Letter to Emmalina Eichelberger from Robert L. Eichelberger

Paper Letter to wife OCY 1945 Ecopy also in Diary. 76-41-210045/ [ this relates wont of 1900/45, gos. HEADQUARTERS EIGHTH ARMY Diany) UNITED STATES ARMY OFFICE OF THE COMMANDING GENERAL AP0343 Yokohama, Japan, 20 October 1945. illeand Cumalua About a quarter of five last night I called on SCAP at his office in Tokyo. First I showed him the collection of souvenirs I had gathered for him which included such things as Tojo's hara-kiri knife and ceremonial sword, his samurai sword, the pistol with which he shot himself, Homma's sword and pistol, Doihara's sword and pistol, etc. I found the conversation very interesting and important. I told him first that Commodore Collins of the Australian navy had called and had told me that the British contemplated bring- ing into Japan as an occupation force 25,000 soldiers, 7000 air personnel and a lot of navy, all of which would be a three- service force under an Australian lieutenant general. He said it was their desire that they go to some one area and settle but that General Chamberlin had told them that this would probably be impossible because the number was too large. Collins told me that MacA wanted them under his command. I told Collins that I had understood they would come under the Eighth Army. SCAP said with reference to this conversation with Collins: "There is one thing I'11 bet he didn't tell you and that is his statement to me when I forced an answer that out of the whole Australian 6th Division they only got 35 volunteers to go to Japan. When I told him they wouldn't be able to get 25000 soldiers he said, Well, we will have a peacetime conscription' I said; what, Commodore Collins, with a labor government you will have & peacetime conscription?" When I told General MacA the ubiquitous Colonel Klein was suggesting that he should quit now and had advised Richardson to write to SCAP and me to write to SCAP he said: "Don't think for a minute that I will quit now. At one time I might have done so but the President, the State Department and Marshall (GCM) have all been attacking me. They might have won out but the Reds came out against me and the communists booed me and that raised me to a pinnacle without which they might have licked me. Thanks to the Soviets I am on top. I would like to pin a medal on their a.. He said Mr. McCloy, Asst. Secretary of War and another gentleman (Freeman - author of Lee and His Lieuten ants" would arrive on Sunday and he wanted me to go with him to the airfield. He said he would like to have me take them on Tuesday for a couple of days and I told him I could keep them right here at the house with me. SCAP said he did not intend to go home this fall or this winter but he added, "When I do go you are going with me"s He said, "There has been a joint resolution in Congress inviting me to appear before them and I intend to be the first man in our