On September 2, 1945, at 8:00 a.m., a battleship from the United States was firmly parked in The Bay of Tonkin, Japan, and the weather on that day was not very good, gloomy, but in stark contrast to the joyful expressions of the people on the battleship, at 8:30 a.m., the battleship sounded the "Admiral's March", and a group of representatives dressed in various military uniforms boarded the ship, speaking Chinese, British, French, Russian, Dutch, one after another, bustling, and the reporters holding cameras were very busy.
More than 20 minutes later, the Japanese delegation arrived at the scene, and the expressions of the 11 people in the group were as gloomy as today's weather, in fact, 7 officers, including Umezu Yoshijiro (the chief of staff of the Japanese Army), were unwilling to attend the ceremony, but the emperor said that they had to comply, so they deliberately wore wrinkled military uniforms that had not been ironed, and dirty military boots that had not been wiped to express their dissatisfaction. However, when they saw MacArthur, the five-star general of the U.S. Army, they immediately saluted, but MacAs did not answer at all, and did not even look at them, and continued to walk to the microphone.
At 9 o'clock, MacArthur formally read the surrender order, the Face of the Japanese delegation was livid, and Aoi Shigemitsu, the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and one of the Class A war criminals, did not even hold his cane for a while after hearing MacArthur's words, slipped to the ground, very embarrassed, and at the subsequent signing ceremony, he was also busy.
In stark contrast to Shigemitsu Aoi, MacArthur even calmly took out a whole 5 pens to sign, in fact, if he only signed his name, why did he use so many pens? The goal is simple – to humiliate the Japanese.
The first pen, macArthur used it to write "Doug" (note: MacArthur's full name is Douglas MacArthur), then put on a cap and gave the pen to General Wainwright, who stood behind him, who had been a prisoner of war for 3 years in this war, tortured by the Japanese, but never gave in, so MacArthur gave him the first pen.
The second pen, MacArthur wrote "Russ", and then gave the pen to British Lieutenant General Percival on the other side, who fought in World War I and II and was a respected general.
The third pen, MacArthur, wrote "MacArthur," and then he said, "I'm going to leave this pen to the National Archives of the United States as a permanent memorial." After listening to this sentence, the face of the Japanese delegation became even more ugly.
In the fourth and fifth pens, MacArthur wrote down his titles "Allied Commander-in-Chief, Five-Star General", which were then given to his alma mater, West Point, and the Naval Academy (also said to be given to his wife).
MacArthur's signature change quickly caused a global discussion, and this move also humiliated the whole of Japan. But in fact, whether MacArthur changed his pen or not, the ceremony itself was an insult to Japan, but compared with the countless heinous crimes committed by the Japanese, these humiliations were nothing at all. What do you readers think? What do you think of MacArthur's move? Feel free to share your discussion in the comments section.