arthur accepts, and then the fall of 1935, october, november, 1935, he leaves washington and as far as he's concerned, he's moving to manila, going to build a philippine army and live out his days in the philippines. fate has something completely different in store. >> you can watch this and other american artifacts programs by visiting our website. c-span.org/history. each week, american artifacts takes you to museums and historic places to learn about american history. douglas mcarthur was a five-star general who commanded allied forces in the pacific during world war ii. at the mcarthur memorial in norfolk, virginia, we learned about his role during the war. the occupation of japan, the korean war, and his life after serving in the military. this is the second of a two-part program. >> hello and welcome to the

mcarthur memorial in norfolk, virginia. my name is chris, it's my honor and privilege to be the director here. we are a museum, archive and research center dedicated to life and times of general of the army douglas mcarthur. what we're going to look at is the treasures related to alaska arthur from the period really world war ii, the occupation of japan and beyond to the end of his life. so with that, let's take a look at our first item. douglas mcarthur was offered the job of military advisor of the common wealth of the philippines. they were slated in 1946 and they need admit advisor basically to create the philippine military. douglas mcarthur brings very impressive resume to that task. he is the most highly decorated american officer in the first world war. had been superintendent at west point at the u.s. military

academy. one of the outstanding graduates at west point. known in the philippines. had a lot of friends including friends in the current philippine government. had been chief of staff of the united states army from 1930 to '35 and immediately after that, accept for the post of military advisor. he takes his ailing 88-year-old moerl whose pictured here. with him and they book passage on the liner hoover. mcarthur, being a major general in the army, having reverted to that rank after becoming chief of staff. seated at the captain's table, prominent soldier. seated at the captain's table. that's what this program here is from. it's from october 1935 on their way across the pacific. while there, he meets a tennessean. 37-year-old gene faircloth. gene is on the first leg of an asia tour with friends.

but on her way over and we have the correspondence in our archive. she strikes up conversations with this general and becomes fascinated and they begin to meet for breakfast every morning. douglas mcarthur was torn between the tennessean that he loves to tuk and his ailing mother who clearly is close to death. he says mom what should i do? and she says, i'll be fine, go spend time with that jean faircloth. so they get to manila, jean cancels the rest of the trip. and spring 1937 becomes the second mrs. doug last mcarthur. come back to the united states in 1937. by this point, douglas's mother has died. keeps her body preserved in the philippines, lays her next to his father at arlington where she is buried today. and while there, jean and douglas get married on the last day of april in new york city city hall.

they come back to the philippines and for all intensive purposes as far as douglas is concerned, he's not going back to the united states. manila is home. he's got a penthouse in the manila hotel at the very top. he's working for his good friends. the president of the philippine government. and actually february 1938, couple has a child. arthur mcarthur v. his godparents are the president of the philippines. manuel and his wife. if you think about it in the late 1930s, to have ethnic godparents for an american child is quite, quite a statement about the way mcarthur is on racial issues. mcarthur moves everything to manila, library, father's library, father's uniforms, father's medals, everything. he's not going back to the united states as far as he's concerned. fate intervenes. the japanese get active, get

expansion particularly after the big outbreak of the second world war in 1939, september 1939 and with the fall of france in 19140, creates some weakness in the -- among the colonial powers and japan decides to strike. and so begins to move south against the indies which today's indonesia and against the french colonies and into china which is laos, vietnam. because of this concern in july 1941, 75-year-old as a matter of fact, this july, general mcarthur is recalled to the colors and named commander in chief for the united states army forces in the far east. charged with defending the philippine islands and receives massive reinforcements. this is not complete when the japanese attack pearl harbor and attack the philippines december 7th and 8th of 1941. honolulu 7:55 in the morning, because of the time difference

is 3:00 a.m. and mcarthur very quickly loses most of his air force to a japanese bombing raid on the very first of the day war. the japanese invade a few weeks later. and mcarthur tries to fight them on the beaches. his men are unable to hold and mcarthur realizes i need to abandon manila and activate an old plan to fall back to the baton peninsula and the island in the mouth of manila to deny manila to the japanese is a port and the hold out there is long as possible. he sends word to the manila hotel to wife and son, and on four hours notice on christmas eve 1941, jean mcarthur packs two suitcases, packs her son, son takes stuffed animal, tricycle and prepares to leave. why do i tell you that story? is because it's how we have these two objects right here. miniature medals and the field marshals baton. only american officer to hold a rank of field marshal.

