Supreme Commander

This audio version of Morris's history of General Douglas MacArthur's virtual dictatorship over Japan following WWII exceeds its text, and most other versions of this story, in particular the lame rendition in the recent film "The Emperor." Morris is a fine researcher but a somewhat plodding writer, and Charles Constant's steady delivery carries his text through its inevitable dry patches. The story is complicated, full of legal and historical niceties, and its protagonist is larger-than-life and greatly flawed but in many ways an admirable figure. Constant holds together these somewhat disparate and contradictory elements and delivers a narrative that is rewarding both as a character study and a reconstruction of a vital period in twentieth-century history. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

February 10, 2014
Businessman and historian Morris (American History Revised) argues that success of the occupation of Japan after WWII was primarily due to the enlightened leadership of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the only American to ever receive the “majestic title” of “Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.” Mostly derived from first person accounts and secondary sources, Morris examines all of the major achievements of the occupation including MacArthur’s triumphant arrival in Tokyo, his first meeting with the Emperor, the forging of the Japanese Constitution, the Japanese war crimes trials, and the shift in U.S. policy toward economic revival. He analyzes events from the perspective of MacArthur’s decision making and concludes that MacArthur’s actions were most impressive for their effectiveness, stating that “for his performance in Japan, Douglas MacArthur rates a seat of honor.” The book also addresses MacArthur’s personal flaws, most notably his incredible ego and the general disdain he held for—and which was reciprocated by—most of his contemporaries. The conclusion reached is that MacArthur’s successes are that much more incredible because they were accomplished despite his abrasive personality. Morris has produced not just a good general history of the occupation, but a powerful argument that MacArthur continues to warrant his place as one of the great generals in American history.

March 15, 2014

Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) continues to intrigue historians. While Mark Perry (see review below) traces MacArthur's career from 1932 through World War II, Morris (American History Revised), a businessman-turned- historian, looks extensively at secondary sources to examine the general's tenure as supreme commander for the allied powers in Japan from 1945 to 1951. Morris accessibly shows how MacArthur managed to implement a number of reforms in postwar Japan, including a new constitution, land reform, and giving women the right to vote, while at the same time encouraging Japan to disarm peacefully and formally renounce any future war plans. By keeping in place the highly respected Emperor Hirohito, he was able to effect a relatively smooth transition to peacetime, creating an economic environment that would make Japan a powerful force by the end of the century. Morris shows that while MacArthur has been rightfully honored for his leadership of American forces in the Pacific during World War II, his performance in leading Japan from war to peace should be considered one of his finest accomplishments and one from which we could have learned more. VERDICT A well-crafted history of an underappreciated aspect of MacArthur's career. Recommended for students of the postwar era.--Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2014
An unabashedly admiring reappraisal of Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) as supreme protector of a great fallen nation at the close of World War II. Publishing around the same time as Mark Perry's The Most Dangerous Man in America (2014), the pursuit of the many lives of the five-star general continues in this enthusiastic breakdown of MacArthur's wildly successful five-year occupation of defeated Japan, a model to be followed and studied. Author and entrepreneur Morris (American History Revised: 200 Startling Facts that Never Made It into the Textbooks, 2010) believes the record regarding MacArthur's administrative coup in helping Japan recover needs elucidation, from his initial decision to arrive in Japan unarmed for the surrender ceremony of Sept. 2, 1945, to his insistence on sparing Emperor Hirohito to his radical push for emancipating Japanese women. Above all, MacArthur was a keen student of history and modeled his magnanimity toward the vanquished Japanese on Gen. Ulysses Grant's honorable treatment of Gen. Robert E. Lee, among other examples, hoping to gain trust in his new charges rather than instill fear and provoke alarm from reactionary elements. Hence his highly controversial decision to keep the emperor in power, although he was stripped of his godlike status: MacArthur recognized that the emperor could help "bring about a spiritual transformation of the Japanese people." Moving swiftly as supreme commander on the orders of President Harry S. Truman yet with powers so vast that he was able to operate over the heads of the War Department, the general brought food to the starving people, neutralized the Japanese military, repatriated millions of Japanese troops and civilians, instituted land reform, kept the Russians at bay and implemented the "Nuremberg of the East" trials. Most astonishing was how MacArthur's wily team managed to rewrite the Japanese Constitution--with codification of more sweeping rights for women than in any other country except Russia. A gung-ho, breezily entertaining study for lay readers.

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