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JAPAN AND AMERICA, c1930-1955
THE PACIFIC WAR AND THE OCCUPATION OF JAPAN
Series One: The Papers of General Robert L Eichelberger (1886-1961) from the William R Perkins Library, Duke University

Part 2: Subject Files on Japan and Diaries (Boxes 54-65 and Boxes 1-4)

Part 2 covers material on events in Japan, providing monthly non-military summaries, files on the political reorganization of Japan 1947-1949, public health and welfare reports, 1945-1949, industrial reparations and Eisenhower's inspection of Kobe Base in May 1946. There is also files on the Sorge spy reports and material on Korea as well as Eichelberger's diaries from Boxes 1-4 of the collection. The diaries for 1940-1951 are very detailed and contain substantial daily entries. The following are several examples:

Diary: 20 August 1945
"I attended a meeting of the general Officer Readjustment Board from 1000 to 1230 and from 1300 to 1700 today. General Brown reported at breakfast concerning the interrogations of the evening before. He reported the Japanese delegation consisted of 3 Army, 2 Navy and 3 Air Corps officers, the remainder of the 15-man group being held in a room at City Hall and not being interrogated...They wore ill fitting, heavy uniforms, ribbons without medals, and apparently were entirely unknown to each other. The envoys were introduced to their interrogators by Gen. Willoughby, who weighed in at about 220 and is 6' 3" in his stocking feet, making a fine contrast. The MP's guarding them were also a selected group of better than average size soldiers. Many of my predictions were borne out in the testimony . To wit, Tokyo, in the words of one Jap who spoke some English, was "shot to hell". Part of the Sagami Wan coast has been battered badly. The area into which it has been divided to take the SCAP and other higher headquarters; i.e., Kamakura, is 80% intact. The Jap soldier is not fully sold on the surrender. The Japanese claimed they were not prepared to discuss the surrender in detail but were under the impression their presence was merely to arrange an armistice. They have asked that the task of disarming the Japanese armies be left in their hands. Their attitude is definitely not one of a defeated nation but they regard the defeat as a setback and nothing more...."

Diary: 18 March 1947
"Attended regular Tuesday morning conference. The great interest of the day was the press release given out by General MacArthur (pictured above) stating that the time had now arrived to make peace with the Japanese and send the Army home. This is a bit different from what he has told me which was that the minimum time would be 3 years. I do not know what has caused him to change his mind. I imagine this release will attract a lot of attention all over the world. He wants to turn Japan over to the United Nations although insofar as I know United Nations is still a debating society. Read official papers last night for many hours..."

Diary: 28 January 1947

"Tuesday - Hard day all day. Lots of visitors including Mr. Butler and Mrs. Flannagan of the Red Cross who wanted to discuss the present situation with regard to volunteer workers. Did not get through with this discussion. Mr. Suzuki brought in a Japanese named Aba who is supposed to be in charge of construction for the Japanese. Gave me a carbon copy of a letter which he had urging that the American forces cut their expenditures down as far as possible during the year 1947. The whole thing hit me wrong and I gave him h- - -. I told him that I was satisfied with the present situation with reference to hotels, golf courses, clubs, etc. That no more would be authorized; that troop housing and dependent housing would be on the downgrade before the end of 1947. I asked him to ponder for a moment on a reversed situation and reminded him that if they had won the war and were holding San Francisco or Washington or New York that we would be in much worse position than the Japanese are now. That I didn't think that we had fixed our conquering troops up too well and that if the Japanese would control the bosses of the Gumi Company who charge anywhere from 2 to 10 times too much that their expenses would be a whole lot less.

Shortly after, Robbie arrived and I gave him a bit of h- - - now and then. He claimed that we had turned him down for hotels at Atami but his own Hindu officer with him pointed out that this was not true. He also tried to indicate that we had stopped construction on Gloucester house at Kobe. I told him that I thought he would find out that his own Colonel Roberts was the one who turned that down - not Eighth Army. It is very evident that they have taken our stock order on procurement more seriously than we intended and Clovis will straighten this out. He was present at my procurement conference and knows that I intended that emergency work would go on. He told me that he thought we should take their Pds on a governmental level.

I agreed completely with him and I told him further that I had no personal pride in our personal relations with BCOF. When he said that General MacArthur was anxious that BCOF not reduce their air I was amazed since his orders as read to me the other day in the presence of Byers does not allow BCOF planes to be used outside of their area and then just only for the control and handling of Japanese.

I did tell him that his orders contained one point with which I was in favor and that was the one preventing his troops from jumping on me if I were fighting some enemy such as the Chinese Communists or Russia. I pointed out to him that our hotel system had been prepared on our own initiative and had been intended for use as allied hotels. That we had fed men from BCOF with the rations from these hotels for some weeks after we had been told to go on a dollar basis which BCOF didn't own.

Rushed from this conference with Robbie to Tokyo for luncheon with the MacArthurs' given in honor of Sir Richard O'Connor the #2 man (Adjutant General) of British Forces in London. A fine little chap. He expressed pleasure in meeting me since he had wanted particularly to do so as he had heard a lot of fine things about me from a few of his friends. I sat on Jean's left and he was on her right...."

The files on the Occupation of Japan complement the detailed information recorded in Eichelberger's diary for this period. There are field orders and SCAP documents but some of the more interesting material is to be found in his voluminous personal files on social and economic conditions in Japan.

Essays, memoranda, articles and background studies, 1945-1949, include:

 - Chronology of the Occupation, 15 August 1945 - 31 March 1946
 - Memoranda on Japan - Japanese people - Yoshida, Shidehara, the Emperor
 - Progress Report, 2 April 1946 - 2 October 1946 (SCAP Natural Resources Section, Tokyo, Japan)
 - Questions and Answers Concerning the Functions of the Staff Sections of HQ IX Corps
 - Operation of the Eighth Army
 - Civil Liberties in Japan
 - the Press Code for Japan
 - Gist of remarks of Mr Anderson (CI & E Officer, military government section, HQ I Corps)
 - Comments on Roger Baldwin's Criticisms
 - Balance Sheet of the Occupation of Japan
 - Important Japanese Imports for 1947
 - Japanese Return to Shinto Customs
 - Teachers IN-Service Radio Programs
 - Return of Provost Court Cases to Japanese Courts
 - Colonial Club of Yokohama
 - MacArthur's 6-Year Plan for Japan's Rehabilitation
 - Resum of Recommendations of the Report on Japanese Policy by the American Council of Japan
 - Occupation of Japan (25pp)
 - Memoranda on arrival in Japan
 - Japan as a Future Friend
 - Our Soldiers in the Occupation
 - MacArthur's Claim to Greatness
 - The Amphibious Eighth by R.L.E. (3000 words)



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