MACARTHUR, Douglas (1880-1964), Supreme Commander Allied Powers, Japan . Typed letter signed ("Douglas MacArthur") to Rev. G. Bromley Oxnam, Tokyo, Japan, 14 March 1950. 4 pages, 4to, on stationery of General Headquarters, Supreme Commander . BANNED IN TOKYO: MACARTHUR EXCLUDES MARGARET SANGER FROM JAPAN A remarkable, lengthy letter to America's Methodist Bishop, explaining his prohibition against Margaret Sanger lecturing on birth control in Japan, and offering great insight into MacArthur's views on the American occupation. The general explains that he did not ban Sanger because of any objection to birth control as such. His policy was to permit only those foreigners "who can definitely further the objectives of the Occupation....I have yielded to pressure from neither" the advocates or opponents of birth control, "but have consistently taken the position that the subject matter is a social problem for solution by the Japanese people themselves..." And the Japanese, he notes, seem to have settled that issue to their satisfaction. "During the past, birth control in Japan has been effected by the practices, repugnant to us, of infanticide and abortion. Toward the correction of these evils, in June 1948 a modern Eugenics law was devised and enacted by representatives of the Japanese people." It provided standards for "the legalization of both voluntary and compulsory abortion and sterilization," for the distribution of contraceptives, and for the creation of birth control clinics. MacArthur could not help noting that this was far more than most American states could offer at the time, and some 15 million contraceptive devices were sold each month in Japan. He wonders what Mrs. Sanger can tell the Japanese that they don't already know, and suggests (no pun likely intended) that there is a "more fertile field of activity at home than abroad" for her lectures. But of much greater importance to MacArthur is how this isolated incident touches on his fundamental approach towards the occupation. The Japanese "have been left the untrammeled right and dignity to evolve their own domestic social decisions...except where Allied objectives or policies were distinctly involved....I trust from the foregoing," he says in closing, "you will better understand the circumstances which have prompted my decision not to disturb existing policy, leaving the Japanese people free to evolve their own social pattern of life without being harassed by undue Allied pressures."
MACARTHUR, Douglas (1880-1964), Supreme Commander Allied Powers, Japan . Typed letter signed ("Douglas MacArthur") to Rev. G. Bromley Oxnam, Tokyo, Japan, 14 March 1950. 4 pages, 4to, on stationery of General Headquarters, Supreme Commander . BANNED IN TOKYO: MACARTHUR EXCLUDES MARGARET SANGER FROM JAPAN A remarkable, lengthy letter to America's Methodist Bishop, explaining his prohibition against Margaret Sanger lecturing on birth control in Japan, and offering great insight into MacArthur's views on the American occupation. The general explains that he did not ban Sanger because of any objection to birth control as such. His policy was to permit only those foreigners "who can definitely further the objectives of the Occupation....I have yielded to pressure from neither" the advocates or opponents of birth control, "but have consistently taken the position that the subject matter is a social problem for solution by the Japanese people themselves..." And the Japanese, he notes, seem to have settled that issue to their satisfaction. "During the past, birth control in Japan has been effected by the practices, repugnant to us, of infanticide and abortion. Toward the correction of these evils, in June 1948 a modern Eugenics law was devised and enacted by representatives of the Japanese people." It provided standards for "the legalization of both voluntary and compulsory abortion and sterilization," for the distribution of contraceptives, and for the creation of birth control clinics. MacArthur could not help noting that this was far more than most American states could offer at the time, and some 15 million contraceptive devices were sold each month in Japan. He wonders what Mrs. Sanger can tell the Japanese that they don't already know, and suggests (no pun likely intended) that there is a "more fertile field of activity at home than abroad" for her lectures. But of much greater importance to MacArthur is how this isolated incident touches on his fundamental approach towards the occupation. The Japanese "have been left the untrammeled right and dignity to evolve their own domestic social decisions...except where Allied objectives or policies were distinctly involved....I trust from the foregoing," he says in closing, "you will better understand the circumstances which have prompted my decision not to disturb existing policy, leaving the Japanese people free to evolve their own social pattern of life without being harassed by undue Allied pressures."
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
