A Japanese diplomat in a morning coat and top hat stepped onto the deck of USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, bracing for the worst humiliation....Then General Douglas MacArthur opened the ceremony. "It is my earnest hope, and indeed the hope of all mankind...

Nov 13, 2026 | NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯 @japan_nobunaga

[ransomnote]

NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯
@japan_nobunaga
·
10h
A Japanese diplomat in a morning coat and top hat stepped onto the deck of USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, bracing for the worst humiliation.

His name was Toshikazu Kase. He had passed the Japanese Foreign Service examination in 1925 and studied at Amherst and Harvard. He had been on duty at the Foreign Ministry on the weekend of Pearl Harbor, and had helped prepare the document breaking off negotiations with the United States. Now, on an American battleship, he was there to end the war.

It was Kase who had suggested the civilian delegation wear formal diplomatic attire of morning dress and top hats, because they were representing their sovereign. It was Kase who had drafted the English text of the document accepting the Potsdam Declaration.

With him was Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu. Thirteen years earlier in Shanghai, a bomb had taken Shigemitsu's right leg. He had walked on a wooden leg and a cane ever since. He had to be helped up the ladder. A photographer recalled that in the silence of the deck, you could hear the wooden leg.

Around the Missouri sat about 250 Allied vessels. More than 800 American aircraft were about to pass overhead.

Then General Douglas MacArthur opened the ceremony.

"It is my earnest hope, and indeed the hope of all mankind, that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past, a world founded upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance and justice."

He closed with: "Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world, and that God will preserve it always. These proceedings are closed."

Freedom. Tolerance. Justice.

Kase wrote in his 1950 book Journey to the Missouri that he had boarded expecting the worst humiliation, and that the victor's speech, asking for those three things instead of revenge, left him spellbound.

That same day, he wrote the report on the ceremony for the Emperor.

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TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: douglasmacarthur; japan; pacificwar; toshikazukase; ussmissouri; worldwarii

[gundog]

Even more concerning, considering the nature of their perceived enemy. Not a tyrant, or a mass murderer, but Charlie Kirk.

[ealgeone]

And General Slim as well. Nice move by the general.

[doc maverick]

“MacArthur would have saved us from the Chinese dominated world”
Yes, and from a Vietnam War too!

[Dr. Franklin]

General MacArthur has been slagged for years by leftists, and communists, and democrats. That includes FDR, and Truman. MacArthur would have saved us from the Chinese dominated world, where slanty eyed scheming Chinamen plot 7 days a week to destroy the United States.

JFK rehabilitated him, and took his advice not to escalate in Vietnam because American naval power couldn't cut the supply lines from China. Those who tried to convince him that Vietnam was winnable were told to first convince MacArthur that he was wrong, and then he would be convinced as well.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Yes, Chinamen are like ants in that way. That's why MacArthur wanted to nuke them.

[Grim]

Below are the names of the eleven members of the Japanese delegation to the surrender ceremony on board the USS Missouri and their fates after the war

On September 2, 1945, an 11-member Japanese delegation boarded the U.S. Navy battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay to formally sign the Instrument of Surrender, ending World War II.

The Japanese Delegation Members

The delegation consisted of two primary signers and nine accompanying representatives from the Foreign Ministry, the Imperial Japanese Army, and the Imperial Japanese Navy:

• Mamoru Shigemitsu – Foreign Minister, who signed on behalf of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese Government.

• General Yoshijirō Umezu – Chief of the Imperial Army General Staff, who signed on behalf of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters.

• Toshikazu Kase – Senior Foreign Ministry official and diplomat (who suggested the civilian delegates wear formal morning dress and top hats).

• Katsuo Okazaki – Foreign Ministry official.

• Major General Yatsuji Nagai – Imperial Japanese Army.

• Lieutenant General Suichi Miyazaki (or Shuichi Miyazaki) – Imperial Japanese Army.

• Colonel Kazuo Sugita – Imperial Japanese Army.

• Rear Admiral Tadatoshi Tomioka – Imperial Japanese Navy.

• Rear Admiral Ichiro Yokoyama – Imperial Japanese Navy.

• Captain Katsuo Shiba – Imperial Japanese Navy.

• Saburo Ota – Foreign Ministry official.

Fates After the War

• Mamoru Shigemitsu: Despite having worked to moderate militarist policies during parts of his career, he was arrested and tried as a Class-A war criminal by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1946 and was paroled in 1950. He later re-entered politics, serving as Japan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister (1954–1956), and helped guide Japan's entry into the United Nations before passing away from a heart ailment in 1957 at age 69.

• General Yoshijirō Umezu: Tried as a Class-A war criminal for his role in leading the Imperial Japanese Army, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 1948. He died of rectal cancer in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo on January 8, 1949, without ever admitting guilt.

• Toshikazu Kase: Continued working in the Foreign Ministry briefly before transitioning to journalism and writing. He later returned to government service, serving as Japan's first-ever Ambassador to the United Nations in 1955, followed by a posting as ambassador to Yugoslavia. He lived to age 101, passing away from heart failure in Kamakura in May 2004.

• Katsuo Okazaki: Entered post-war politics, winning election to the Japanese House of Representatives in 1949. He served as Chief Cabinet Secretary (1950–1952) and later as Foreign Minister of Japan (1952–1954), before later serving as a Japanese delegate to the United Nations. He died of a stomach ulcer in Tokyo in October 1965 at age 68.

