MacArthur Museum
- 
A small museum in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, that is about the American General Douglas MacArthur, who was Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific, with his headquarters in the very rooms of today’s museum, from July 1942 to November 1944. The museum also covers the wider context of WWII in the Pacific “theatre” and the effects the war had on the city of Brisbane, including on its civilian population.
>Combinations with other dark destinations
More background info: Douglas MacArthur was a flamboyant, much respected but also controversial figure. Without going into too much detail (that can be found in other resources): he was practically born into the military, was an achiever and started a military career young, after graduating with top marks from a military academy. Later he fought in WW1, for which he received several medals, and afterwards served in various functions in the US military (including as the youngest ever Army Chief of Staff).
His reputation was tarnished somewhat by his handling of the dispersal of a protest in Washington – by the “Bonus Marchers” (ex-servicemen who demanded bonuses they had been promised for their services in WW1) – when his measures were seen by some as disproportionately heavy-handed.
In 1935 he was sent to the Philippines to serve as military adviser in the creation of a Filipino army. MacArthur formally retired from the military in 1937 but continued as adviser in a civilian capacity. In mid-1941 US president Roosevelt called MacArthur back into service and made him Commander of the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East and promoted him to the rank of general. His task was to prepare for a possible threat by Japan.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, in December 1941, sure enough, the Japanese almost immediately turned on the Philippines. The US defence was shakily organized, and MacArthur’s role in this is also controversial. US defences against the Japanese wouldn’t hold and in March 1942 MacArthur and a contingent of his staff (and his family) were evacuated to Australia. But MacArthur pledged to return to liberate the Philippines (which indeed he would in 1944).
In April 1942 he was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area. Initially based in Melbourne, his headquarters were quickly moved to Brisbane, the northernmost eastern Australian city with the necessary infrastructure at the time.
From here he oversaw the campaign against the Japanese in Papua New Guinea. Initially his moves attracted criticism, but eventually he was successful. By mid-1943 the US were in control of the area.
In October 1944 MacArthur could claim to have “returned” to the Philippines, when US troops landed there (he himself did personally land on Leyte on 20 October) and after fierce battles and many atrocities by Japan the Japanese troops were eventually defeated and the Philippines liberated. In April 1945 MacArthur became Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Army Forces, Pacific.
Imperial Japan finally lost the war following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. On 2 September MacArthur accepted the official Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri.
Subsequently, MacArthur moved his HQ to Tokyo where as Supreme Commander for the Allied Forces he began overseeing the reshaping of post-war Japan, with a new constitution, introducing many Western-style liberties, and also the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the Pacific equivalent of the Nuremberg Trials in Germany. Thousands of suspected war criminals were convicted and nearly a thousand sentenced to death. But through MacArthur’s ruling the Emperor and his family were exempt from the trials and evidence against them withheld, which resulted in criticism as many Allies had demanded the Emperor’s abdication.
In 1948 MacArthur had an unsuccessful run for nomination as the Republican Party’s candidate for the US presidency but failed, so he stayed on in the military.
He played a decisive role in Korea too, first through the creation of the Republic of South Korea as a US ally in 1948, and then in the Korean War after the attack by North Korea in 1950. In this context there’s controversy as to whether MacArthur had recommended using atomic bombs in Korea or whether he’d merely contemplated their use. When China entered the war the initial US successes were quickly undone, before a US counteroffensive reinstated the status quo that lasts to this day (see DPRK and DMZ) .
In the meantime, though, in April 1951, US president Truman relieved MacArthur of his command for going against presidential directives. MacArthur returned to the USA, where he had another unsuccessful stint in the US presidential elections. He officially retired from the military and largely retreated into private life (though in some style, residing in a penthouse at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel!). Yet he was still consulted, e.g. by president Kennedy over the Cuba Crisis.
MacArthur died aged 84 in March 1964.
Back to Brisbane: the military role the city developed under MacArthur had a profound impact on it and its inhabitants. Contrary to then current fears, Japan never bombed Brisbane (while Darwin in the Northern Territory was not spared). But the presence of large numbers of US military personnel and the facilities required by them stretched the city’s resources and many civil liberties were curtailed. This angle is also a topic in today’s museum.
What there is to see: Before you enter the building, take note of the two memorial plaques that specify the historical significance of this place.
Once inside you have to take the lift to the 8th floor. At the museum entrance you are greeted by a portrait painting of Douglas MacArthur (and as with a few other copyrighted items, photography is not allowed here). Then you get to the reception desk, where very friendly volunteers sell you your ticket and at certain times even offer free guided tours. The latter may be worth one’s while, as these volunteers obviously know their stuff well; but I opted to visit the museum independently. You can also borrow a laminated sheet with an overview chart of the various sections of the museum and a suggested circuit through it.
The first section is about MacArthur the man and his career up to coming to Australia (see above). It’s mostly text-and-photo panels but there are also a few artefacts on display, one being a small ceramic bust of MacArthur and a display cabinet contains his cap, his sunglasses and the characteristic pipe he used to smoke (as pictured in an accompanying photo).
The next section doubles up as a video theatre where you can watch a documentary film about wartime Brisbane (it’s played in a loop all the time). Around it are panel sections about the build-up to WWII and the impact the war then had on the city of Brisbane, when it effectively became a garrison town.
