TOJO's TEETH: Dits among the dentures
A post-war prank literally had Japan's vanquished World War II military leader chewing on words -
the words "Remember Pearl Harbor."
A U.S. Navy dentist drilled the message in Morse code into General Hideki Tojo's dentures during Tojo's imprisonment.
And for the next three months, until the secret leaked out, Tojo masticated his sushi on the message.
"It wasn't done in anger," recalled E.J. "Jack" Mallory, who made the dentures.
"It's just that not many people had the chance to put those words into his mouth."
Amateur Radio operator Mallory knew that if he wrote the words out, and they were discovered,
he could be court marshaled. That's why he used Morse.
George Foster, who died in 1990, was in on the secret. His assignment was to provide dental services at Sugama Prison,
near Tokyo, where he extracted Tojo's teeth. "I figured it was my duty to carry out my orders,"
Foster wrote in 1988, "but that didn't mean I couldn't have some fun."
Later, after the dentures were installed, Mallory and Foster took some buddies on an excursion to the prison to show off
their masterpiece. "The only others in on this were my dentist roommates, all sworn to secrecy," Mallory said, "
but the secret was too juicy. One of them mentioned the escapade in a letter to his parents in Texas.
They told his brother, who broadcast the story on a local radio station.
Within days, the tale of Tojo's teeth was on radio stations everywhere." Mallory confessed to his commanding officer,
who told him to hide while the story was denied. (Some things never change. ed.)
Using a crude grinder, Mallory removed the dots and dashes just in time. The next morning, a furious colonel called
Mallory and his roommate. He barked, "Is it true that the message 'Remember Pearl Harbor' is inscribed in Tojo's dentures?"
"No, sir!" the men answered truthfully. Mallory never learned whether Tojo found out about the trick, which the Japanese
press ignored. But a dentist who succeeded Mallory told him the general complained about the dentures' looser fit.
Mallory ran a dental practice near Sacramento until he retired in 1985. He has talked openly about the prank ever since
he mustered out of the Navy. And there is a display about it in the Navy Dental Corps Historical Museum.
In 1969, when Mallory returned to Japan for a reunion with Japanese dentists, he told them the tale over dinner.
"They thought it was the funniest thing," Mallory said, "and they asked, 'Why didn't you tell us before?"'
In 1948, Tojo, who had approved the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the U.S. into the war,
and had been convicted of war crimes, was executed.
= = =
From the September '95 North Jersey DXA 'NJDXA Newsletter' Bob Greenquist,
K2GHV, Editor -
who notes: Research indicates that 'Mallory' was probably N4ZN, who, according the ARRL, is now a Silent Key.
73 de Ko, NL9222
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