Douglas MacArthur - American Caesar Part 2 Quiz

Answer: Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers

Douglas MacArthur was one of the few people in history to be given the power to re-make a nation in his own image when he was appointed SCAP. The position and the person soon became one and the ultimate authority in Japan for the next six years rested with SCAP. He was determined to discredit the military so they would never again be a threat to world peace.

Answer: False

He actually arrived unarmed in his personal C 54 transport 'Bataan' the day after a small advance party of 150 men had peacefully secured the base. A couple of weeks earlier this had been a prime base for kamikaze operations and the chance of fanatics staging a surprise attack on the General was extremely high. MacArthur had absolute faith that the Emperor's word would be obeyed and a display of total trust at this stage was crucial for the plans he had for the future of the defeated nation. When members of his staff began to strap on side arms as they were about to disembark from 'Bataan' he instructed them to be removed saying: "Nothing will impress them like a show of absolute fearlessness." Pausing at the top of the stairway, MacArthur, wearing a plain open necked uniform and smoking his trademark corncob pipe, surveyed his new command before descending to meet the reception party.

His trust was well placed as there were no incidents and the 15 mile route his commandeered motorcade took to his billet in bomb ravaged Yokohama was lined with 30,000 Japanese troops, their backs turned in a sign of submission and profound respect. Churchill later said: "Of all the amazing deeds of the war, I regard General MacArthur's personal landing at Atsugi as the bravest of the lot."

Answer: On the deck of the battleship USS Missouri

The guns had finally fallen silent on August 15 when Japan formally agreed to unconditional surrender. Admiral Nimitz was seething when President Truman had selected MacArthur to conduct the surrender ceremony as he felt the Navy had borne the brunt of the war.

He was somewhat mollified when it was suggested that the ceremony take place aboard the USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay. Once all the assembled brass from the Allied Nations were in place, the Japanese delegation was instructed to come aboard.

In contrast to his fellow officers MacArthur wore a plain uniform with no decorations on display. He kept the ceremony simple pointing out that: "The issues involving divergent ideals and ideologies have been determined on the battlefield and hence are not for our discussion or debate." After some words acknowledging the sacrifices that had been made and the earnest desire for a lasting peace the Japanese delegates were signalled to come forward one by one and sign the document at the spot indicated. With a flourish MacArthur signed on behalf of the Allies using three pens (some accounts say five) giving one to his old comrade in arms General Wainwright who had been forced to surrender his command at Bataan three years before.

The second pen he gave to General Percival who had been forced to surrender at Singapore and the third he kept for himself to take home to his wife and son back in Manila. Admiral Nimitz then signed for the United States and delegates from all the Allied Nations came forward to sign the document. As the Japanese delegation was led away MacArthur turned to Admiral Halsey and said: "Bill, where are those planes?" Then, as if on cue, 1900 Allied aircraft staged a massive flypast as the sun finally came out illuminating Mt Fuji in the background.

Answer: Emperor Hirohito presented himself to MacArthur at his HQ.

When Hirohito presented himself to MacArthur at his headquarters in the Dai Ichi building he signaled who would be the ultimate arbiter of authority in post war Japan. The position of the Emperor was crucial to the success of the occupation. MacArthur was acutely aware of the position of the Emperor in Japanese society and knew that it must be maintained if he was to have the co-operation of the Japanese people for the future he had in mind. For his part Hirohito had finally seen the need to accept the surrender and had persuaded his ministers and pleaded on radio to his people to 'bear the unbearable' and submit.

The people had never heard his voice before and were shocked at his words but nevertheless knew they had to obey. After the surrender, Hirohito went further and renounced his divinity telling his people that their relationship always stood upon trust and affection and was not dependent on legends and myths. Five hundred years of tradition were cast aside.

The people, defeated in war, now had nothing spiritual to cling on to and fell into a state of apathy and looked to SCAP to lead them into a new future.

Answer: The Soviet Union occupied the northern island of Hokkaido.