he was field marshal of the philippine army, given that rank to enhance his status as military advisor and to date, remains the only field marshal to philippine army has ever had. this is his field marshal's baton and one of a kind. and realizes, i don't want to leave these for the japanese. quickly takes them, puts them in a towel ands throws them in the cases and leaves. couple months later, when the alaska arthur's and and how via s

subin 1945, they capture the penthouse. and in 1945, retaking manila was a strong point. and in the fighting. it was completely destroyed. it wasn't safe, and if it wasn't safe in 1941, chances are it was completely lost. and so, that creates holes in our ability to interpret mcarthur's life before because of the loss of the personal correspondence, loss of artifacts and the lost of his story. mcarthur's father medal of army that he learned in 1863 in the civil war, gone. mcarthur's father's library, mostly gone. it's a real tragedy. and a high personal price to pay among the senior leaders in the united states army in world war ii. and it's something not a lot of people know about the destruction of the manila hotel and mcarthur, but that's why we have these items here. so christmas eve, christmas eve

to new year' eve is when the aerms retreat and they actually stop. it's the only place where they stop the japanese advances southward. the british aren't able to hold. dutch aren't able to hold. other places not able to hold for very long. except on baton, but the problem is that they are becoming increasingly isolated outposts as the japanese advance south wad and flow around the philippines. mcarthur and his wife and are absolutely convinced they are going to die on the philippines. in the philippines. they have seen the rising sunrise over manila, rise over the manila hotel, as far as they're concerned, this is it. and then they send that trunk out via submarine there basically making their will. douglas mcarthur not only is the senior american officer in the far east, not only senior american officer in the philippines, not on the physical embodiment of the united states to the average phillippe know. also husband and father.

his wife and soon who turns four during the bombing during the battle, are with him as well. not only does he have the pressure of the command because they are taking it. and there are a couple of objects that illustrate some of the themes i just talked about. illustrate some of the things i just talked about. first is this small khaki cap and handmade by one of the tailors on there and they were able to salvage and arthur alaska arthur loved wearing walk around smoking his invisible. but a sergeant saw him wearing this and called him general. and arthur mcarthur indignantly stopped him and said i'm not a general, i'm a sergeant. why is that?

the other item in here of interest, most people gloss over it. about and pays on. when they find your body, i want them to go to my country. and then they part. this is a small object, but it carries a great weight of emotion. for the men who share it.

in february 1942. couple of days later, mcarthur grant is granted a reprieve. because franklin roosevelt, u.s. president franklin roosevelt and the australian government for a senior american general to take command. pressure from the united states from the press, from political opponents, realizes he cannot leave mcarthur to the japanese. and mcarthur who tries to duck this because he doesn't want to leave. doesn't want to leave his men, doesn't want to leave his home. mcarthur tries to duck it, but staff talks him out of resigning and joining as a private. you're the only man that can lead back of a leaf expedition. mcarthur accepts the order. and on march 11, 1942, he, his family, and 19 other officers, commanders, staff officers

primarily depart on four pt boats, this is a model of mcarthur's one here. pt 41. command of a admiral, future admiral named john boegly. and they go 560 miles through japanese territory. through japanese waters. through the philippines from the northern part of the philippines down to the southern philippine island mindanao. and on the night of march 16th, fly australia and land on the morning of the 17th. 1500 miles through japanese air space -- almost completely the entire way. they make it without loss, there's not a whole lot of evidence that japanese knew that they were flying at that particular time, that they made it. mcarthur later said the escape of a commander in chief and his party through a situation like this is unique in the an nils of american history. and frankly i agree, it's one of the great, great adventure stories in the history of the united states military. mcarthur gets to australia, he

issues a statement which has made him one of the more famous statements he's ever made. president of the united states, wanted me to break through the japanese lines for the purpose, as i understand it, organizing the american offensive against japan. primary object of which is the relief of the philippines. i came through. and i shall return. that promise to go back and liberate and drive much of the war in the pacific. the war in the pacific -- particularly the war in the southwest pacific was unusual. it was unlike just about any conflict the united states had ever fought in before. for two main reasons. the first was the geography of the area, the vast space of it. particularly the island of new guinea, not only the second largest island in the world. it's also one of the least developed. so there just isn't the infrastructure like in europe you can count on ports and roads

