Chief of Staff in the United States Army from 1930-35, General MacArthur
was then sent to the Philippines to protect the area from Japanese
invasion. Between December 1941 and March 1942 he withstood the Japanese
assault on Luzon. He later became the Supreme Allied Commander in the
south-west Pacific area, accepting the Japanese surrender on the USS
Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September. From 1945-51 he remained in Japan
as commander of the occupation forces, where he was responsible for the
modernising, neutralizing and rehabilitating of the nation.