VA -- Norfolk -- General Douglas MacArthur Memorial:
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- MAC_051001_007.JPG: Old City Hall and Courthouse, 1850
When Norfolk became an independent city in 1845, space was needed to accommodate municipal functions. This Classic Revival building was begun in 1847 and completed in 1850 as Norfolk's City Hall and Courthouse. The architect was William Singleton, a Portsmouth native then practicing in St. Louis. He was assisted, particularly in the design of the dome, by Thomas Ustick Walter, a Philadelphia architect who designed the dome of the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
On the steps of this building, Mayor Lamb surrendered the City of Norfolk to Union General John E. Wool on May 10, 1862. City offices occupied the building until they were relocated in 1918. Court use continued until 1960. The interior of the building was then completely reconstructed as a memorial, containing a historical museum dedicated to General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964). The General chose Norfolk as his final resting place because his mother, Mary Pinkney Hardy, was born and raised in the Berkley neighborhood of the city. General MacArthur died in April 1964.
- MAC_051001_036.JPG: The MacArthur tombs are in the center of the building
- MAC_051001_091.JPG: Douglas MacArthur's footlocker
- MAC_051001_188.JPG: A copy of the surrender documents from the USS Missouri ceremony
- MAC_051001_204.JPG: The swords are Tojo's
- MAC_051001_207.JPG: At one point, Tojo tried to commit suicide to avoid his trial under the Americans. This display shows the actual bullet that he shot at himself.
- MAC_051001_214.JPG: Tojo's pistol
- MAC_051001_223.JPG: Gifts presented to MacArthur while military governor of Japan after the war. The American Caesar, the exhibit mentions "though far from always being beneficial, U.S. influences on occupied Japan are many."
- MAC_051001_235.JPG: A jade vase from Korea
- MAC_051001_274.JPG: There's a case describing MacArthur's Masonic background. He became a 33rd degree Mason in 1947. He reintroduced Masonry to Japan during the occupation.
- MAC_051001_298.JPG: The exhibit deals a bit with the Korean War, including the background into the conflict and issues like the integration of the armed forces and the treatment of prisoners of war.
MacArthur was relieved of command of the UN forces there in 1951. This sign presents his side of the story.
Some background on the Korean War:
Phase One: South to Naktong:
After the massive mobilization for World War II, the United States record sized armed forces were of course cut back. They were 95 percent down by 1950. Many (including the display) say this contributed to America's non-preparedness before the Korean War but demobilizing the large armies required to fight a long-term multi-front war like World War II was inevitable.
Throughout 1949, North and South Korea conduct raids across the 38th parallel. As the Truman Administration informs Syngman Rhee [that] the United States will not support an unprovoked invasion of North Korea, the Soviet Union and Communist China approve Kim Il Sung's plan to invade South Korea. The invasion happens on June 25, 1950 (Tokyo time). By the end of the month, the North conquered Seoul and are driving the South toward Pusan. On June 26, President Truman decided that the invasion must be stopped, ordering the U.S. Navy and Air Force to aid South Korean forces. On June 27, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution condemning the invasion and calling for armed intervention by member states. The Soviet Union is boycotting the U.N. at the time so it's unable to veto the resolution. Truman, executive agent for the UN in Korea, named 70-year-old MacArthur as Command in Chief, United Nations Command on July 8.
Phase Two: Pusan to Inchon:
On June 29, 1950, MacArthur flies to Korea to inspect the retreating South army (ROK). He determines to slow the North's advance and build a strong defensive perimeter around Pusan while planning for an amphibious assault deep behind enemy lines to envelope the enemy, cut off their supplies, and create a quick and decisive victory. He selected Inchon, Seoul's port city, as the target for the assault. Despite major objections, the landing is made on
Phase Three: North to Yalu:
Following the sweeping success of Inchon, the UN ordered MacArthur's forces across the 38th Parallel. October 1950 is a time of great optimism. Truman came up to Wake Island to meet with MacArthur on October 15. The Wake Island Conference is viewed by critics as a Truman political junket. The one-day conference spends a limited time on a vast array of issues. When asked about Chinese intervention in the war, MacArthur dispels the possibility.
