Carrier Deck Becomes ‘Altar of Peace’

On Veteran’s Day it is good to remember the old adage that “peace has her victories as much as war” and that often those who saw the worst fighting are the most reluctant to talk about it.

On September 2, 1945 General Douglas MacArthur was given his last assignment of World War Two – to conduct the surrender ceremonies of the defeated Japanese on the deck of the USS Missouri, now a historical museum at Pearl Harbor. MacArthur said later “I was on my own, standing on the quarterdeck with only God and my own conscience to guide me.” But of course he had already decided what attitude to take toward his beaten foe with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki fresh on everyone’s mind.

William Manchester skillfully recounts that moment on the Missouri. MacArthur’s hand trembled slightly as he held a single sheet of paper before him. The beaten Japanese peered almost fearfully back at him amid the leading military representatives present.

“We are gathered here to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored,” he began. “Today the guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended. The skies no longer rain death – the seas bear only commerce. The entire world is quietly at peace.”

These words of course were striking for their neutrality. Though a great victory had been won, the war was still a tragedy.

“It would be inappropriate,” MacArthur continued, “to meet in a spirit of mistrust, malice or hatred.” Instead both the conquerors and the conquered must rise “to that higher dignity which alone befits the sacred purpose we are to serve.” It must be the earnest hope that “a better world shall emerge…one founded upon faith and understanding.”

Manchester recorded the reaction of the beaten Japanese. General Nagai marveled at MacArthur’s mellifluous, sonorous voice and admired their mighty foe’s graceful military bearing. Representative Tomoika was struck by the General’s lack of vindictiveness. His colleague Kase was enraptured. It was going to be all right, he concluded to himself. He thought: “What stirring eloquence and what a noble vision! Here is a victor announcing the verdict to the prostrate enemy. He can exact his pound of flesh if he so chooses. He can impose a humiliating penalty. And yet he pleads for freedom, tolerance, and justice. For me, who expected the worst humiliation, this was a complete surprise. I was thrilled beyond words, spellbound, thunderstruck. For the living heroes and dead martyrs of the war this speech was a wreath of dying flowers.”

It seemed to Kase that MacArthur’s words “sailed on wings” and “this narrow quarterdeck was now transformed into an altar of peace.”

Small wonder that when MacArthur left Japan in 1951 he left as a friend. Two million people lined the streets to see him go.