NOT DISTRUST, MALICE, OR HATRED BUT FREEDOM, TOLERANCE, JUSTICE
America's Policy In The Pacific ... Not Distrust, Malice, Or Hatred But Freedom, Tolerance, Justice By MILTON MAYER EDITOR'S NOTE: Here are some of the most significant passages from Gen. Douglas...
...Today, in Asia as well as in Europe, unshackled peoples are tasting the full sweetness of liberty, the relief from fear...
...It is my purpose to implement this commitment just as rapidly as the armed forces are demobilized and other essential steps taken to neutralize the war potential...
...And so, my fellow countrymen, today I report to you that your sons and daughters have served you well and faithfully with the calm, deliberate, determined fighting spirit of the American soldier and sailor based upon a tradition of historical trait, as against the fanaticism of an enemy supported only by mythological fiction...
...Even the lesson of victory itself brings with it profound concern, both for our future security and the survival of civilization...
...Today, freedom is on the offensive, democracy is on the march...
...Men since the beginning of time liave sought peace...
...As I look back on the long, tortuous trail from those grim days of Bataan and Corregidor, when an entire world lived in fear, when democracy was on the defensive everywhere, when modern civilization trembled in the balance, I thank a merciful God that He has given us the faith, the courage and the power from which to mold victory...
...We have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph, and from both we have learned there can be no turning back...
...But rather it is for us, both victors and vanquished, to rise to that higher dignity which alone benefits the sacred purposes we are about to serve, committing all of our peoples unreservedly to faithful compliance with the undertakings they are here formally to assume...
...WE are gathered here, representative of...
...A new era is upon us...
...Douglas MacArthur's historic addresses aboard the U.S.S...
...As supreme commander for the Allied pow- ers, I announce it my firm purpose, in the tradition of the countries I represent, to proceed in the discharge of my responsibilities with justice and tolerance, while taking all necessary dispositions to insure that the terms of surrender are fully, promptly and faithfully complied with...
...They are homeward bound—take care of them...
...Missouri, when Japan formally surrendered...
...We stand in Tokyo today reminiscent of our countryman, Commodore Perry, 92 years ago...
...The issues, involving divergent ideals and ideologies, have been determined on the battlefields of the world and hence are not for our discussion or debate...
...To the Pacific basin has come the vista of a new emancipated world...
...Nor is it for us here to meet, representing as we do a majority of the peoples of the earth, in a spirit of distrust, malice or hatred...
...We are committed by the Potsdam Declaration of Principles to see that the Japanese people are liberated from this condition of slavery...
...Their spiritual strength and power has brought us through to victory...
...The history of our sovereignty there has now the full confidence of the east...
...The energy of the Japanese race, if properly directed, will enable expansion vertically rather than horizontally...
...Military alliance, balances of power, Leagues of Nations all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war...
...His purpose was to bring to Japan an era of enlightenment and progress by lifting the veil of isolation to the friendship, trade and commerce of the world...
...The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advance in science, art, literature and all material and cultural developments of the past 2,000 years...
...We must go forward to preserve in peace what we won in war...
...In the Philippines, America has evolved a model for this new free world of Asia...
...the major warring powers, to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored...
...If the talents of the race are turned into constructive channels the country can lift itself from its preseyit deplorable state into a position of dignity...
...In the Philippines, America has demonstrated that peoples of the east and peoples of the west may walk side by side in mutual respect and with mutual benefit...
...But alas the knowledge thereby gained of Western science was forged into an instrument of oppression and human enslavement...
...Freedom of expression, freedom of action, even freedom of thought were denied through suppression of liberal education, through appeal to superstition and through the application of force...
...Various methods through the ages have attempted to devise an international process to prevent or settle disputes between nations...
...The utter destructiveness of war now blots out this alternative...
...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...
...It must be of the spirit, if we are to save the flesh...
...We have had our last chance...
...From the very start, workable methods were found in so far as individual citizens were concerned but the mechanics of an instrumentality of larger international scope have never been successfid...
...If we do not now devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door...
...The destructiveness of the war potential, through progressive advances in scientific discovery, has in fact now reached a point which revises the traditional concept of war...
Vol. 9 • October 1945 • No. 37
