WI: alternative SCAP in Japan?

After WW2 General MacArthur was appointed the Supreme Commander for the Allied Power (SCAP), which basically put him in charge of the allied occupation of Japan, which would ultimately have a huge impact on the shape of postwar Japan.

Assuming that politics, death, or other butterflies prevents Doug from being appointed to such a high office, who else would have likely been appointed, and is there anything that they might have done differently. For example MacArthur was opposed to Hirohito abdicating, and granted immunity to members of the royal family during the war crime trials, so it's not hard to imagine a different SCAP supporting abdication and a regency. Would there have been someone willing to push for Japan becoming a republic?
 

TFSmith121

Banned
After WW2 General MacArthur was appointed the Supreme Commander for the Allied Power (SCAP), which basically put him in charge of the allied occupation of Japan, which would ultimately have a huge impact on the shape of postwar Japan.

Assuming that politics, death, or other butterflies prevents Doug from being appointed to such a high office, who else would have likely been appointed, and is there anything that they might have done differently. For example MacArthur was opposed to Hirohito abdicating, and granted immunity to members of the royal family during the war crime trials, so it's not hard to imagine a different SCAP supporting abdication and a regency. Would there have been someone willing to push for Japan becoming a republic?

Stilwell had commanded 10th Army on Okinawa, and had as much or more experience in Asia than probably any other full general in the theater and, despite the conventional wisdom, had plenty of generally sucessful experience dealing with Allied and civilian-military relations, going back to his service in AEF, including as a liaison officer with the French and the US occupation force in Germany.

The alternative would be a straight military government specialist like Lucius Clay, but such men were rare.

Best,
 
Stilwell had commanded 10th Army on Okinawa, and had as much or more experience in Asia than probably any other full general in the theater and, despite the conventional wisdom, had plenty of generally sucessful experience dealing with Allied and civilian-military relations, going back to his service in AEF, including as a liaison officer with the French and the US occupation force in Germany.

Trouble is that Stilwell dies in 1946, which means that someone would have to replace him too.
 
Not sure about a republic, but it's definitely odd how Hirohito wasn't forced to abdicate, considering both members of the imperial family and certain Japanese nationalists both wanted him to. It's very easy to see the Heisei era beginning decades ahead of OTL (even if Akihito and his regency would have zero power). Another general in charge might as well have let (if not encouraged) Hirohito to abdicate.
 
Whilst the US would still be very much in the driving seat might someone not as forceful as MacArthur being in command of SCAP perhaps see a larger contribution from the British, Australian, and, at least until 1971, Chinese? There was the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in our timeline up until the early 1950s and IIRC there had been proposed occupation zones for Japan drawn up at some point which never went ahead.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Whilst the US would still be very much in the driving seat might someone not as forceful as MacArthur being in command of SCAP perhaps see a larger contribution from the British, Australian, and, at least until 1971, Chinese? There was the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in our timeline up until the early 1950s and IIRC there had been proposed occupation zones for Japan drawn up at some point which never went ahead.

The thing is, given the postwar drawdowns and the need for what limited active duty personnel the Commonwealth nations could sustain in Hong Kong and points south, seems like it wouldn't last very long; same for the ROC - had some other things on their plate in the postwar era, true?

Best,
 
Not sure about a republic, but it's definitely odd how Hirohito wasn't forced to abdicate, considering both members of the imperial family and certain Japanese nationalists both wanted him to. It's very easy to see the Heisei era beginning decades ahead of OTL (even if Akihito and his regency would have zero power). Another general in charge might as well have let (if not encouraged) Hirohito to abdicate.

It's because MacArthur felt that the Japanese people couldn't handle the loss of their emperor, whom in his perception they saw as a god...

Of course, keeping Hirohito on the throne IMHO is, contrary to conventional wisdom, not a good thing, because it made it harder for the Japanese to come to terms with their past...
 
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