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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

empire, Douglas MacArthur, Japanese military, disarmament

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

History

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to establish the role of General Douglas MacArthur in the process of rearming Japan following World War II. My question was how MacArthur’s opinions regarding Japanese military evolved during his tenure as Supreme Commander for Allied Forces in the Pacific (SCAP) and head of the occupation of Japan. Documentary evidence demonstrated that MacArthur maintained a stance of permanent disarmament for Japan from 1945 to 1950. The most telling evidence of MacArthur’s interest in an unarmed Japan was his insistence that a no-war clause be included in the 1947-1948 revisions of the Japanese constitution. On July 8, 1950 MacArthur ordered Prime minister Yoshida Shigeru to begin rebuilding the Japanese military; although he subsequently qualified all of his previous statements about a permanently disarmed Japan by stating that he had never intended for Japan not to be able to defend itself, most historians of the period determine that the unexpected outbreak of the Korean War forced MacArthur to rearm Japan. Based on the timeline created by SCAP and State Department documents, I have determined that the Korean War, though it created a convenient excuse for rearming Japan, was not the effective cause in deciding General MacArthur to rearm Japan.

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