By mid-October, UN forces encounter elements of Chinese forces in North Korea. The JCS proposes, but does not order, that MacArthur slow his advance and take caution. MacArthur, not believing that the Chinese will intervene, continues to push his forces north.
On November 25, MacArthur's massive offensive is brought to a half. 300,000 Chinese Communist forces are unleashed on the spread out fores of Walker's Eighth Army and Almond's X Corps. ROK units are annihilated. US and other Allied forces buckle and then retreat. Elements of the 1st Marine Division, surrounded in the Chosen reservoir region, fight their way to safety and evacuation at the port on Hungnam.
After the Chinese intervention happens, MacArthur believed the US must recognize China as the enemy. He proposes blockading the Chinese coast and bombing bases and supply routes to China and Manchuria. Truman, however, has global concerns and does not want the Korean conflict to escalate into World War III.
The U.N. policy shifts once again, this time the aim begin the status quo antebellum. MacArthur disagrees with the policy and states his views publicly. Truman responds by placing a "gag order" on MacArthur. All the General's statements will have to be cleared with Washington.
On December 24, 1950, US Eighth Army commander Walker is killed in a Jeep accident. World War II airborne commander Lt. General Matthew Ridgway is chosen as his replacement. A tough fighter, Ridgway halts the Eighth Army retreat and stops the Chinese Communist advance south of Seoul. In spring 1951, Ridgway launches a series of limited offensives that drive the communists north of the 38th parallel.
MacArthur sees continued casualties with no possibility of victory as ludicrous. Thought strapped with a "gag order," he continues to speak out.
On April 8, 1851, a personal letter by MacArthur criticizing the administration's policy in Asia is read on the House floor by a Republican Congressman. It is the last in a series of confrontations and Truman relieves MacArthur on April 11. He learns of his relief by Truman from a radio broadcast.
Phase Four: Stalemate:
While it is often called the "Forgotten War," nearly six million American men and women served in the armed forces during the Korean War.
After MacArthur was relieved, General Ridgway took over the UN command. General James Van Fleet took command of the US Eighth Army.
In May 1951, President Truman issues new orders to Ridgway on the objectives of the Korean War. Ridgway is to inflict maximum casualties on the communist forces, but not reunite the peninsula.
In June 1951, the war stalemates along a line just north of the 38th Parallel. For the next two years, communist and UN forces fight a series of bloody battles over the hills and valleys of Korea while peace talks are conducted at Kaesong and Panmunjom.
The issues are resolved by the establishment of a demarcation line, provisions for a cease-fire and armistice, and arrangements relating to Prisoners of War. The armistice is signed July 27, 1953.
- MAC_051001_300.JPG: While this sign presents Truman's side of the conflict. "General MacArthur had, as he had in previous wars, displayed splendid leadership. But I wanted him to accept, as a soldier should, the political decisions which the civil authorities of the government had agreed upon. (MacArthur's statement on March 24, 1951) was an act totally disregarding all directives to abstain from any declarations on foreign policy. It was in open defiance of my orders as President and as Command in Chief. This was a challenge to the authority of the President under the Constitution. It also flouted the policy of the United Nations. Policies are made by the elected politicians, not the generals or admirals. ..."
- MAC_051001_312.JPG: MacArthur was asked to address a joint session of Congress after he was fired. MacArthur hoped to be nominated as dark horse President in 1952 but that never happened, Eisenhower winning instead.
- MAC_051001_325.JPG: Various relics from his death on April 5, 1964 including the flag from his casket and a trumpet playing "Taps" for it.
