skipperbob: A subtle and very important photo. After the Japanese surrender MacArthur wanted to get away from the idea as the Emperor as a god and had this photo taken. The Japanese populace was shocked to see Hirohito like this… but it worked. The occupation of Japan went very smoothly.
BathroomParty: I’ll never understand what people were trying to achieve with the style of their pants throughout most of the 20th century.
Groovyaardvark: For some reference, MacArthur was not exceptionally tall – 6 foot.
Although I wager his pants are a good 5 feet of that.
UnoKitty: [How the Emperor Became Human (and MacArthur Became Divine)](https://longreads.com/2015/11/11/how-the-emperor-became-human-and-macarthur-became-divine/)
>General Douglas MacArthur, the proconsul in charge of America’s occupation of Japan, was insistent on Hirohito staying on the throne—and whatever MacArthur wanted in postwar Japan he got. America would remake Japan from the top down and turn it from semi-feudal despotism into a model twentieth-century democracy rooted in Western precepts of freedom. The Americans would impose democracy by fiat on Japan, whether the Japanese wanted and liked it or not, but they would do so using imperial institutions, including the existing civil service. They adopted as their principal ally and functionary in the task an Emperor who just weeks earlier had been regarded by his people, and by himself, as a descendant of the gods. Despite such obvious ironies, the creation of the new Japan was a remarkable achievement—practical, efficient, bloodless —and of lasting importance in re-ordering not just Japan but, by example, much of the Asian continent.
*Amazing time in history. Amazing photo.*
gustoreddit51: Up until the Emperor’s national radio address announcing the surrender of Japan, he have never spoken directly to the people of Japan.
Whaddaya Say?