese Army developed facilities to monitor medium - wave radio domestic broadcasts from the U . S . , allowing them to pick up news of local disasters such as floods in Mississippi , forest fires in California , major automobile accident s and train wreck s . Major Tsuneishi decided to have his POWs broadcast a news program of such items to demoralize front - line U . S . troops . The show would be called the Zero Hour and contain only true items that had been censored from Allied news broadcasts . The first broadcast of " The Zero Hour " was made at 5 : 15 p . m . on March 31 , 1943 and consisted of a 15 - to 20 - minute program of jazz , popular music and news delivered by Norman Reyes , beamed on the 19 - and 25 - meter shortwave bands . The Zero Hour literally made headlines on June 29 , 1943 , when The New York Times carried the first American report of its activities : " Between the Tokyo radio and Japanese bombers , the nights are not always dull here . Tokyo has been beaming a program called the ' Zero Hour ' direct to the Russell Islands and Guadalcanal . The fellows like it very much because it cries over them and feels so sorry for them . It talks about the food that they miss by not being home and tells how the war workers are stealing their jobs and their girls . " Major Tsuneishi was pleased by this report and in August 1943 expanded the program to 40 - to 45 - minutes , with Major Cousens reading POW messages , Captain Ince reading U . S . news items and Lieutenant Reyes playing records with commentary . The news was compiled by NHK Nisei staffers Kenkichi Oki and George Mitsushio , but the POWs tried to subvert the propaganda wherever possible by reading it with a joking tone or by rushing through objectionable items . On November 11 , 1943 , " The Zero Hour " was expanded again , to 75 minutes starting at 6 p . m . Tsuneishi also required the addition of a female broadcaster to give the program more appeal to war - weary troops and to increase the nostalgia factor . Fearing that their efforts to undermine the propaganda value of the program would be exposed by the addition of an outsider , the POWs were in a quandary until Cousens requested that Iva Toguri D ' Aquino , an NHK typist who had befriended the POWs and was outspokenly pro - American in her views , be conscripted as the female announcer instead one of the regular female staffers . George Mitsushio and Nisei staffer George Kazumaro " Buddy " Uno voiced their objections but Cousens prevailed , citing similarities to the popular Gracie Allen , Shirley Booth and Marian Driscoll ( the Molly of " Fibber McGee and Molly " ) . Cousens ' plan was to take lemons and turn them into lemonade by using the female broadcaster foisted onto the POWs by their Japanese bosses to sabotage " The Zero Hour " by making a complete burlesque of it . Iva Toguri D ' Aquino began broadcasting anonymously , not wanting to identify herself by name . Informed that she must have some distinctive sobriquet for the benefit of the audience , she called herself " Ann " from the abbreviation ANN for " Announcer " in her scripts . Later , when she became more comfortable with what she and the POWs were doing , she got into the swing of it and became " Orphan Ann " in a dual homage to " Radio Orphan Annie " and the popular phrase " Orphans of the Pacific " used to describe her audience , the Allied troops . On November 13 , 1943 , the new " Zero Hour " broadcast format was finalized : 75 minutes , broadcast from 6 to 7 : 15 p . m . 18 : 00 - 19 : 15 , seven days a week . It opened with " Strike Up The Band " by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops , followed by 5 – 10 minutes of 25 - word POW messages read by Major Cousens . " Here comes your music ! " was his introduction to Iva Toguri ' s 15 - 20 minute D . J . segment , in which she played three 33 . 3 - RPM 12 " or four 78 - RPM 9 " records , prefaced by comments scripted for her by Cousens . The music was mainly semi - classical or classical , with a few dance recordings , and Iva ' s voice was on - air about 2 – 3 minutes . Next was " American Home Front News " read by Captain Ince from a script by George Mitsushio ( 5 – 10 minutes ) , the 15 - 20 minute " Juke Box " pop music & jazz D . J . segment with Lieutenant Reyes , " Ted ' s News Highlights Tonight " read by Captain Ince from the NHK shortwave monitors ' script ( 5 – 10 minutes ) , an occasional news commentary by Nisei Charles Yoshii ( called the " Japanese Lord Haw - Haw " ) and " Goodbye Now " leading into sign - off by Captain Ince . Iva , Cousens and Ince never worked Sundays ; Ruth Hayakawa substituted for Iva and Lieutenant Reyes substituted for Cousens and Ince under the supervision of Kenkichi Oki . By January 1944 , twelve more Allied POWs arrived at the prison camp and more new programs were begun : " Three Missing Men " , " Saturday Jamboree " , " The Postman Calls " , " War On War " , " Enerjocracy " , " From One American to Another " , " The Voice of the People " , " The Australian Hour " , " The German Hour " and " The Civilian Air Program " . All had the same general format and content as " The Zero Hour " . In December 1944 , " Zero Hour " was shortened to 60 minutes . The program was now considered NHK ' s Front Line Section and controlled directly by Major Tsuneishi . George Mitsushio was News Analysis Section chief , with Kenkichi Oki in charge of the actual broadcasts , which were mostly propaganda with the notable exception of Iva Toguri ' s " Orphan Ann " segment . The final " Zero Hour " broadcast aired on or around August 12 , 1945 , three days after the second atomic bomb destroyed Nagasaki and three days before Emperor Hirohito announced Japan ' s unconditional surrender to the Allied forces and renounced the Imperial Mandate of Heaven . Radio Tokyo itself was shut down immediately following the Emperor ' s speech .