Well, the German problem is a completely and entirely different one from the Japanese problem. The German people were a mature race.
If the Anglo-Saxon was say 45 years of age in his development, in the sciences, the arts, divinity, culture, the Germans were quite as mature. The Japanese, however, in spite of their antiquity measured by time, were in a very tuitionary condition. Measured by the standards of modern civilization, they would be like a boy of twelve as compared with our development of 45 years.
Like any tuitionary period, they were susceptible to following new models, new ideas. You can implant basic concepts there. They were still close enough to origin to be elastic and acceptable to new concepts.
The German was quite as mature as we were. Whatever the German did in dereliction of the standards of modern morality, the international standards, he did deliberately. He didn’t do it because of a lack of knowledge of the world. He didn’t do it because he stumbled into it to some extent as the Japanese did. He did it as a considered policy in which he believed in his own military might, in which he believed that its application would be a shortcut to the power and economic domination that he desired …
But the Japanese were entirely different. There is no similarity. One of the great mistakes that was made was to try to apply the same policies which were so successful in Japan to Germany, where they were not quite so successful, to say the least. They were working on a different level.
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
by John W. Dower
What exactly did General Douglas MacArthur, the former Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, or SCAP, mean when he likened the Japanese nation to a twelve-year-old child? He made the notorious comparison on May 5, 1951, to a joint committee of the Senate, after being fired by President Truman for wanting to “roll back” China from Korea (with nuclear bombs if required). He had left Japan some weeks before, where he received a hero’s farewell: hundreds of thousands of weeping Japanese lined his route to the airport, the public radio station played “Auld Lang Syne,” the Mainichi newspaper cried, “Oh, General MacArthur—General, General, who saved Japan from confusion and starvation,” and the liberal Asahi paper gushed that
it was General MacArthur who taught us the merits of democracy and pacifism and guided us with kindness along this bright path. As if pleased with his own children growing up, he took pleasure in the Japanese people, yesterday’s enemy, walking step by step toward democracy.
Is that what the old soldier had meant?
Here is what he actually said:
If the Anglo-Saxon was say 45 years of age in his development, in the sciences, the arts, divinity, culture, the Germans were quite as mature. The Japanese, however, in spite of their antiquity measured by time, were in a very tuitionary condition. Measured by the standards of modern civilization, they would be like a boy of twelve as compared with our development of 45 years.
From today’s perspective this suggests an objectionable racial, or at least cultural, bias. Some, particularly in Japan, saw it that way already in 1951. There is no doubt that MacArthur, like most people of his age, thought the “Christian West” was superior and therefore duty-bound to educate the unenlightened East.
But MacArthur’s remark was not meant to be hostile. On the contrary, as John Dower, who is never slow to spot racism among his fellow Americans, observes in his superb history of Japan’s occupation, it had been “MacArthur’s intention to argue that the Japanese could be trusted more than the Germans.” The Germans had committed their crimes as adults, so to speak; they already knew right from wrong, but had willfully disregarded the distinction. The Japanese had to be taught, and MacArthur, the supreme teacher, was proud to point out what keen, loyal, diligent pupils they had turned out to be.
SCAP believed in the White Man’s Burden. Before turning his mind to Japan, MacArthur had taken a paternal interest in the Filipinos, whom his father, General Arthur MacArthur, had ruled as military governor earlier in the century. MacArthur père, too, had testified to a Senate committee, in 1902. He remarked that America’s “wonderful” thrust into Asia was the destiny of the “magnificent Aryan people,” whose duty it was to initiate a “stage of progressive social evolution that may be reasonably expected to result in the unity of the race and the brotherhood of man.” …
「日本人は１２歳」と言ったマッカーサー
かつて日本は美しかった
http://jjtaro.cocolog-nifty.com/nippon/2011/03/post-682d.html
大東亜戦争後、占領軍の最高司令官であったのはダグラス・マッカーサーが「日本人は１２歳」と言った話はは良く聞きます。戦後占領期のＧＨＱの政策は日本の将来的な弱体化、破壊でしたが、絶対的権力と物資が不足している中、日本人はだんだんアメリカかぶれになっていきました。日本人はマッカーサーを称賛し、マッカーサーの離日後、マッカーサーを「永久国賓にしよう」「マッカーサー神社を建てよう」「マッカーサー記念館を作ろう」という声まであがりました。しかし、この「日本人は１２歳」発言によりマッカーサーの差別意識に気がつき、マッカーサー熱は急速に冷え、人々から忘れ去られていったのです。
この「日本人は１２歳」という発言はマッカーサーが帰米直後、日本人のことを「like a boy of twelve」と米上院公聴会で証言したときのものです。教育学博士の若狭和朋氏は著書「続・日本人が知ってはならない歴史」では「たぶんに誤解です。ドイツは成人の悪党だったが、日本人はそうでなかったという反省の弁」と書いています。
ＷＥＢ「正論」で東京都儀典長・前バンクーバー総領事 多賀敏行氏は東京・永田町の国立国会図書館へいき、公聴記録を調べて述べています。これによると日本は自由主義陣営の一員として留まりソ連側になびくようなことはない、ドイツは悪党だが、日本はそうでない、という日本擁護論の文脈の中で出てきていると書いており、記録を見ますと確かにその通りです。
^^^^^^^^[引用開始]
「そうですね、ドイツの問題は、完全に、そして全面的に、日本の問題とは違っています。ドイツは成熟した人種でした。もしアングロ・サクソンが人間の年齢で、科学や芸術や宗教や文化の面でみて、まあ45歳であるとすれば、ドイツ人も同じくらい成熟していました。しかし日本人は、時間的には古くからいる人々なのですが、指導を受けるべき状況にありました。近代文明の尺度で測れば、われわれが45歳という成熟した年齢であるのに比べると、日本人は言ってみれば 12歳の少年と言ったところでしょう。
指導を受ける時期というのはどこでもそうですが、日本人は新しい規範とか新しい考え方を受け入れやすかったのです。日本では、基本的な考えを植え付けることができます。日本人は、柔軟で、新しい考え方を受け入れることができるほどに、白紙の状態に近かったのです。
ドイツ人はわれわれと同じくらい成熟していました。ドイツ人が現代の道徳を怠けてないがしろにしたり、国際的規範を破ったりしたとき、それは彼らが意図的にやったことでした。ドイツ人は、世界について知識がなかったからそうしたことをしたのではありません。日本人がある程度そうだったように、うっかり、ついそうしてしまったというのではありません。ドイツ人は、みずからの軍事力を用いることが、自分の望む権力と経済制覇への近道と考え、熟慮の上での政策として、それを行使したのです」
「ドイツは言うなれば確信犯で、冷徹に国益の損得勘定を考えてああいう悪いことをやった。日本はそうではない。まだ国際社会に出て間がなくて、ちょっと道を踏み外してしまった。でも、自分が占領統治をして良い国になったのだから、大丈夫だ」「日本はまだ12歳の少年で、まだ教育可能で、覚えが早くて優等生だ」
^^^^^^^^[引用終わり]
日本擁護論の中での「例え」として使われており、多賀敏行氏は日本擁護が真意と言っています。確かに主旨はそうですが、１２歳に例えるというところがマッカーサーの心の底にある「日本人差別」意識を物語っているでしょう。
昭和天皇はマッカーサーが離日するとき、ＧＨＱが見送りを要請したにもかかわらず、侍従長を派遣しただけでした。昭和天皇訪米のとき、マッカーサー夫人の再三の案内にもかかわらずマッカーサー記念館に行くことも、マッカーサーの墓参をすることも行いませんでした。