J.S.’s Reviews > Supreme Commander: MacArthur's Triumph in Japan > Status Update

[Shirō] Ishii, it was proved beyond doubt, was a sociopath... [H]is most blatant effort [at using biological weapons]--what he called "Cherry Blossoms at Night"-- ...would be a full-scale attack to bring America to its knees: Planes would attack San Diego with anthrax spores, sending the nation into a panic. The attack was schedule for September 22, 1945.
Before it could take place, America used the atom bomb...

MacArthur encouraged his soldiers to mingle and fraternize with the population, and to give chocolates to children. The Japanese people, surprised by such openness and friendliness, called them "the happy soldiers"... They were our best ambassadors, Mac said. [He] and his officials ran a tight ship, brooking no abuse or offense to Japanese dignity... there was to be no plundering of the country's artistic heritage.

Just as the militarists had used the emperor as their tool, so would MacArthur... "I don't trust the vermin," said Admiral Halsey of the emperor. MacArthur was willing to do so: it was part of his strategic game plan to overlook inconvenient truths in pursuit of long-term goals. If he was to lead a successful and peaceful occupation, he would need the emperor just as much as the emperor needed him.

[Many Japanese suspected homeland invasion was imminent] beginning with the March 9 raid on Tokyo by Gen. Jimmy Doolittle. It was the greatest single destruction in the history of warfare. Conventional bombs were used. In the ensuing firestorm, in just a few hours 84,000 people burned to death and 1 million were left wandering the streets... 15 square miles were totally destroyed.
*Very poorly worded!

At the critical moment when Germany formally surrendered, Eisenhower had performed the signing in a remote schoolhouse at 3 AM, observed by no one, allowing the defeated Germans to slink away in the dark of night. What a cop-out way to treat an enemy! What a moment of history missed! What's the point of history if the world can't see it? He, Douglas MacArthur, would show the world how to conduct a surrender.

(pg xvi) [MacArthur and the admirals] were stunned to learn that had there been no atom bomb and no invasion, just a blockade, within two months ten million Japanese might have starved to death [according to the Japanese minister of finance]... Even if the minister was wrong by a month or two, still, ten million of the enemy killed with no American casualties might have been a better way to bring the war to an end.