General MacArthur's statement of 6 March 1946 appearing
new constitution
COPY
General MacArthur's announcement of
a new Constitution for Japan.
It is with a sense of deep satisfaction that I am to-day able to announce a decision
of the Emperor and Government of Japan to submit to the Japanese people a new
and enlightened constitution which has my full approval. This instrument has
been drafted after painstaking investigation and frequent conference between
members of the Japanese Government and this headquarters following my initial
direction to the cabinet five months ago.
Declared by its terms to be the supreme law for Japan, it places sovereignty
squarely in the hands of the people. It establishes governmental authority with
the predominant power vested in an elected legislature, as representative of
the people, but with adequate check upon that power, as well as upon the power
of the Executive and the Judiciary, to insure that no branch of government may
become autocratic or arbitrary in the administration of affairs of state. It
leaves the throne without governmental authority or state property, subject to
the people's will, a symbol of the people's unity. It provides for and guarantees
to the people fundamental human liberties which satisfy the most exacting standards
of enlightened thought. It severs for all time the shackles of feudalism and
in its place raises the dignity of man under protection of the people's sovereignty.
It is throughout responsive to the most advanced concept of human relations -
is an eclectic instrument, realistically blending the several divergent political
philosophies which intellectually honest men advocate.
Foremost of its provisions is that which, abolishing war as a sovereign right
of the nation, forever renounces the threat or use of force as a means for settling
disputes with any other nation and forbids in future the authorization of any
army, navy, air force or other war potential or assumption of rights of belligerency
by the state. By this undertaking and commitment Japan surrenders rights inherent
in her own sovereignty and renders her future security and very survival subject
to the good faith and justice of the peace loving peoples of the world. By it
does a nation, recognizing the futility of war as an arbiter of international
issues, chart a new course oriented to faith in the justice, tolerance and understanding
of mankind.
The Japanese people thus turn their backs firmly upon the mysticism and unreality
of the past and face instead a future of realism with a new faith and a new hope.