and things like it and accessible terrain to operate it. new guinea, whatever you want to -- or whatever you need to fight, you're probably going have to take with you. because the land just doesn't provide it. and so, that creates an engineering and a supply problem that is unlike just about anything that we've seen before. so that's the first part. the second part is for general mcarthur to get where he needs to go, in other words from eastern new guinea, australia, back to the philippines, he needs help. can't just be the army. it has to be the army, the navy, and the air corps, now the air force working together. no one service can win the war in the pacific. but one service can lose it. and so one -- that's one of the things that this panel really shows us and develops these a little bit. the first is the air power piece. and that's why we have the fifth air force patch here. mcarthur air force, the fifth in particular develops a great reputation for being able to

both support ground operations and also the great menace to japanese shipping. despite one example the spring of 1943, and japanese reinforcement convoy coming from new britain to new guinea across the straits was almost completely wiped out by fifth air force forces. and the japanese lost almost all the troops on the convoy, including -- including having disruption of a division headquarters although the division general got a short. most men and headquarters wasn't. it was disorganized and quite frankly what men did get ashore and make it across were of limited value for a while to the japanese commander. and that's the effective air power. mcarthur never jumped very far beyond his air umbrella. in fact if he had to, he always stayed within the umbrella of his air power because he knew how important it was for the success of what he was trying to do. that's the photos from their attacks and somethings like that

you need a good team to get where you need to go. and where you want to go. mcarthur had a great team. he had some extremely good engineers. he had extremely good supply officers, but at the heart, the three k's. walter kroouber, the ground commander. admiral thomas kincaid, commanded the u.s. seven fleet, the navy commander, and general george kinney, who was an air power theorists and more innovative american airman at the time, later the first supreme commander of strategic air command after the war. who was commanding the fifth air force. and those three working together, they were able to communicate, coordinate, collaborate extremely well where alaska arthur would say i want to leapfrog down the pacific and this is the objective, help me get there. how do we get there. and give it no those guys, they and their staff would figure it

out. by the time they got to the philippines. they had the pros of amphibious landing down. in fact, during new guinea, managing three or four amphibious landings, several hundred miles apart. whenever you think about the campaigns and the press relations focus on perhaps later in korea. the people would tell him no. it was a great, great team working together. often sometimes doesn't get the credit that it deserves. but looming over all of this.

for all the successes it is still the question when and if going back to the philippines. mcarthur got his answer in the summer of 1944. one of the great moments of the pacific war in some ways. the pearl harbor conference. right after the democratic national convention had nominated franklin roosevelt for a fourth term. he flew to pearl harbor to meet with two top pacific commanders. admiral chester nimitz, mcarthur at pearl harbor and as franklin roosevelt said, where next?

can we have a chance to use this for further operations against other japanese held areas. from a strategic perspective, i think it's very important. there's another reason we have to go back. and it's this. you promised. i shall return. americans made a promise to the philippines. they promised to redeem. in fact december 1941, fwrank lin roosevelt said that. he said, i pledge that full resources of the united states stand behind a pledge with independence of the philippines will be redeemed and protected. and dwight eisenhower himself in an analysis december 1941 said that the philippines, the philippines, the asia is watching what they do in the

philippines. and they will excuse defeat. i'm not sure about that statement, but it certainly is something he felt in his heart. so he arged, mr. president we have made a promise, we have to go back. on the brink of starvation and there are thousands over 10,000 american prisoners of war that are dying and languishing in prisons or the war camps. we have to go back. ultimately what turned the debate above all else was logistics. when asked can you do the philippines with the resources in the theater that we have, the ships, men, the supplies, what we have in the pacific now can we do it, mcarthur said yes. i want to ask the same question about the operation, he said i need reinforcements. look at the data, july 26-28,

