The General Who Walked

In September 1945, when Douglas MacArthur arrived in Tokyo to accept Japan's formal surrender, his aides prepared a convoy of armored vehicles, flags snapping from every fender. MacArthur waved them off. He climbed into an ordinary sedan — no stars on the hood, no motorcycle escort — and rode through streets lined with two million Japanese citizens who expected a conqueror draped in the trappings of total victory.…