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Bamvakais, John Robert, Sr., BG USA(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town McKeesport
Last Address St. Louis, MO
Date of Passing Feb 07, 1999
Location of Interment Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery (VA) - St. Louis, Missouri
BG Bamvakais enlisted on 17 July 1943, and was discharged on 30 January 1946, as a Sergeant, after serving in the 11th Airborne Division in World War II.
Upon his return to Missouri, he joined the Missouri National Guard.
He served as a civilian police officer from 1954-1957, when he was shot in the line of duty during a robbery in St. Louis, MO.
BG Bamvakais served for 38 years in the Army & National Guard before retiring on 1 September 1981.
His Son, John Robert Bamvakais, Jr. was Killed in Action in Vietnam.
Description The Allied occupation of Japan at the end of World War II was led by General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, with support from the British Commonwealth. Unlike in the occupation of Germany, the Soviet Union was allowed little to no influence over Japan. This foreign presence marked the only time in Japan's history that it had been occupied by a foreign power. It transformed the country into a parliamentary democracy that recalled "New Deal" priorities of the 1930s politics by Roosevelt. The occupation, codenamed Operation Blacklist, was ended by the San Francisco Peace Treaty, signed on September 8, 1951, and effective from April 28, 1952, after which Japan's sovereignty – with the exception, until 1972, of the Ryukyu Islands – was fully restored.
According to John Dower, in his book Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor/Hiroshima/9-11/Iraq, the factors behind the success of the occupation were:
Discipline, moral legitimacy, well-defined and well-articulated objectives, a clear chain of command, tolerance and flexibility in policy formulation and implementation, confidence in the ability of the state to act constructively, the ability to operate abroad free of partisan politics back home, and the existence of a stable, resilient, sophisticated civil society on the receiving end of occupation policies – these political and civic virtues helped make it possible to move decisively during the brief window of a few years when defeated Japan itself was in flux and most receptive to radical change.
April 28, 1952, The San Francisco Peace Treaty and the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty go into effect, officially ending the Occupation of Japan.