1944. that is the same time that normandy breakout is happening and the france campaign which is considered the global priority among the allies is heating up and the beginning of the great advance toward the german border. there's no way nimitz is getting resources from europe. that actually decides the decision. alaska arthur will go back to the philippines. the fact that the united states alone among all of the powers kept that promise. influences the united states position in asia today. and in some wails to understand the united states's position in asia. you have to understand, this history of world war ii. you have to understand douglas mcarthur's role. and so that brings us to the iconic pictures and one of the iconic moments in the pacific war. the return of douglas mcarthur october 20th. successor sergio, the president

of the philippine common wealth. that's a piece of communication delight as we would call it today. mcarthur is waiting ashore with the counterpresident on his right.

probably one of the great battles in the history of the world. the atomic bombs of hiroshima and nagasaki resulted in the invasion not needing to be done. need a supreme commander for the allied powers to rule japan on behalf of the allies. and that job goes to general mcarthur. and this is an example of general mcarthur both understanding japan, studied the japanese for a while. studied the far east. looked in asia far while. also the ability to understand the value of symbols and stage manage both the end of the war, and the beginning of the piece. and that brings me to this display right behind me here which we'll walk over to now. this is another one of the alton toby murals which shows the japanese signing the surrender of japan on the deck of the uss missouri, september 2, 1945. you can the principles involved. here's general mcarthur

presiding. chief of staff richard souterland. two to the right of richard sutherland not wearing the peaked cap, admiral william hallesy who was a friend of general mcarthur. behind him are the international delegates representing the other countries at war with japan. one of the japanese delegates told the emperor how could we expect to defeat the whole world. thomas of australia. jacques is the frenchman. liberator of paris in august of 1944. and you can see the others trailing off in the distance. australia, new zealand, australians are there, new zealand, canada, and great britain as well. this is the japanese. chairman of the joint chiefs

will join. and then mcarthur will sign and each of the nations following will sign as well. this is an amazing moment in the history of the world. mcarthur stage manages here. anchored in the same spot that p ri an schors his world. and which was there at the time and is represented in the picture is the perry flag. the japanese did not miss the symbolism of that.

we weren't beaten on the battlefield. if we do not now find a better and more equitable way. if we are to save that. what's he talking about? and the ceremony itself which takes only about 20 minutes concludes with a massive flyover of allies aircraft. the last great symbols of the allied power. and it's worth pointing out, the pacific war, the war in the spask very much in an american theater. but there's the australians involved. canadians, as a matter of fact the pacific at hong kong is the first time the canadians are

involved. they are all represented on the deck. this ceremony ends the war. mcarthur needs start the peace. and set the right tone. it was one of the great stories of reconstruction and occupation in our history. this focuses on the occupation of japan and mcarthur's time basically as the stream kmaernd for the allied powers. japanese surrender until his release in 1951. he was de facto the chief of state of japan during that time. he was given incredibly broad powers as supreme commander for the allied power or how he quickly became that for

shorthand. 1942 in tokyo had announced they were going to hang douglas mcarthur as a war criminal. symbolism of that and the first moments that mcarthur has to set the tone for the occupation. and it's important to keep in mind that japanese society in 1945 had far more in common with medieval europe in many ways in terms of being a frugal society in terms of how they treated classes and things like that and social structure. to what it does today. the japanese also believe that their emperor was a living god.

and the japanese and went blind. this is how he treats the emperor. it's going to make or break what happens. the staff is convinced the show of power, show of strength. mcarthur says no, if i do that, it'll face him in the eyes of the people. in this case, let the patience of the east rather than the east or the west serve. and you'll be able to tell. and mcarthur met him, it's the picture of the two of them in the u.s. embassy. where they sat and talked for a few minutes. this photograph was taken by the press before the beating happened. and it's a very important photograph in many ways because both men and supposed to regard the other side and how they're

supposed to regard the occupation. this is an example of mcarthur being able to manage the optics of the situation. mcarthur, if you look at how he's standing. casually with his hands on his back hips kind of relaxing. american audiences view this, and expression of power. and some would say that and certainly an expression of power and american secure war. if you look at here next to him, he is dressed to the nines. you're taking this top hat off when he came in, but he's dressed to the nines. standing stiffly. almost at attention. obviously uncomfortable. japanese do this as a sign of respect and deference to the american. and he uses this as a way to say this is how we should treat the americans. work with them. treat them with deference and

respect and we shall get through the occupation and we shall get through this process and be able to move forward again as a nation. this photograph is reproduced all through the united states and the japanese press over the next few days. one of the most famous but extremely significant moment. so this is a tremendous, tremendous moment and sets the right tone. mcarthur said the success of the occupation was due in large part to the attitude. now the japanese people are fascinated by their new show gun. by their new ruler. and this is what this shows here. one of the most rare with general mcarthur. one of the first things mcarthur does. you'll notice here how destroyed japan is. faces a famine in the winter of

