Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

88 • GENERAL HEADQUARTERS/SUPREME COMMANDER FOR THE ALLIED POWERS
On the one hand, as the former, MacArthur had to obey orders of the
Far Eastern Commission (FEC), established in February 1946, consisting
of 11 countries: the United States, Great Britain, China, the Soviet
Union, France, India, Netherlands, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, and the Philippines (Burma and Pakistan joined later in November
1949). Washington, D.C., hosted the FEC while it established
its local agency in Tokyo called the Allied Council for Japan (ACJ) in
April 1946. In theory, the FEC was the supreme policy decisionmaking
institution, the ACJ was a consultative agency for MacArthur,
and he was supreme commander to implement the FEC’s decisions;
however, in practice, things did not go as smoothly as the theory indicated.
The FEC had the authority of sending directives to MacArthur,
but because the United States, Great Britain, China, and the Soviet
Union held veto power, the FEC in reality did not function well. As a
way to break the stalemate, the United States took the advantage of its
authority of issuing “interim directive in case of emergency” to carry
out its occupation policy. On the other hand, as commander-in-chief
for AFPAC, MacArthur had to obey the directives from Washington.
This double commissions sometimes put MacArthur in an awkward
position; however, he, in reality, took advantage of his two assignments
to carry out occupation policies effectively.
GHQ/SCAP adopted indirect governance: to give directives and orders
to the Japanese government and let it carry out actual policies to
govern the Japanese people. Two primary purposes of GHQ/SCAP
were demilitarization and democratization. For this purpose,
GHQ/SCAP implemented a series of severe reforms, such as women’s
suffrage, enactment of labor union laws, educational system reform,
abolition of oppressive legal system, zaibatsu dissolution, agrarian
land reform, formulation of a new constitution, and more reforms.
On 25 June 1950, the Korean War broke out. As the war situation
went against the United Nations forces led by the U.S. forces when the
Chinese communist army entered the war in October 1950, General
MacArthur strongly demanded bombing China and even using atomic
bombs against China. His hawkish demands precipitated serious conflicts
with President Truman. The president finally relieved MacArthur
from command of SCAP on 11 April 1951. Lieutenant General
Matthew Bunker Ridgway succeeded MacArthur and assumed SCAP
on 16 April 1951. Ridgway was promoted to general in May 1951.