Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur (January 26, 1880 - April 5, 1964) was an American general. He served in three wars (World War I, World War II, and the Korean War), played a prominent role in the Pacific Theater of World War II, oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945-1951, and lead United Nations forces in the defense of South Korea from North Korea until he was relieved by President Harry Truman in 1951, a move that proved controversial for the beleaguered president.

Douglas MacArthur in "News From the Front"
It was reported by The New Yorker that, even though General Douglas MacArthur knew Japan had attacked Hawaii, American planes in the Philippines were still on the ground when Japan attacked there next.

Many in the American media (including the San Francisco Chronicle) thought MacArthur's promise to return to the Philippines leading a counter-attack was a hollow one. The press also called into question President Franklin D. Roosevelt's hope that MacArthur would lead an invasion to retake the Philippines.

Douglas MacArthur in Days of Infamy
Mitsuo Fuchida thought about General Douglas MacArthur as he contemplated the rumors of the American fighters being caught on the ground in the Philippines. He remembered that people had said that MacArthur was supposed to be a good commander, but Fuchida concluded that if he'd ever been caught by surprise like MacArthur had been, he would've commited seppuku.

Douglas MacArthur in The War That Came Early
In the winter of 1940, Douglas MacArthur returned to the United States Army as general after a stint in the Filipino army as a field marshal. He was in command when Japan attacked in January, 1941. MacArthur publically announced "We shall prevail."

However, MacArthur was killed in a bombing raid that spring, and the Philippines fell to the Japanese in short order.

Douglas MacArthur in Joe Steele
Douglas MacArthur was one of the few senior officers that President Joe Steele hadn't purged in the 1930s. With war breaking out in Europe and continuing into 1941, MacArthur was in the Philippines helping the natives build up an army. Meantime, the Empire of Japan were taking parts of China and northern Indochina. This threatened the Philippines so Steele imposed an oil and scrap metal embargo along with freezing Japanese assets in the U.S. to put pressure on them to stop their aggressions.

The Japanese attempted to negotiate but refused to back down when Steele demanded they leave China. Instead, they launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and invasion of the Philippines and British Malaya. A day later, they surprised MacArthur by bombing his aircraft on the ground at Clark Field outside Manila. MacArthur followed doctrine and had his garrison and Filipino forces retreat to the Bataan Peninsula to deny the Japanese the use of the Manila harbor. Unfortunately, the attack on Pearl Harbor damaged and sank too many U.S. ships preventing MacArthur's forces being relieved which was also part of the planning.

Steele was displeased with MacArthur and tried to get him to return to the U.S. ostensibly to be given a new command. MacArthur refused, claiming he wished to face the same fate as his soldiers. Eventually Steele had General George Marshall ordered him to return. MacArthur did so via a PT boat pick-up and then a B-17 to Honolulu. From there he flew to San Diego and then traveled by train to Washington, DC. He was arrested at the train station by Captain Lawrence Livermore, faced a military tribunal and convicted of negligence and incompetence and then executed. Unlike others, MacArthur didn't appeal his sentence.

Literary Comment
In the short story, Douglas MacArthur (1880-1942) had already made President Joe Steele suspicious with his flamboyance. When MacArthur fled the Philippines in the face of Japanese invasion, Steele had him tried and executed for treason.