United States Far Eastern Policy

Abstract

A DISCUSSION of contemporary American Far Eastern policy must start with the framework of military and economic conditions existing at the time of the Japanese surrender. For war purposes, the Far East and Pacific areas had been divided into several theaters under different Allied commands. The military dispositions on the eve of the Japanese surrender may have been made for purely military reasons, but they had also a political foundation, and therefore indicated the direction of American interest as it would shape policy. From the military standpoint, the decision was apparently made to let the British assume the major, if not the exclusive, responsibility for driving the Japanese out of the former British, French and Dutch colonies, and for determining the manner of political reconstruction. Direct American interest in the colonial area was restricted to the Philippines, whose liberation had been assumed as an exclusive American responsibility. Thus prewar lines of political control seem to have set the lines of military action when the final assault on Japan was being prepared. General MacArthur, who, prior to the liberation of the Philippines, had received over-all command responsibilities for a large part, but not all, of this colonial area, was designated Allied Supreme Commander for invasion operations against Japan. In consequence his sights were set to the north, reenforcing the lack of personal interest he had always had in other parts of his theater than the Philippines. This military decision was also political in that, from the standpoint of American policy, it signified a willingness to acquiesce in the restoration of colonialism throughout the area. A long argument went on during the war between those Americans who felt that the interests of the United States would be served best by the complete political liberation of the peoples of Indonesia, Malaya, Burma, Siam and IndoChina, and those who felt that the advisable as well as the expedient course would be to restore the status quo ante. The latter, together with the British and the Dutch, argued that the colonial peoples concerned