There’s a separate section focusing on how children’s lives were affected by the war, in school, at play, at home and in doing their “little bit” for the war effort. The following section illustrates wartime entertainment for adults in the form of theatre, dance and sports.
A subsection is called “War Brides” … apparently several thousand Australian women married US servicemen during WWII – and a mock bridal dress on display stands symbolically for this. Not all of these marriages ended happily when the brides accompanied their husbands to the USA. Quite a few split up and returned home to Australia.
Next to this section is one of the largest authentic exhibits in the museum: the actual conference table and chairs used by MacArthur and his staff during their years here in Brisbane. Another larger item is a 1930s icebox (precursor of the refrigerator, using actual blocks of ice for cooling). Signs warned that the hinges are very fragile so that you should not open the icebox … yet one of the volunteers did open it to show us the inside of the appliance.
The exhibition continues with a look at the military transformation that came to Brisbane with the arrival of the Americans, through new airfields (and their planes), depots, and naval support facilities, and also the impact the war had on railway travel.
The next section returns to the aspect of how civilians were affected by the war, on the one hand through austerity measures, loans and rationing and through civil defence on the other. For instance, numerous concrete air-raid shelters were constructed around the city. A few of those are even still in existence today, adapted to other uses (e.g. as bus shelters!).
Another section is about Codebreakers, such as those at Bletchley Park, who broke the German Enigma machine’s code. An equivalent to Bletchley Park in the South Pacific was called “SigInt” (short for ‘signals intelligence’), and under the inconspicuous sounding name of “Central Bureau” such a unit was established at MacArthur’s Brisbane HQ to provide him directly with such intelligence. On the other hand the Allies needed to keep their own communications encrypted and this was done by massive so-called “SigSaly” terminals that went into service in 1943. One such SigSaly was located in the basement of the HQ building.
An important success story of the codebreaking was the interception and decryption of a message containing the flight plan of the head of the Japanese Navy Admiral Yamamoto when he was on an inspection tour in Papua New Guinea. Thus “Operation Vengeance” was conceived with the intention to shoot his plane down. This was successful on 18 April 1943 when American long-range fighter planes intercepted Yamamoto’s aircraft (and the accompanying other planes) and his stricken plane crashed into the jungle on the island of Bougainville killing the crew and the high-ranking passenger. Yamamoto’s death was a major blow to Japanese morale. A display cabinet in the MacArthur Museum features a wreck piece from the crashed plane as well as a captured portrait of Yamamoto.
On display are also a number of other Japanese “war souvenirs” obtained by Allied soldiers, such as a helmet, a katana (a type of samurai sword) and a hinomaru yosegaki, i.e. a Japanese “good luck” flag such as were often given to leaving soldiers by family members and friends; this one was captured by Australian infantry soldiers during the campaign in Papua New Guinea. Text panels provide additional information about battles in that part of the world. There is also a panel about Japanese propaganda efforts aimed at Australian soldiers “sacrificing” themselves for the Americans. These efforts had little effect.
Next there’s a large map of the Pacific “theatre” of WWII. It comes with a timeline of first the Japanese Advance and the subsequent Allied counteroffensive. This is followed by several panels about specific naval battles (I won’t go into details).
Finally there comes the “highlight” of the exhibition, the fully restored former office of General Douglas MacArthur. His desk is uncluttered and has only a few items on it, including an old dial-disk telephone. After having had a look around and taken some photos I then made my way back to the reception desk to return the overview sheet, and one of the volunteers asked if I had sat in MacArthur’s swivel chair behind his desk. It hadn’t occurred to me that this could be appropriate, but as the volunteer almost insisted I went back and my wife took a photo of me behind the General’s desk (but I decided against including that in the gallery below).
All in all, I found this quite a good little museum and I learned a lot that was new to me. I can only recommend it. And it was a lucky chance find, as it’s not mentioned in the big fat Lonely Planet guidebook I used. I just happened to walk past the address, spotted the signs and spontaneously decided to give it a go. I’m glad I did.
UPDATE: in late 2025 the museum’s website announced that a new exhibit on Australian Prisoners of War has been launched. Given the grimness of that subject (see Death Railway, Thailand-Burma-Railway Centre and Hellfire Pass) the darkometer rating at the top of this chapter can likely be upped. If any of my readers have seen this new exhibit and can comment on it, please contact me!
Location: at 201 Edward Street in a building called “MacArthur Chambers” in central Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The museum is on the 8th floor.
Google Maps locator: [-27.4684, 153.02724]
Access and costs: fairly easy to get to; not expensive.
Details: The building that the museum is housed in is within easy walking distance from anywhere within the Brisbane’s CBD (Central Business District). Edward Street is one of the main north-south roads of the CBD; the museum location is just three blocks south from the Central train station.
When you get to the address you have to take the lift up to the 8th floor to get to the museum entrance.
Opening times: only Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. (last admission at 2:30 p.m.).
Admission: 10 AUD (concession 5 AUD).
Time required: The official recommendation is “at least an hour”; I spent a bit less time in there, but then again I didn’t read all the text panels there and then but took lots of photos so as to be able to read them in my own time afterwards. If you want to read everything while there, you’d very likely need a lot more than one hour.
Combinations with other dark destinations: see under Brisbane.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: see under Brisbane.
