THE SURRENDER: Job for an Emperor

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Washington and Manila were in a fantastic tizzy. Some celestial observer, watching the frantic fumblings of the victors and the rise of a new Government in Tokyo (see FOREIGN NEWS), might have thought that the Japs had dropped an atomic bomb on the U.S. Said a topflight U.S. admiral: "Here we had things neatly laid out and the war was going fine—then the damned Japs surrender and throw us into a hell of a stew."

Both the stew and the task of occupation were without precedent. The U.S. and her Allies simply were not ready for sudden victory, and most of the alarums and troubles stemmed from that fact.

At best, the task would be a huge one. In the 1,200 years since Japanese history emerged from the mists of legend, the islands had not been occupied by conquerors from overseas. The problem was no less novel for the victors: never before had any power or alliance of powers been confronted with so great a victory without invasion. Beaten to her knees by air power and sea power—for which Allied ground forces had seized the bases—Japan still had 2,500,000 or more undefeated troops on her own soil, almost as many more on the soil of her conquerors, and a military spirit undimmed by all the woes of war.

To enter and occupy such a country, the Allies had need of a man with great experience, great gifts and well-nigh infinite wisdom. Weeks before the actual problem arose, they had chosen General of the Army Douglas MacArthur.

This week, in Manila, members of MacArthur's staff received, with icy dignity, the first envoys of surrendered Japan. There were still irksome details to be settled and irritating delays to be overcome, but soon the Allies would make a great show of force: the first occupiers of Japan would go ashore in strength, from combat-loaded attack transports, under the great guns of the fleet and with clouds of carrier aircraft standing by—just in case.

The Man. The choice of MacArthur was one point on which there was near-instant unanimity both within the U.S. and within the grand alliance. The Russians denied that they had opposed his selection; Britain and China were content; when even the U.S. Navy admitted that he was the man for the job, there could be no further argument.

It was not that the forces under his command had made the greatest direct contribution to the defeat of Japan. That distinction belonged rather to men of all services who had fought under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, and to the strategic bombers of the Twentieth (B29) Air Force. But the occupation command fell naturally to the top field commander in the theater—providing he had the qualifications for the job.

MacArthur had the qualifications. As a young man, he had seen Japan in the flush of its victory (1905) over decadent Tsarist Russia. He had studied the Jap military machine and its methods. He had seen something of the Orient when he was an aide to his roving father, Lieut. General Arthur MacArthur.