Editing Douglas MacArthur (section)

====Southern Philippines====
[[File:Douglas MacArthur signs formal surrender.jpg|thumb|right|MacArthur signs the [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender]] aboard the USS ''Missouri''. American General [[Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV|Jonathan Wainwright]] and British General [[Arthur Percival]] stand behind him.|alt=MacArthur is seated a small desk, writing. Two men in uniform stand behind him. A large crowd of men in uniform look on.]]
Although MacArthur had no specific directive to do so, and the fighting on Luzon was far from over, he committed his forces to liberate the remainder of the Philippines.{{sfn|James|1975|pp=737–741}} In the GHQ communiqué on 5 July, he announced that the Philippines had been liberated and all operations ended, although Yamashita still held out in northern Luzon.{{sfn|James|1975|p=749}} Starting in May 1945, MacArthur used his Australian troops in the [[Borneo campaign (1945)|invasion of Borneo]]. He accompanied the [[Battle of North Borneo|assault on Labuan]] and visited the troops ashore. While returning to GHQ in Manila, he visited [[Davao City|Davao]], where he told Eichelberger that no more than 4,000 Japanese remained alive on Mindanao. A few months later, six times that number surrendered.{{sfn|James|1975|pp=757–761}} In July 1945, he was awarded his fourth Distinguished Service Medal.{{sfn|MacArthur|1964|p=260}}

As part of preparations for [[Operation Downfall]], the invasion of Japan, MacArthur became commander in chief U.S. Army Forces Pacific (AFPAC) in April 1945, assuming command of all Army and Army Air Force units in the Pacific except the [[Twentieth Air Force]]. At the same time, Nimitz became commander of all naval forces. Command in the Pacific therefore remained divided.{{sfn|James|1975|pp=725–726, 765–771}} During his planning of the invasion of Japan, MacArthur stressed to the decision-makers in Washington that it was essential to have the Soviet Union enter the war as he argued it was crucial to have the Red Army tie down the Kwantung army in Manchuria.{{sfn|Weinberg|2004|p=872}} Contrary to the claim that this meant that MacArthur urged Roosevelt to agree to every Soviet demand at the [[Yalta Conference]], he was in fact not told about any of the territorial concessions to the Soviet Union in Asia as agreed upon in the secret deal that Roosevelt made with [[Joseph Stalin]], and MacArthur said that he would not have supported the Soviet invasion of Manchuria had he known about the secret deal that involved [[Lüshun Port|Port Arthur]], other parts of Manchuria, and northern Korea being given by the western Allies to the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/archive/6610174/historical-notes-macarthur-yalta/ |title=Historical Notes: MacArthur & Yalta |magazine=Time |date=31 October 1955 |access-date=21 October 2024}}</ref> Unlike Nimitz, who was told about the [[atomic bomb]] in February 1945, MacArthur was not told about its existence until a few days before [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|Hiroshima was bombed]].<ref>{{cite periodical |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/biggest-decision-why-we-had-drop-atomic-bomb |title=The Biggest Decision: Why We Had to Drop the Atomic Bomb |last=Maddox  |first=Robert James |periodical=American Heritage |date=1995 |volume=46 |issue=3 |access-date=21 October 2024}}</ref> The invasion was pre-empted by the [[surrender of Japan]] in August 1945. On 2 September MacArthur accepted the [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender|formal Japanese surrender]] aboard the [[battleship]] {{USS|Missouri|BB-63|6}}, thus ending hostilities in World War II.{{sfn|James|1975|pp=786–792}} In recognition of his role as a maritime strategist, the U.S. Navy awarded him the [[Navy Distinguished Service Medal]].{{sfn|MacArthur|1964|p=265}}