Story Archive

This Won’t Hurt a Bit II

E.J. Mallory, an American Army dentist assigned to occupied Japan after World War II, was asked to make a set of dentures for Gen. Hideki Tojo, who was imprisoned awaiting trial for war crimes. Mallory, knowing who the dentures were for, inscribed a Morse code message onto the false teeth of the man who approved the surprise attack on Hawaii that brought the U.S. into the war: “Remember Pearl Harbor”. Mallory said recently the gag “wasn’t anything done in anger. It’s just that not many people had the chance to get those words into his mouth.” A ham radio operator, Mallory used code instead of block letters to keep the message hidden. But the secret leaked out within weeks, and Mallory had to wake Tojo in the middle of the night to remove the phrase. The next morning, when an officer demanded to know “Is there any truth in this report that ‘Remember Pearl Harbor’ is inscribed in the dentures?”, Mallory was able to truthfully answer, “No Sir!” (RC/AP) ...He took the words right out of my mouth.