Everything I know is wrong...'a nation of 12 year olds'

[Taro Toporific]

Via the NBR'S JAPAN FORUM 'Amuletic quotations'

MacArthur famously opined that the, "Japanese have the emotional development of 12 year olds."

Dower's book on page 550 quotes MacArthur as saying (in testimony to the US Senate on May 5, 1951):
"The Japanese, however, inspite of their antiquity measured by time, were in a very tuitionary condition. Measured by the standards of modern civilization, they would be like a boy of twelve as compared with our development of 45 years."

Gee, that's no fun---now calling them "a nation of 12 year olds"---that's entertainment!

[Charles]

Via the NBR'S JAPAN FORUM 'Amuletic quotations'

MacArthur famously opined that the, "Japanese have the emotional development of 12 year olds."

Dower's book on page 550 quotes MacArthur as saying (in testimony to the US Senate on May 5, 1951):
"The Japanese, however, inspite of their antiquity measured by time, were in a very tuitionary condition. Measured by the standards of modern civilization, they would be like a boy of twelve as compared with our development of 45 years."

Gee, that's no fun---now calling them "a nation of 12 year olds"---that's entertainment!

Actually, I think that MacArthur swiped that remark from Ruth Benedict.