Letter from Douglas MacArthur to Prime Minister dated May 2, 1947

Dear Mr. Prime Minister:

With the effectuation of the new Japanese Constitution, there will be established in Japan a government, erected on democratic principles by a free expression of the popular will, composed of coordinate organs of state power fully responsible to the people in whom the sovereignty now rests, and dedicated to the realization and safeguard of the sanctity of human freedom and the furtherance among men of lasting peace.

To mark this historic ascendency of democratic freedom which events have made possible, I believe it peculiarly appropriate that from henceforth the Japanese national flag be restored to the people of Japan for unrestricted display within and over the premises which house the National Diet, the Supreme Court, and the Prime Minister, as representative of the three main branches of constitutional government, and within and over the residence of the Emperor, who assumes his constitutional role as symbol of the State and of the unity of the people.

Let this flag fly to signify the advent in Japanese life of a new and enduring era of peace based upon personal liberty, individual dignity, tolerance and justice.


The Prime Minister of Japan,
Tokyo.