1945, '46. mcarthur orders to eat their own rations and transfers millions to the japanese to keep them fed. this is a variance with all previous occupation policy in asia. and who endears the japanese. and they start to send tributes to mcarthur. you can see here, secondary school, middle school, late elementary, early middle school kids. giving an album to general mcarthur. tribute in artwork that are done. editorial, editorial cartoon about mcarthur. and this is a small tip of the iceberg type look with the items that we have in our election which i'll show you a few more here in a few minutes. and one of the big things that mcarthur does, and there's some guidance he gets from state department and he has plenty of freedom of action to do what he needs to do. is to reform japanese society and very early on, mcarthur decides we're going to release

all prisoners, wie going to displan the secret police. enfranchise the women, we're going to educate people, we're going to break the pesant ri and the class system. we're going to de-emphasize the mobility. basically remake japan into a democratic nation and bring it forward from a feudal society to a democratic republic. and one of the ways they do that 70 years ago is through the writing of the japanese constitution. which unamended governs japan. mcarthur and staff wrote that constitution and enshrined those values in the japanese constitution. the japanese viewed this as so important, as a matter of fact one knew it was so important, they hand did this fan that the entire text of the japanese constitution and presented to general mcarthur and the token of thanks for what he had done. this has ramifications today out of the headlines of this year because article 9 which the

mcarthur contains. and it says this, war is a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force is forever renounces of settled disputes. the maintenance of land, sea, and air forces as well as other war ploeshl never be authorized. the right of blij ran si of the united states may not be recognized. the fact that the japanese have been reinterpreting this to mean collective defense against some of the geopolitical issues in asia these days has become something of a political issue in asia. because it raises the spector of japanese soldiers, sailors, and airmen, operating in areas they haven't operated in since world war ii. and so, this is like yesterday over there. and this remains -- it hasn't been amended, but it has been reinterpreted that this remains a geopolitical issue in asia today. directly tied to the occupation at the douglas mcarthur.

mcarthur and the occupation continued to work, continued to reform japan. reformed it culturally, reformed it in a lot of different ways. these cases here. these items show a little bit more of kind of how the affect has. the first thing i'll show you is this photo here of mrs. mcarthur, jean, on a tour. she is something of the first lady of japan, and douglas never really left tokyo all that much. she would travel the country and tremendous goodwill ambassador and connecter and the japanese. so here she is on one of her tours. this is general mcarthur, going to his limo after a day of work at the dye ye which i building. and notice the japanese trying to get a glimpse.

so this gives you a sense of sort of mcarthur and japan under mcarthur. and the philippines is the most famous non-native in those countries. what i'm going to show you illustrates exactly what i'm talking about. one of the things to keep in mind is in the cultures that mcarthur's working in gifts

forms of tribute to cement relationships are absolutely important. and that's what this is. these cases here, amazing asian art, and this is just the tip of the art work. i humble people and handmade them themselves all the way up to heads of state giving objects of great agents. . these pieces that you see in the ceramics to the prints to everything else is a perfect example of the esteem in which douglas mcarthur is held by the japanese and the phillippe knows, but all of the cultures in the far east that he touches and the fact that he would give him objects of these monetary value speaks a great deal of how mcarthur was regarded and in many ways still regarded in that part of the world.

that critical part of the world. but of course the occupation of japan is not it. and unfortunately the end of the war in 1945 was not the end of conflict in the world. and conflict will begin -- erupt again on the korean peninsula in 1950. and that's the next review. and korean peninsula has been administratedly divided and the 38 parallel. the idea was soviets would surrender the japanese troops in the northern part of the planes. the americans would do the same in the southern part of the peninsula. the 38th parallel soon hardened into an international. june 25, 1950. north korea, invaded the republic of korea, south korea. both countries have been created in 1948. and that started the korean war. korean war is very much a water shed in some ways.

