The Riddle of MacArthur Hardcover – January 1, 1951
by John Gunther (Author)
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 2 ratings
240 pages
January 1, 1951
Publisher : Harper & Row; None Stated edition (January 1, 1951)
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John Gunther went to the Far hast just before the Korean war broke out and was there when General MacArthur launched United Nations military inter¬ vention on the mainland of Asia. Here he has drawn a penetrating portrait of Mac¬ Arthur which illuminates not only the problems arising from the recent campaign but many wider issues in Asia.
Since MacArthur became Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers he has deliberately fashioned himself into a fabulous figure; he rules Tokyo like an emperor, though he has seen practically nothing of the city except the route from his residence to his office. The General talked at length to Mr. Gunther, who had ample opportunity to form his own conclusions about how far the MacArthur of fact differs from the MacArthur of legend, to what extent symbol and reality conflict and what the effect is upon a brilliant fighting man of being treated for so long with the kind of deference normally reserved for a god.
The background of the picture is equally absorbing. Mr. Gunther had an audience with the Emperor and Empress and met all kinds of Japanese from members of the Diet to shopkeepers and students. He interviewed MacArthur’s technical ad¬ visors and studied the effects of the sweep¬ ing new agrarian and electoral reforms, in¬ cluding the enfranchisement of women, which the Americans have imposed.
As his Inside Asia demonstrated, his own understanding of pre-war Japan was. considerable. Here, with his usual wealth of excitingly vivid detail, he shows us what the Japanese of to-day think about Americans, about Communists and about i the future; he so analyses MacArthur as to : make him a comprehensible, if not an altogether sympathetic, figure and finally examines the effect of recent events upon the Far Fast situation as a whole.
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by John Gunther
Harper, $2.75.
Mr. Gunther doesn’t come near to resolving the set of paradoxes which constitute “the riddle of MacArthur,” but as usual he has turned in a splendidly timed, lively, and uncommonly informative report. In this case, moreover, it seems an exceptionally clear-sighted one. Gunther shows no disposition to soft-pedal MacArthur’s familiar shortcoming — at one point he says that the General “goes so far as to think of himself and the Pope as the two leading representatives of Christianity” — but MacArthur’s abilities and achievements as proconsul are sharply brought into focus. He has done a remarkable job, on the whole, Gunther concludes, of imposing democracy on Japan — “like a dictator.”
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Top reviews from the United States
The Rabbit
5.0 out of 5 stars A Surprisingly Fine Book
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2023
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This is one of those books, the kind mentioned by Rick Atkinson, when he says that the war correspondents provided the books that he as a writer on war has depended upon so much. I wish I could read every one of Gunther's books. He was obviously a very fine writer who also was a great interviewer and researcher. I could not put this book down. He writes with an opinion, but it is not one born of bitterness. He does what William Manchester did in his biography of MacArthur, criticize him but praise him also. The difference is that Gunther was not a Marine on Saipan who shared the hatred, or jealousy, or whatever it was -- and still is, really -- that characterizes Manchester's book.
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Gary Norman
5.0 out of 5 stars McArthur never went near the front lines.
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2018
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He was portrayed as a hero, but was not one.
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