740.00119 Control (Japan)/9–1745

Statement Issued by the Supreme Commander, Allied Forces in Japan (MacArthur)

Tokyo, September 17, 1945—Text of Statement Issued Today by General Douglas MacArthur

The smooth progress of the occupation of Japan enabled a drastic cut in the number of troops originally estimated for that purpose. The unknown quantity in the original situation was the debatable question whether a military government would have to be set up to run the country during the early occupation. This might well have involved the employment of several million troops.

The entire structure below the political plane, involving hundreds of thousands of people on professional and lower levels, would have had to be reconstituted and replaced. This would have involved a force running into millions of our men and would have taken many years of additional time and untold billions of additional dollars.

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By utilizing the Japanese Government structure to the extent necessary to prevent complete social disintegration, insure internal distribution, maintain labor and prevent calamitous disease or wholesale starvation, the purposes of the surrender terms can be accomplished with only a small fraction of the men, time and money originally projected.

This situation involved a grave initial risk, but successful penetration and subsequent progress of the operation now assure success of the venture.

No greater gamble has been taken in history than the initial landings where our ground forces were outnumbered a thousand to one, but the stakes were worth it. As a consequence of the savings in men, the occupation forces originally believed essential are being drastically cut and the troops will be returned to the United States as rapidly as ships can be made available.

Within six months the occupational force, unless unforeseen factors arise, will probably number not more than 200,000 men, a size probably within the framework of our projected regular establishment and which will permit complete demobilization of our citizen Pacific forces which fought so long and so nobly through to victory. Once Japan is disarmed, the force will be sufficiently strong to ensure our will.

The questions involved in this matter are entirely independent of the future of the Japanese politico-governmental structure on a national and international plane. This problem is one the ultimate solution of which necessarily awaits completion of military phases of the surrender.

It is one which unquestionably will be determined upon the highest diplomatic level of United Nations and is one in which the answer cannot fail to be influenced by the incidence of events in the near and proximate future.