Few people outside General MacArthur’s trusted inner circle of key staff officers, such as Major General Courtney Whitney and Colonel Laurence Bunker, and household staff, such as Phyllis Gibbons and Loh Cheu, Arthur MacArthur’s tutor and nanny, were permitted such intimate glimpses at the life of the MacArthur family during the closing months of World War II and throughout the Occupation of Japan than the men comprising the General’s Honor Guard.

Organized in May 1945, the Honor Guard was entrusted with the task of guarding the General’s headquarters and residence – a task which put these young men in constant contact with Douglas MacArthur, his family, and countless world military and political leaders. Roughly 2,000 men served in the General’s Honor Guard from May 1945 until April 1951, when General MacArthur was relieved of his commands in Korea and Japan.

Of that number, fewer than 400 are left today.

When General MacArthur’s Honor Guard Association informed the MacArthur Memorial staff that they would be holding their 2007 reunion in Norfolk, it was determined to create a special exhibit about the Honor Guard. The result is Only the Finest: General MacArthur’s Honor Guard.


This newest exhibit was officially opened on Tuesday October 2, 2007, when more than 130 members of the Honor Guard Association, including 40 veterans of the Honor Guard, descended upon the MacArthur Memorial. Only the Finest tells the story of the Honor Guard, beginning in Australia in 1942 with the six Military Police who were detailed as the General’s personal bodyguards and continuing with the other troops who served as MacArthur’s guards before the creation of the official Honor Guard Company.

The Honor Guard continued on after General MacArthur’s departure, although with some changes. In 1953 the Guard expanded from an Army unit to include representatives from all four branches of the U.S. armed forces. In 1957 the Guard was disbanded.

The Honor Guard was originally tapped to be in the first wave of the invasion of the Japanese home islands. Instead, the men of the Guard found themselves in the conference room at the Manila City Hall watching as top-ranking Japanese generals met with MacArthur’s staff to discuss terms of surrender. A detachment of the Guard was the first official convoy of U.S. troops to enter downtown Tokyo after the surrender. During the Occupation of Japan, the Honor Guard was divided in half, with one half responsible for guarding General MacArthur’s Headquarters at the Dai Ichi building, and the other half residing at and guarding the MacArthur family residence at the American Embassy compound in Tokyo.

The men of the Guard, particularly those at the Embassy, were often extended special privileges, such as the use of the Embassy swimming pool and to attend movie screenings in the General’s private movie theater at the Embassy. A few of them even were detailed as Jean and Arthur MacArthur’s personal escorts.

The Honor Guard itself did not end with MacArthur’s relief in April 1951. The Guard continued to serve with MacArthur’s successors until the unit was formally disbanded in 1957. However, the Guard underwent several major changes in the post-MacArthur years, including racial integration and expansion from an Army unit to a multi-service branch unit. Many of those who were in the Guard when General MacArthur left Japan also served under his replacement, Matthew Ridgway. Ridgway was despised by most of the Guard because of his demeanor toward them. And while the four generals who came after Ridgway, Mark Clark, John Hull, Maxwell Taylor and Lyman Lemnitzer, were popular among the Guard – Hull in particular – none enjoyed the same stature as MacArthur.

Only the Finest is drawn from personal accounts of the men of the Honor Guard themselves, and features many photos and artifacts never before seen by the public. Of particular interest are a scrapbook of the Honor Guard compiled by its first commanding officer, Captain Raymond Richards, a small hand-painted wooden Honor Guard soldier made by a Japanese artist, and a sampling of the various insignia worn by the Honor Guard during its six-year existence.

In addition to the opening of the new exhibit, the Memorial also hosted a lecture and book signing by Dr. Richard Frank about his newest work, MacArthur: A Biography, part of the “Great Generals” series. This was followed by a panel discussion with six members of the Honor Guard fielding questions from the audience and sharing some of their memories of their time in the Guard. Several of the Guard were interviewed by MacArthur Memorial Archivist Jim Zobel, and their stories will be transcribed and added to the Archives.

Only the Finest will be on exhibit through December 2008.