In 1995 Parker issued a limited edition Duofold to honor Douglas MacArthur signing
the peace treaty that ended the war in the Pacific. Apparently he used a Big Red for this.





The launching of the limited edition was accompagnied with a lot of fanfare. I copy
from a news article of Aug. 2, 1995:

"GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR'S WIDOW TO BE PRESENTED WITH REPLICA OF PEN HER HUSBAND USED TO SIGN SURRENDER DOCUMENTS TO END WORLD WAR II
NEW YORK, Aug. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Jean MacArthur, widow of General Douglas
MacArthur, will be honored at a private ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, 301
Park Avenue at 50th Street, New York, tomorrow, August 3. She will be presented
with a replica of the Parker Orange Duofold fountain pen General MacArthur used to
sign the Japanese surrender documents aboard the U.S.S. Missouri on September 2,
1945. The original pen, which belonged to her and which she lent to the general, has
been lost. The replica pen bears the general's signature and is numbered 'one' in a
limited edition ..."

The various websites are full of statements like this one: "General Douglas
MacArthur signed the document ending World War II in the Pacific with his 20 year
old Duofold". The origin of this phrase seems to originate from Parker's own
document such as this one from Parker's own web site:
"Writing History: The Parker Story". Well, first of all, it was not his - it was his wife's .
Second are we talking about a Big Red presumably, maybe a Junior or Lady size?

I was very curious to see if there is a photo of the signing ceremony and here is
what I got. This is a small photo of the general signing the treaty. :ph34r:




I found also this large one.
The pens in this image look like deskpens - they are all the same.
So we are not talking about a Big Red.







I even enlarged it to see what is going on:





And as I was so excited to have discovered one of the most dispeakable deceptions
of Madisson street, Google led me to this image from the military archives.




























:ph34r:




:doh:




....






Oh, what is this? A red Duofold! Oh, no.
Darn it, my claim to fame vanished in a flahs [SIZE=7]

Why the discrepancy between the two photo's? Looking at the people in the background it appears to be the same scene. The color photo was taken from a position a little to the left of the black and white one.

It looks like he must have written something else, then switched to the Duo-fold, as the color photo has one extra desk pen laid on the table than the black-and-white. Maybe he was about the sign in the first photo, then changed his mind.

Have to look for the newsreel.

John

I believe I once saw the newsreel, and it does show MacArthur switching pens between signatures. Not sure why he signed more than once unless it was in a dual capacity (Field Marshall as well as General), or there were multiple copies of the documents to be signed.

I do note in your pictures the desk pen was used to sign the right document, and the Duofold used to sign the document in the middle.

An interesting quote from John Allingham, who I believe was an assistant to Air Vice-Marshal Isitt, Representative of New Zealand in the signing of the surrender document.

"When he had finished he called on the Japanese to sign the two copies that lay on the table. The foreign secretary then came to the table and produced the authority from the Emperor and from the government of Japan and spread these papers - which were covered with Japanese lettering - on the table. He then signed - using his own pen - and was followed by the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, who also signed with his own pen - obviously and American make. General MacArthur then called generals Percival and Wainwright to assist him and he signed for the United Nations. He was followed by the United Nations representatives in turn and each of them gave the two pens - they used a different pen to sign each copy - to their aides at the table with them. When New Zealand's turn came there were no pens left and so the Air Vice-Marshal had to use his own pen and so I as his aide missed out."


John

Thanks to Google here you are:
From the national archieves

Fastforward about 4:30 minutes for the signing ceremony.
6 official pens. Many officers use their own. Is the japanese a maki-e
The red duofold is NOT shown


PS> I hope you have as much fun with this as I do

Wow, that's interesting. Thanks for the link.

Well, if John Allingham is to be believed - the pens used by the Japanese representatives were "obviously and [sic] American make."

John

Very interesting thread. After the war, MacArthur also authored a new constitution which created the modern democracy that Japan is today -- wonder what pen he used for that? That would be another historic pen.

My parents met in Japan during WWII, both of them 2nd generation Japanese Americans who got stuck there when hostilities broke out. My mom said that as the end of the war neared, everyone was expecting the worst. The winning army would sweep through every town and village raping and pillaging and killing. This was how the "war" thing had always worked. This isn't what happened though. They decided to remember and honor the general by naming one of their sons after him.

Doug

Very interesting. More interesting that it was his wife's pen.

Looking at the Parker website, they mention that Eisenhower's pen was used to sign the armistice to end WWII in Europe and that it was a Parker "51". Any pictures showing it being used?

It needs work I am not sure about it. Join us in the effort to find out about it



Very interesting story - I think a LE MacArthur MUST be in your list of "desired" pens (despite its cost)



I am working on it. Stand by

Actually the American troops practically nowhere behaved badly (unlike the Sovjets ...), the fear among the Japanese was mainly fueled by the the usual atrocity propaganda by the Japanese authorities.






That's hard to prove, as Eisenhower himself was intentionally not in the room, where the armistice was signed for the Western front.
Also, this was not the final act, as the Sovjets demanded and got their own armistice signature event shortly afterwards. I'm unsure about the British, though

That is true that Eisenhower was not at the event. The story goes is that he sent his pens to be used for the event. There is a picture on the Eisenhower Library website showing him holding the pen used at the signing. Need to find a way to zoom in on it to get a better look.

I've seen the reel of MacArthur's signing on the History Channel.

MacArthur brought in his hands two desk-set pens, signed with them two of the copies of the treaty, and gave the pens to his aides.

THEN, he took from his shirt pocket his own personal pen, and signed with it the third copy.

So, according to the moment the photo was taken, you'll see him using either a desk-set pen or a shorter pen. I thought it was a Balance (B&W film, and camera far away), but obviously it was not...

However, for me the most rewarding image was seeing Nimitz (one of my favourite admirals, along with Spruance) signing. In a typical layman attitude, he tooks out a paper napkin and touches the nib of his pen to get it writing before signing. For those with pens less than perfect which dry out after some time capped, this will seem an all-too-familiar gesture...