Richard K. Sutherland

Richard K. Sutherland (November 27, 1893 - June 25, 1966) was a Lieutenant General of the US Army and General MacArthur's Chief of Staff during World War II.

He served with the American Expeditionary Force during World War I.

Table of contents

1 The Japanese Surrender 2 Early Life 3 Military Career 4 Decorations 5 Death and Burial

The Japanese Surrender

At the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, the Canadian Colonel Cosgrave signed the Japanese Peace Document underneath, instead of on, the line for Canada. The Japanese drew attention to the error. General Sutherland leaned over the table and ran two strokes of his pen through the names of the four countries above the misplaced signatures and wrote them in where they belonged. The Japanese then accepted the corrected document.

Early Life

Sutherland was born in Hancock, Maryland and was the son of former US Senator Howard Sutherland, of West Virginia, and Etfie Harris Sutherland.

In 1962, he married Virginia Shaw Root, after the death of his first wife.

Military Career

• 1916 -- graduates from Yale and enters the Army as a private
• 1916 - ? -- serves on the Mexican border with the Connecticut National Guard
• 1917 -- promoted to Captain
• ? - ? -- serves in France
• 1932 - 1933 -- attends the Army War College
• ? - ? -- serves with the Operations and Training Division of the War Department General Staff
• 1937 -- Battalion Commander, 15th Infantry Regiment, Tientsin, China
• March 1938 -- promoted to Major, is assigned to the Office of the Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government (Philippines), Manila, under General MacArthur
• July 1938 -- promoted to Lieutenant Colonel
• August 1941 -- promoted to Brigadier General
• 1941 -- promoted to Major General
• August 1941 -- becomes MacArthur's Chief of Staff of US Army Forces - Far East

-- incomplete

Decorations

• Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster
• Silver Star
• Highest Honors of the Philippine Government

Death and Burial

Sutherland died at Walter Reed Medical Center and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His funeral was held at the Fort Meyer, Virginia chapel on June 29, 1966.