This Military Service Page was created/owned by
CWO2 Philip E. Montroy
to remember
Marine MGen Ralph Spanjer ("Smoke").
If you knew or served with this Marine and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Hillside
Last Address Delafield, WI
Date of Passing Feb 08, 1999
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
MajGen Spanjer retired from the USMC on Jan. 1, 1978 after 36-years of a very active career.
Other Comments:
In 1978, MajGen Spanjer became the Superintendent of the Marine Military Academy. He stayed in that position until 1984. After moving to North Carolina, and then Alaska, he accepted the position of President of St. John's Northwestern Military Academy in WI in 1994. In this position he oversaw the merger of the Academy with Northwestern Military and Naval Academy in Lake Geneva, WI.
US Occupation of Japan
From Month/Year
September / 1945
To Month/Year
April / 1952
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.
