Bonn Fellers

Frank Fellers from Bonn (born February 7, 1896 in Ridge Farm , Illinois , † October 7, 1973 in Georgetown , District of Columbia ) was an American officer, most recently Brigadier General .

Life

Fellers was born into a Quaker family at Ridge Farm in Vermilion County , Illinois. He was educated from 1914 at Earlham College in Richmond , Indiana, where he made a lifelong friendship with the Japanese exchange student Yuri Watanabe. Through her he came into contact with the writings of Lafcadio Hearns , which shaped the western image of Japan in the early 20th century. He left college in 1916 to hold off on recommendation of the members of the House of Representatives Joseph Gurney Cannon at the West Point military academy to enroll. Due to the First World War , his class graduated after two instead of the usual four years on November 1, 1918.

Fellers was then accepted as a Second Lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps . After a year promoted to First Lieutenant , he completed the basic course at the Coast Artillery School in 1920 and was then transferred to the Philippines for the first of three tours of duty . He later served as an instructor at West Point, among other things. Another period of service in the Philippines followed 1929–1931.

In 1933 Fellers was accepted for a two-year course at the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas. In 1934 he wrote the study The Psychology of the Japanese Soldier , which was used as illustrative material for intelligence officers in the later war against Japan. In the same year he was promoted to captain . This was followed by two trips of several months through the Soviet Union (1936 and 1938), which left Fellers with pronounced anti-communism , and a third stationing in the Philippines, where he acted as a liaison between Commander-in-Chief Douglas MacArthur and President Manuel Quezon . After returning to the United States, he attended the United States Army War College from 1939 to 1940 .

In October 1940 he was transferred to the US Embassy in Cairo as a military attaché with the rank of Colonel . He reported from his own perspective on the British - German - Italian war in North Africa and the airborne battle over Crete . His reports have been read all the way up to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Joint Chiefs of Staff . Unknown to the US authorities, the codes used for transmission were stolen from the safe of the US military attaché in Rome by the Italian Servizio Informazioni Militare in August 1941 , and the reports thus ended up unencrypted with the German Commander- in -Chief in North Africa with a short delay , Rommel . The information obtained in this way included British troop strengths and positions, assessments of the situation, reinforcements and supplies, plans for future operations and the like. The news source didn't dry up until late June 1942 when the Americans switched to a new encryption system. The British had previously informed the Americans that they believed Fellers' reports were a news leak. In an internal investigation, Fellers was completely exonerated. Not only had he fought in vain against the use of a State Department code, he had also warned of a possible compromise himself at the beginning of the year. He was recalled from his post at the beginning of July 1942, and on his return to the USA he received the Distinguished Service Medal for his work in North Africa and was promoted to Brigadier General.

Fellers then worked temporarily in Washington for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), where he was involved in psychological warfare . In the summer of 1943 he was transferred to the Pacific theater of war , where he worked under General MacArthur as head of the Joint Planning Section, G-3, General Headquarters, SWPA and, among other things, planned the operation against Hollandia on the north coast of New Guinea ( Operation Reckless ). From April to November 1944 he was chief of the Civil Affairs Section of the GHQ SWPA for the Philippines and then, until the surrender of Japan, chief of the Psychological Warfare Branch , SWPA and at the same time MacArthur's military secretary. He also accompanied MacArthur on landing in Japan and signing the deed of surrender aboard the USS Missouri .

In occupied Japan , Fellers continued to serve under MacArthur , who was appointed Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP). So he acted as a liaison officer between the GHQ and the Ministry for the Imperial Household ( Kunai-shō ). From January to August 1946 he was general secretary of the Allied Council for Japan . Fellers played a large part in the American decision to keep Emperor Hirohito on the throne and not prosecute him as a war criminal . Previously, he had been against the widespread practice of killing resultant Japanese soldiers and against the Bombing of Tokyo with incendiary bombs pronounced.

On November 30, 1946, Fellers was retired from active service with the rank of Brigadier General. He began a career in politics and was from 1947 to 1952 assistant to the chairman of the Republican National Committee and supported Robert A. Taft during its presidential nomination 1952 . In the same year he published the book Wings for Peace: A Primer for a New Defense . Fellers was active in a number of right-wing groups, including the For America organization and the John Birch Society . From 1959 to 1969 he was chairman of the lobby organization Citizens Foreign Aid Committee . In 1964 he supported Barry Goldwater's candidacy for president .

Fellers died in 1973 at the age of 77 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery .

Awards (selection)

• Army Distinguished Service Medal (2 ×)
• Legion of Merit
• Distinguished Service Star (Philippines, 2 ×)
• Order of the Sacred Treasure 2nd Class (1971)

Others

In the US-Japanese feature film Emperor - Battle for Peace from 2012, Fellers is played by Matthew Fox .

literature

• Allison B. Gilmore: You Can't Fight Tanks with Bayonets: Psychological Warfare Against the Japanese Army in the Southwest Pacific. University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
• Haruo Iguchi: The First Revisionists: Bonner Fellers, Herbert Hoover and Japan's Decision to Surrender. In: Marc Gallicchio (Ed.): The Unpredictability of the Past: Memories of the Asia-Pacific War in US – East Asian Relations. Duke University Press, 2007.

Web links

• Register of the Frank Fellers Papers from Bonn, 1904–1997
• Fellers family private website
• Career data and portrait photo at generals.dk