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Winter 1946 South Bend Indiana

It was snowing outside the window in big flakes under a slate sky. It was a far cry from the Philippines though not so far removed from the winter in Japan. He remembered that day when he was released from his cell. The Japs were all smiles, no hard feelings right. They might have lost the war but they were not beat, not by a long shot. A few days later he had learned of how he narrowly avoided being incinerated in Nagasaki by happenstance. They had moved him to Tokyo for some reason, it was never clear why, a few days earlier.

If he had been blown to hell with the rest of the city they would never have even noticed in Washington D.C. It was the same as in the Philippines the President gave him a medal and told him hold until a relief convoy arrived. It never came. He would have loved to have told the President what he thought of him, but Roosevelt had died months earlier. Standing there numbly accepting President Truman's thanks for his service to his country just didn't do it for him.

He had learned of the plans for rebuilding of Japans economy and saw an opportunity one that had dreamed of during those long years as a Prisoner of War. An opportunity to kick the Japs square in the teeth and he was going to do it by playing fair. The best part was no one would see it coming. He used his connections in the Pentagon to find out about the plans for what post war Japan would look like. Now he only needed to put himself into a position to use that knowledge, to get a measure of revenge, beat them at their own game. Lets see how how the Japanese like a surprise attack, he thought to himself.

So he found himself in a stuffy office talking to a man he didn't know about a job far different than anything he had ever done before, yet it didn't matter. He was continuing a war that everyone thought was over. Like hell it is.

"So Mr. MacArthur you are interested in being an Executive here at Studebaker Motors?" the man asked.

"Why, yes I am" he replied.

Patton had once said the war is over when I say it is. Douglas MacArthur set out to prove it.
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