mainly because it's the first united nations war. immediately after the war starts, couple days after the war starts, the united states -- united nations security council meets, votes to help the republic of korea. and asks it's members to contribute forces under the overall command of the american officer. u.s. president harry trueman designates doug last mcarthur has that officer and created u.n. commands. and on july 14, 1950, mcarthur raises the u.n. flag, similar to this, a larger version. atop his headquarters building at the dye yaiichi building. this is the first u.n. war, first u.n. mission for the security council and makes it something of a water shed. by the time the korean war is over in 1953 or the korean war is signed in 1953. the united states, australia, new zealand, the netherlands,

greece, belgium, the philippines for the first time as an independent nation. thailand, colombia, south africa, luxe umberg, india, norway, and combat unites or medical unites to the united nations command. today, south korea if you count the nations that rebuild it and south korea holds the record for number of nations that have helmed both sustain it's independence and also rebuild it after the war. and the korean people -- every year as a matter of fact out here at mcarthur square do a display of flags saying thank you for what has been done. korean people -- one of the things that needs to be noted, the korean people could have chosen the south koreans could have knuckled. instead they chose to fight and the americans under leadership and the u.n. security security council committed themselves in the offense of korea. the reasons we will see that commitment remains intact to

this day. so, we've set up the korean war, let's come over here and talk a little bit about the korean war. 1950 to 1953. june 25, 1050 to july 27, 1953. 38th parallel runs right here. for those reviewing in the united states, charlottesville, virginia, sits just north of the 38th parallel at interstate 614. runs along the parallel. to give you an idea of how this fits in geographically on a map of the united states. china is here. japan just barely on the map right here. attack southward. american what is known as the perimeter. an 50 miles wide.

they control 85% of the korean peninsula by august of 1950, just six weeks after the war starts. but in one of the great defensive stands in the history of the united states army, the ugs under walton walker assisted by the south koreans, hold off all north korea attacks. it's an incredibly desperate fighting and in a couple cases, they're down to the last reserves. throw back the attacks. meanwhile, coming from the united states or troops in japan, trying to figure out what to do. if you could feed them, but he's planning on the counterstrike. and just has to advance a little bit to seoul, cut the north korean supply line to this area, and good chance to destroy it.

days and months and the next day coming up is september 15th. war department back in washington is convinced this is not a good idea. the fact that the north koreans are not expect it, this is a crazy place to land. the it means it's a great idea. and pushes it through. and so, the first marine division in the u.s. seventh division land here september 15, 1950. the retake seoul two weeks later. meanwhile is a breakout from the perimeter and destroy the bulk of the army right here. pushed back to the 38th parallel by october 1st. that the point, the u.n. security council which had said liberate south korea passes a new resolution. in you can unify and if mcarthur feel unfeddered as the guidance he got, push north into north

korea. china which had gone communist just the year before. sends, doesn't have relations with the united states, doesn't have diplomatic relations with a lot in the u.s. command. sends a notice through india. if you approach the river. will be forced to act. those are discounted. mcarthur meets with truman at wake island. discounts warnings of chinese intervention. take pyongyang, the eighth army in the eighth area. operating in this area over here. finds some chinese volunteers, mcarthur discounts them, launches an attack to be home by christmas right before thanksgiving 1950. at this time. 00,000 chinese attack. u.s. army fights a desperate army here on the river. meanwhile, u.s. marines here at the rz advisory are surrounded by the chinese and again to

fight their way to 60 miles down on the coast. it's one of the marines said, it's not retreat, it's attacking in another direction. flocked their ways through the mountains back. u.s. seventh division which had reached the river here, turn around and pull out december 12 through 24, 1950. this is an important moment in history. because there were 100,000 korean refugees that have lived in the north and don't to want stay. and they show up in the port and there are no orders about what to do with it. the commander here, almond, controversial figure but i have to say this for him, almond says whatever spare shipping space that it is, i want you to take refugees. 98,000 people. get out and evacuate and. five children are born at sea on

their way. this has such a profound him pact. they made a movie about it two years ago. but there are a lot of people that say this cemented our relationship with the korean people. we weren't just there for ourselves. we were there for the korean people. and this remains a big moment in our relationship with the republicans. but that doesn't disguise the fact that the chinese had pushed these -- our forces south. u.s. forces the u.n. forces south in the longest retreat in the history of the united states. for the river in one place. back down to the vicinity of seoul. new year's eve, the chinese launch another attack. pushed the forces, pushed the u.n. forces south of seoul. matthew ridgeway takes over command of eighth army. having died in the traffic accident. fights his way back north in a series of intense battles and finally right in the waste of the peninsula, as fought something of a standstill. at this point, mcarthur and

truman have been going back and forth. he wants to fight to a finish. there's no substitute for victory. truman realizes if we go north and get up, really go after the chinese and start bombing china, soviet union is right here soviet union has a mutual defense pack and that means trouble in europe and world war iii. wrong war within wrong time, wrong place is what the chairman says. this dispute becomes public.