- MAC_051001_350.JPG: His desk
- MAC_051001_363.JPG: His hat, pipe, and sunglasses, which defined many of the images of him
- MAC_051001_388.JPG: His Presidential Medal of Freedom
- MAC_051001_395.JPG: Columbia made a gold record of MacArthur's speech to Congress
- MAC_051001_421.JPG: MacArthur's 1950 Chrysler Crown Imperial Limousine, used by MacArthur in Tokyo 1950-51.
MacArthur's daily itinerary remained remarkably the same... consisting of short drives to and from the embassy and his headquarters. Four times a day, seven days a week, including American and Japanese holidays, Japanese policemen manually switched all traffic lights in his path to green as his black sedan approached. Having spent several hours in the early morning studying messages and documents, ... he went to his Dai Ichi office about 10:30 or 11:00 am, returned to the embassy at 1:30 or 2:0, often to host a luncheon for visiting dignitaries, followed by a long nap, and went back to his headquarters about 4:00 PM, staying there until 8:00 or later in the evening. His arrivals and departures at the Dai Ichi Building, reported a Japanese newspaper in November 1945, attracted "large crowds"...
-- from "The Years of MacArthur, Volume III: Triumph and Disaster 1945-1964, by D. Clayton James.
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- Description of Subject Matter: Douglas MacArthur, a controversial American military figure, attended West Point, following a military tradition established by his father, Arthur MacArthur, who fought with distinction in the Civil War. Douglas fought alongside the Philippines in the Spanish-American War. He served in World War I, twice being injured by German gas during attacks from the trenches. After the war, he became Chief of Staff, in which capacity he put down the peaceful Bonus Army marchers in Washington DC in a largely unwarranted action. Afterward, as the war with Japan loomed, he was sent back to the Philippines to firm up their army. Pearl Harbor happened sooner than expected and the Japanese invaded the Philippines. MacArthur was ordered to go to Australia, leaving Corregidor to surrender under General Wainwright. Douglas commanded the actions which eventually led to the retaking of the Philippines and then, after the atomic bomb ended the war, he became the military governor of Japan, bringing it into the western sphere.
It's during the Korean War that he became more controversial. He was appointed as the head of the United Nations forces there after the North Koreans attacked in 1950. He planned the brilliant landing at Inchon Harbor that sent the North Koreans reeling. He kept pushing them northward toward the Chinese border despite some rumblings from the Chinese about them seeing this as an act of aggression against them. Finally, the Chinese invaded, pushing the UN forces back through Seoul before the war resolved into a stalemate. MacArthur kept pushing for an invasion of China, Truman didn't want the war widened. Finally, Truman fired MacArthur.
MacArthur came back to a hero's welcome and addressed a joint session of Congress. He worked to get himself put on the Republican ticket in 1952 as a darkhorse candidate but that didn't work and Eisenhower was elected instead.
Still a man of ego, he advised Presidents (including apparently telling Kennedy and Johnson that Vietnam was probably unwinable) while he planned his own memorial. When he died in 1964, he was buried in the old City Hall building in Norfolk, which was converted to a museum to his efforts and those of the armed forces. It's a reasonably well-balanced presentation of his life which surprised me. Very nicely done!
The memorial also spends a fair amount of time discussing Douglas' father, Arthur MacArthur, who was also a West Point graduate and served as a brigadier general in the Spanish-American War in 1898, later becoming U.S. military governor of the Philippines. The displays clearly label this as imperialism, pointing out that the United States promised independence to the Filipinos are then reneged, losing more troops suppressing the Filipinos than we had lost in the entire war against Spain.
Arthur lost his post in 1901 in a conflict with the civilian Governor William H. Taft. In 1906, Arthur was promoted to Lieutenant General (the highest rank in the Army) in 1906 but Taft was then Secretary of War and Arthur realized he would never become Chief of Staff. He retired shortly after Taft was elected President and then die in 1912. By this time, his son had already begun on his military career.
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