MacArthur was determined that post war Japan would not be divided up into zones of occupation by the victorious powers as had happened in Germany. The Soviet Union had declared war on Japan in the last week before the surrender and seized Manchuria and the Kurile Islands. They demanded that they be given the right to occupy Hokkaido but MacArthur would have none of it. When he offered them a zone in Honshu between two US Infantry divisions they quickly dropped the matter.
When MacArthur enfranchised women he was told that men won't like it. His reply: "I don't care. I want to discredit the military. Women don't like war." During the first free election he was very pleased when 38 women including a prostitute who polled a quarter of a million votes were included in the new Diet. This new experience of 'Democrashi' caused some confusion as many of the women were under the impression they could not vote for men. MacArthur congratulated them all including the prostitute!
Japanese farmers worked the land under a virtual feudal system where absentee landlords owned the land taking a cut of all the farmers produced. MacArthur directed the newly elected Diet to draw up the appropriate legislation but encountered resistance because of lot of the members were landowners. He kept sending the legislation back to the Diet till they got it right. At a stroke he cut off the kind of agitation that was sustaining Mao's revolution in China.
Similarly when the Diet presented SCAP with a proposed new constitution for Japan it was seen to be nothing more than a rewording of the old Meiji one. SCAP ended up writing most of the new constitution including the controversial no war clause and kept sending it back to the Diet until it was passed. MacArthur soon began to have second thoughts about the no war clause in the light of the changing international scene as he became less concerned about protecting neighbours from future Japanese aggression and more concerned about possible moves on Japan by aggressive neighbours.

Answer: False

It is one of the remarkable things about the Japanese people that they did not resent the conviction and execution of their former leaders. SCAP had the power to commute the death sentences on Tojo and six others who were undoubtedly guilty of war crimes but he did not exercise it.

As each mounted the gallows they shouted "Banzai" as the trapdoor opened. The case against Generals Yamashita and Homma is less clear-cut. The atrocities in Manila and the Bataan death march were committed by troops under their command without their knowledge. Nevertheless they were convicted in what later witnesses called virtual kangaroo courts at the Manila War Crimes trials. Both were MacArthur's chief former adversaries and he refused to commute their death sentences. Homma was executed by firing squad for his role in the death march after and he ordered that Yamashita the 'Tiger of Malaya' be stripped of all military decorations before he was hanged for his alleged role in the Manila massacre. MacArthur believed the two had betrayed their own profession but his stinging denunciation of them revealed a lot about his own character.

In Japan the two generals were quickly forgotten.

Answer: Victory

This well known quote from the general was put to the test when war unexpectedly broke out on the Korean peninsular in June 1950. Emboldened by the communist victory in China, North Korea with Soviet backing launched a surprise attack on the South (ROK) in the belief that there would no overt response from the west. Before the attack the Korean impasse was seen as an inconvenient leftover from WW II and of little strategic importance with Japan and Taiwan seen as the front line of defence from mainland Asia.

After the attack and in the wake of the 'Who lost China' debate it deemed by President Truman and the Joint Chiefs that an immediate response to the challenge was required. MacArthur as the senior and most experienced person in the region was now appointed Commander in Chief Far East (CINCFE) and instructed to support the crumbling ROK by all means at his disposal.

The Americans pushed through a resolution in the UN to resist the aggression and the new CINCFE was appointed the first Commander of a UN army. MacArthur now believed he had carte blanche to deal with the situation as he saw fit and no one dared to tell him otherwise. Truman and the State Department were thinking in terms of a limited conflict.

In true MacArthur fashion he flew to Korea in 'Bataan' five days after the attack to see the battlefield situation for himself. Witnessing ROK forces retreating across the Han River in flight before the North Korean onslaught he quickly decided on his strategy to contain and then reverse the situation. UN forces were soon pouring into Pusan on the SE corner of the peninsular and a defensive perimeter was established to maintain a toehold on the peninsular.