remains a geopolitical issue today. and there hasn't been a whole lot of change since mcarthur was fired in 1951. behind me is troou mavrn's can the. but there is something to keep in mind. the fundamental tension is they were both right. they were also both wrong. truman was right. wrong war, wrong place, wrong time. third world war, definitely avoided. but, there is no substitute for victory. because we're still there.

it's stale trip worry. this is still the most heavily militarized border in the world. and north korea remains a dangerous, dangerous foe and unpredictable geopolitical force in northeast asia just like in 1950 or 51 and 5 it. after truman relieved general mcarthur in april of 1951 he came home and addressed dmong april 1st, 19511. one of the lines was old soldiers never die, they just fade away. mcarthur chose to fade away for the next 13 years of his life, the remaining 13 years of his life in new york city where he and his wife and son became a fixture. mcarthur was an avid baseball fan and would go to yankees stadium, go to the field, other baseball parks. loved watching sports, corresponded with the army football team and was very, very interested in what was going on on the athletic field. toward the end of his life in 1963, general mcarthur wrote his

reminiscences. he had a very sharp mind. the thoughts came out of his head formed, fully formed he came outen to to the page. almost without needing that. and it's an absolutely, amazing manuscript when he flicks through all of the pages. also counties presidents. older statesman. met with john kennedy in 196 # 2 and met here with lyndon johnson in 1964 just a few weeks before his death. in both cases, stay out of a country called vietnam. and this road is a matter of fact that he's wearing in walter reid is the robe you see right

over in the gally here. mcarthur, liver problems. shortly after his 84th birthday. and dies april 5th, lays and state in the u.s. capital at seventh regiment armory in new york city and here in the rotunda of the mcarthur that was a soft opening in january of 1964. and mcarthur said i'll be at the dedication which was originally scheduled to be memorial day 1964. i'll be there alive or dead. and of course he made it. and actually the funeral, mcarthur funeral april 11, 1964 was consideringed the defactor dedication of the memorial. he always felt that this place, even though we've been talking about general mcarthur primarily. he always felt that this place was not just about him. he also felt very strongly. this was from his dedication speech which he never gave, but from his notes. he always felt very strongly

that it was to the millions of men and women who fought the world wars and in korea with me also. and so that's a part of this. we're not just about general mcarthur, but about the men and women with whom he serves and telling their stories as well. and that's something that you've got in mind. certainly hope you'll come and exploit it. these are items from the mcarthur funeral. this is the flag, actually they're folding it in this picture. this is the flag that draped his coffin and folded by the ceremony of detail that has never been folded. as far as i'm concerned never will be. it is the bugle that played taps and the proclamation from president johnson marking the passing of general douglas mcarthur. show you the medals and the iconic items. give you a sense of the man and who he was and what he did.

it really is the essence of mcarthur. what he symbolized, but also the mark was what he did. and the first thing i want to show you in here is really three of our absolute iconic pieces. general mcarthur's hat when which he wore all through world two, all through the occupation of japan, all through korea. all those pictures we've seen of general mcarthur. all of the iconic pictures, that's the hat he's wearing. one of his iconic corn cob pipes, one of 95 in our collection. he was an avid pipe smoker and collector. this one has been smoked. and general mcarthur's rayban sunglasses. so these are tremendous symbols of who this man was and iconic symbols of an iconic american general. the other thing i want to show you in here is general mcarthur's medals. we have two cases.

first is foreign decorations here to the left. the full yumpl here. and the u.s. decorations. general mcarthur is one of the most highly decorated soldiers in our history. 52 years of military service. two of extremely provocative. also because of what their stories contain. the first is general mcarthur's medal of honor. he was always a little ambivalent about this. it always remined him.

