“Unofficial Radio Hell-Raiser”: Radio News and US-Japanese Conflict on the Eve of the Pacific War

Abstract

As radio newscaster Carroll Duard Alcott was being chauffeured to work on the evening of January 12, 1940, he was ambushed. A car carrying two uniformed members of the Japanese military barreled in front of Alcott’s rickshaw as it moved through the streets of Shanghai. Having trapped the rickshaw, Alcott’s terrified puller bolted on foot down a nearby alley. A lieutenant grabbed the American radio personality with the intention of forcing him into his vehicle. Asked to confirm his identity, Alcott denied he was the man they sought. When a moment of doubt entered the officer’s mind, the 220 pound Alcott broke free and hightailed it down the same alley his puller used. Alcott arrived by foot at XMHA, an American-owned radio station, somewhat out of breath, but in time to deliver his scheduled broadcast.1