• The Other Military and Diplomatic Afficionados: Most of the mid-to-upper-level officers and bureaucrats (such as Kase, Okazaki, and the naval/army staff officers) avoided major war-crimes prosecution, transitioned into the post-war Japanese bureaucracy, diplomacy, business, or public life as the country rebuilt under Allied occupation.

[Paal Gulli]

Why the Japanese Came to Love MacArthur, the General Who Defeated Them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmvxTDYRPN4

Mac probably was the only human who could have seen to it that the Japanese not only survived post-war reconstruction, but came to thrive under the nation that he created.

[Bonemaker]

Japan...and Germany...were eminently salvagable and worthy of rehabilitation. Moslem workd not.

[Bonemaker]

I’m sure you are proud of that one!👍

[sushiman]

Yes . Little did he know that someday his nephew would marry a Japanese woman and have not only a Japanese daughter but also 2 Japanese grandsons .

[GOPJ]

True.

[Chickensoup]

I saw that a teenager locally went supported by her mother to have a full back tattoo to celebrate her senior year.

17.

Mother was beside herself with pride.

[jocon307]

“It was smart to allow all Japanese leaders present to maintain a modicum of dignity...”

Of course, and there is nothing worse that a sore winner. I mean, we had just nuked their country twice, gloating in ANY WAY would have been 100% classless.

The Japs were dreadful, they brought their downfall on themselves.

MacArthur is eloquent here, G-d bless him for it. We must strive for the good, or what’s a Heaven for?

[WhoisAlanGreenspan?]

Good points by you.

[SunkenCiv]

👍

[WhoisAlanGreenspan?]

I went looking for "those dogs in the cartoons who have "bone" wallpaper" you mentioned. I seem to find myself following you somewhat often, Foolsball wise.

This is all I could find https://mrwallpaper.com/wallpapers/pompompurin-cute-logo-icons-hd-u5bupirv593ltc5g.html Got a link? I'm not a real cartoon guy.

[Bonemaker]

Yes indeed you are correct!😀

Anectotally, my otolaryngolist’s last name is TOJO! I love the guy...he is superb! He denies relationship but I still gently and good naturedly rib the guy once in awhile and he is cool with it!😀

[Dr. Sivana]

If you count stop-motion as a "cartoon", there is "Wallace and Gromit", where the devoted, hardworking, ingenious, competent dog serves his typical foolish English Master. Te picture shows the wallpaper in his room. When Wallace rents out Gromit's room to an evil penguin, the penguin changes the wallpaper design to fish, as he plans a diamond ("ice") heist. The evil penguin is constantly playing hockey organ music ("Tie a Yellow Ribbon"), and Gromit has to save the idiot Master from the penguin and his own stupidity.



Full animation here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJeYQL2oYmw

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

In November 1950, he ignored overwhelming evidence that the Chinese were planning to interview in force if U.S. forces approached the Yalu river. When his own field commanders reported heavy contact with Chinese forces in early November - with an entire battalion overrun - MacArthur still dismissed those reports as involving just "a few volunteers", and reiterated his orders for a rapid, but uncoordinated and haphazard advance north to the Yalu

Turns out, the PLA eventually managed to "sneak" 300,000 troops into North Korea, and they smashed into the wildly over-extended Eighth Army in late November. The nature of our advance meant that our army's eastern flank was completely exposed. The front in Western Korea basically collapsed, and we lost ever gain we had made after Inchon.

The First Marine Division in the eastern part of North Korea (North Korea is essentially divided by a large mountain plateau in the center) managed to hold together and fight their way out after being surrounded - the famous "Frozen Chosin" campaign. But one reason the Marines were able to make it out was that their Commanding General knew that MacArthur was full of sh*t, and so he directed a more deliberate advance in the last couple of days that left his units more concentrated when his one division was hit by six.

MacArthur's arrogance got a whole lot of Americans killed in Korea. As well as a lot of our South Korean, British, Turkish, and other allies. MacArthur's ego basically

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

In November 1950, he ignored overwhelming evidence that the Chinese were planning to interview in force if U.S. forces approached the Yalu river. When his own field commanders reported heavy contact with Chinese forces in early November - with an entire battalion overrun - MacArthur still dismissed those reports as involving just "a few volunteers", and reiterated his orders for a rapid, but uncoordinated and haphazard advance north to the Yalu

Turns out, the PLA eventually managed to "sneak" 300,000 troops into North Korea, and they smashed into the wildly over-extended Eighth Army in late November. The nature of our advance meant that our army's eastern flank was completely exposed. The front in Western Korea basically collapsed, and we lost ever gain we had made after Inchon.

The First Marine Division in the eastern part of North Korea (North Korea is essentially divided by a large mountain plateau in the center) managed to hold together and fight their way out after being surrounded - the famous "Frozen Chosin" campaign. But one reason the Marines were able to make it out was that their Commanding General knew that MacArthur was full of sh*t, and so he directed a more deliberate advance in the last couple of days that left his units more concentrated when his one division was hit by six.

MacArthur's arrogance got a whole lot of Americans killed in Korea. As well as a lot of our South Korean, British, Turkish, and other allies. MacArthur's ego basically