Answer: Inchon

Inchon was the unlikeliest of places to stage an amphibious assault because of its huge tides (the second highest in the world after the Bay of Fundy) and lack of suitable beaches for landing craft. It was precisely because of this and its proximity to Seoul that MacArthur chose it to outflank the over extended North Korean Army (NKA) which was investing the 8th Army on the Pusan perimeter.

The landing on Sept 15 1950 called operation Chromite was a complete surprise to the North Koreans and the objective was seized with minimal casualties.

As usual the now 70 year old MacArthur was there soon after the landing of the first troops to assess the situation at first hand. He had a difficult time convincing his commanders of the viability of the operation and the tension was beginning to show. Reports said he was visibly ill shortly after realising that the landings were a success but this could have been due to the fact that he was a poor sailor. Whatever the case the move was a master stroke and the North Korean army was soon in full flight to the Chinese border on the Yalu River before the combined efforts of the 8th Army breaking out of the Pusan perimeter and the X Corps advancing from Inchon and Seoul.

Answer: True

The General Assembly had passed this resolution 47 to 5 which reinforced the earlier Security Council resolution 'to restore peace and restore the border.' MacArthur interpreted this as giving him a mandate to push on past the 38th parallel and occupy the entire Korean peninsular up to the Yalu River.

He was never told otherwise by Washington and it seemed they were ready to back him as long as he was winning. This reinforced his sense of grandiloquence and he began making public statements on political matters without reference to Washington which was to lead to his undoing several months later.

Answer: On Wake Island

President Truman had never met the CINCFE and when repeated requests for him to return to Washington to discuss strategy were turned down because he was too busy to leave the battlefront, Truman reluctantly agreed to meet him on Wake Island which was closer to Korea.

The President was less than impressed when MacArthur kept him waiting before the meeting and thought his casual dress downright impertinent when meeting his Commander-in-Chief, later remarking that if he had served under him when he was in the service during WW I: "I'd have busted him so fast he wouldn't have known what happened to him." In this somewhat testy atmosphere the meeting got underway and strangely no official record was made of what was actually discussed. From his personal recollections MacArthur says they discussed the Formosa situation and the need to dissuade Chang Kai Chek from making any moves to return to the Chinese mainland.

There was concern that China would become involved in the Korean War and the President was assured by MacArthur that there would be no Chinese involvement.

His assurance was given in good faith as at that time (October) his intelligence sources indicated no covert Chinese moves into Korea. It is somewhat strange that the President sought these assurances from MacArthur himself as his own intelligence sources in the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff had drawn the same conclusion.

Answer: Yes

He did make such a boast and went on to say the Third Division would be home for Christmas. As an indication of his detachment from the reality of the situation he ignored repeated warnings that his advance units were encountering increasing numbers of Chinese troops as they pushed north. For their part the Chinese saw themselves in mortal danger as the UN Army closed in on their border and began infiltrating thousands of troops in small groups across the Yalu to confront the enemy.

These were experienced units which had been freed up from coastal defence against a possible incursion from Nationalist forces on Formosa after they had been warned off such a move by the Americans.

The Chinese moves were helped immensely by intelligence supplied by the traitors Burgess, MacLean and Philby who had access to all the key decisions being made in Washington and the CINCFE. General Walker of the 8th Army began to get suspicious he was being anticipated by the uncanny ability of the enemy to counter his moves.

The storm finally broke in late November when 300,000 Chinese broke cover and began to envelope the probing spearheads of the UN Army. In characteristic fashion MacArthur was soon inspecting the situation for himself instructing his pilot to take him on a risky flight along the Yalu River.

