Overview
Arthur MacArthur IV (born February 21, 1938) is the only child of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and Jean MacArthur. He is also the grandson of Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur Jr.
Early life
Arthur MacArthur IV's early life was chronicled extensively in the press. His early childhood was spent around the penthouse built for his father atop the Manila Hotel. Arthur's father would play with him every morning before work. After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, Arthur, his mother and his nanny were forced to relocate from the Manila Hotel as bombs fell nearby. They first joined Arthur's father on Corregidor Island and then were evacuated by PT boat and a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber to Brisbane, Australia. The United Press agency reported in March 1942 on the boy's escape with his family and that he was a "real MacArthur, a soldier like his father and grandfather". Life made Arthur their cover story in August 1942 and reported on such matters as the boy's life in Australia, his "curiously mixed-up accent", his kindergarten routine, and his new tricycle.
While the fighting was going on in the Philippines, Arthur and his mother left Brisbane on the refrigerator ship Columbia Express. They arrived in Manila on March 6, 1945, and were met by his father, who ferried out on a Higgins (or LCVP) boat, as there was no place for the ship to dock. Upon arriving in Manila, they discovered that their old penthouse at the Manila Hotel was burned down by the Japanese, and thus they took up residence at "Casa Blanca," the house of Russian Jewish-born American businessman Emil Bachrach in Santa Mesa, which also happened to be the house used by General Tomoyuki Yamashita before he evacuated to Baguio with his Northern Force.
After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the family moved to Tokyo, from where the United Press agency reported in 1946 that eight-year-old Arthur MacArthur was considered a "musical prodigy". Arthur's first meeting with Emperor Hirohito of Japan's sons, the future Emperor Akihito and Prince Masahito in September 1949, at a swimming meet, was covered by Sir Keith Murdoch's Adelaide News under the headline "MacArthur's son and Jap. princes".
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).