and he mentioned it only once. this also was a personal milestone for general mcarthur. his father earned the medal of honor in 1863 for the leadership under fire of chattanooga. age 18. they thus became the first father/son medal of honor combination in the mystery. he always held his father up in great esteem and his father was exemplary of what he wanted to be. and so to earn the medal of honor. to do something his father had done was personally very gratifying for him. but at the same time, the circumstances in which it was awarded undoubtedly added a sheer of the near of emotion. otherwise might not have been. so that's the first one, the medal of honor. the second one i want to show you is the purple heart. it was created originally as a valor of deck rag by george washington during the

revolutionary war and disuse. in 1932, while chief of staff of the army, general mcarthur reinstituted the purple heart as a badge for being wounded in action. mcarthur himself having gassed guys world war i was entitled to two purple hearts because he made it retroactive to the first world war. these are the purple hearts that you see here. it is for the second award and the purple heart itself. used to be serial numbers and purple heart number one was given to general mcarthur for his wounds in world one 1. now i want you to take a real close look at it. you can see there's a bust of george washington around a purple-shaped heart. there's pitting and scorching and scraping around the portrait of general washington. this was in the hotel when the mcarthur penthouse was tried. this was one of the very, very few survivors of mcarthur. and so we have it on display

here. it tells a great story, recolleagues creation of an american medal, but story of survival. our rotunda. which is actually the final resting place of general mcarthur and his wife, jean. we will conclude over there. this is our rotunda which is the center piece of the mcarthur memorial itself. it contains the last resting place of general mcarthur and his wife jean surrounded by quotes from mcarthur's career and also flags, both his personal flags, but also the units that fell under his command. this is the other room that really gives you the essence of mcarthur, who he was and what he stood for. we hope you've enjoyed this

relevance and invite you to come on down and visit us in downtown norfolk here at mcarthur memorial. >> you can watch this and other american artifacts programs at cpan.org/history. sunday, in depth will feature a live discussion on the presidency of barack obama. we're taking your phone calls, tweets, e-mails, and facebook questions during the program. panel includes april ryan, white house correspondent for american urban radio networks and author of the presidency in black and white. my up close view of three presidents and race in america. princeton university professor eddie, author of democracy and black. and associate editor, david mary nis, barack obama, the story. watch in depth live from noon to

3:00 p.m. eastern on sunday, book tv. on c-span 2. >> each week, american history tv is real america brings you a kooifl films that provide confection for today's public affairs issues. the orange embargo is far too great a squurt to american peace to permits it's sur rinder with all the last ditch fight, you people who oppose war and dictatorship, do not billion dismayed because the war

mongering and the interventionalists control most of the avenues of propaganda. >> at this critical moment in the world's history, when the democracies of europe are facing the test of life or death, all americans are of one mind. we to want assist the democracies in every way we can with materials and spliets. the last and only barrier tweenl the united states and total war. we must not come too late. therefore we must give president roosevelt power to set in motion and industrial blitz creed that'll make it possible for england to blast hitlerism from the face of the earth. >> it was debated. men with stamped interventionists and isolationists. and the debate bid it.

who worshipped war. other earnist young men take it to the pickets. curious organizations mushroomed into being with stunts such as these. into this free debate, trooped the agents of the aggressors. for they too were permitted to speak in our democracy. they wore hitler's uniforms, but they wrapped themselves in the american flag. they preechd hitler and fall as an overripe plum to the nazi master race.

and wanted to wear his opposition. we provided police to preserve order. this was madison square garden and new york city. and not berlin nor noourmberg. later, this speaker was arrested. it was because he had filched money from his diluted followers. and he was sent to sing sing to brood upon the strange ways of democracy. another debate was in progress. lake and management resulted to strikes and lockouts to settle differences which at times surged into violence.

but scenes such as these convinced them they had nothing to fear and industrial capacity was great, we could never use it to the full they said. our plants were there, but they were made idle. america went to war. it had been at war. for more than ten years. ever since september 18, 1931 which japan clawedmanture ra out of the body of china. while hitler was still brawling in the streets of munich. japan had already begun weaving the pattern of aggression. >> december 7, 2016, marked the 75th anniversary of the japanese attack on pearl harbor. almost 2400 americans were killed and 1200 wounded and the surprise attack