Answer: All of them

These moves, he said would remove China's ability to wage aggressive war and assure victory in Korea. The alternative would be a retreat to Pusan and a probable evacuation of the peninsular. Truman and the Joint Chiefs would not countenance such an expansion of the war and told MacArthur he would have to make do with the forces he had. With their prime concern for the defence of Western Europe they saw Korea as a diversion and any expansion of the conflict as 'the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time.' MacArthur could not accept this and began making public statements which undermined the official position. With his high public profile the Joint Chiefs were reluctant to rebuke their wayward general and Truman was privately seething with each pronouncement from the CINCFE which undermined his authority. Meanwhile the 8th Army was forced to withdraw down the peninsular in appalling winter conditions and Seoul fell again to the communists on Jan 4 1951. Tragically General Walker was killed in a jeep accident and his replacement Matthew Ridgeway soon proved himself to be as good a general as his commander-in-chief.

The line was stabilised when a renewed communist offensive spent itself against stiff resistance from the 8th Army and in March Seoul was retaken in a massive counter attack. With the opposing armies more or less back on the start line at the 38th parallel the UN resolution to unite Korea by force was quietly dropped and there was a growing mood to restore the 'status quo ante bellum.' This was anathema to MacArthur and all he stood for and his public statements became increasingly at variance with the official line.

Answer: Fired

MacArthur had earlier torpedoed proposals for a truce by stating that if the nation was not willing to win it should never have committed to the war in the first place. When he saw the way the administration were thinking he made a counter proposal that an armistice in place be sought with the enemy admitting they had been beaten, something which would have been intolerable to the Chinese.

When the Joint Chiefs suggested that MacArthur be allowed to resign Truman replied: "The son of a bitch isn't going to resign on me! I want him fired!" And so the axe fell. The Japanese people were deeply saddened by his removal as they respected the way he had governed them over the previous six years understanding his aloofness which was much criticised by others.

He and his family returned to his homeland for the first time in 14 years to rapturous applause from millions of well wishers. A few days later his farewell speech to a joint session of Congress is a classic. Opening his speech he said: "I am closing my fifty two years of military service." Then concluded: "But I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day, which proclaimed most proudly 'Old soldiers never die.

They just fade away'. And like the soldier of the ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away - an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty." Then a final hushed "Good-bye." There were audible sobs in the audience as he stepped from the podium and then thunderous applause. The ticker tape reception he received in New York a few days later was one of the greatest the city has ever given with cleanup crews removing 3 times the amount of ticker tape than for a similar reception for Dwight Eisenhower a few years before. Truman's assessment of the speech was that it was '100 per cent bullshit.'

Answer: General Dwight Eisenhower

Eisenhower had served under MacArthur when he was Governor of the Philippines and his rising star when he was nominated as the Republican candidate in the 1952 Presidential nomination was a sore point for the proud General. MacArthur had never openly stated any Presidential ambitions leaving go betweens to test the political waters.

He would have been wise to depart the public scene after his congressional address when his stock with the public was at its highest. However being who he was that was never going to happen and as he continued to attack official policy on Korea and defend his role in it, his popularity steadily declined with each attack.

When he gave the keynote address at the Republican convention a year later it was probably the worst he ever delivered.

When the nomination went to Eisenhower he knew his Presidential ambitions were over. Ike's rejoinder when asked if he had known MacArthur was: "Know him! I studied dramatics under him!"

Answer: 'Protector of Australia; Liberator of the Philippines; Conqueror of Japan; Defender of Korea'

President Kennedy had this medal minted in MacArthur's honour after he returned from a sentimental journey to the Philippines in 1961. As MacArthur's star waned in his homeland it remained undiminished in these Pacific countries whose destinies had been profoundly affected by his presence. During his discussions with President Kennedy and later President Johnson he urged them not to get involved in wars on the Asian mainland.

He died in 1964 and did not live to see the subsequent tragedy in Vietnam. One of his great regrets was that he was not invited to the signing of the Japanese Peace Treaty for which he had worked so long and hard to produce. On one occasion his old friend Carlos Romulo was being shown through President Truman's library in Independence when they passed a portrait of General MacArthur Truman said: "You know who that is; that's God.' Romulo replied: "Mr President there are millions of Filipinos who think he is just that."