Fellers, Bonner Frank, 1896-1973

Variant names

Dates:

Birth 1896-02-07

Death 1973-10-07

Active 1942

Active 1974

Active 1912

Active 1983

Birth 1896-02-07

Death 1973-10-07

Gender:

Male

Nationality: Americans,

Language: English

Biographical notes:

Bonner Frank Fellers (February 7, 1896 – October 7, 1973) was a US Army officer who served during World War II as military attaché, director of psychological warfare, and was a protégé of General Douglas MacArthur. Fellers graduated from West Point in 1918 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps. Part of his service before World War II was in the Philippines, including a tour of duty from 1936 to 1938 as assistant to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, then military adviser to the Philippine Government.

In September of 1940, as a major, Fellers was sent to Europe as assistant military attaché in Madrid. After he left Madrid, he became notable as the military attaché in Egypt whose extensive transmissions of detailed British tactical information were intercepted by Axis agents. The tactical information was passed to German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel for over six months, which contributed to disastrous British defeats at Gazala and Tobruk in June 1942.

From Oct. 31, 1940, to July 20, 1942, according to the citation accompanying his Distinguished Service Medal, General Fellers “by personal observation of the battlefields, contributed materially to the tactical and technical development of our Armed Forces.” It was during this period that he filed reports on the desert campaigns in Lybia involving Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps and the British. This intelligence work also earned him his star. Ordered home in July 1942, Fellers participated in tank‐warfare training duty and was then ordered to the Pacific, where he became General MacArthur's Joint Planning Section (G‐3) chief. He accompanied General MacArthur when he flew to Tokyo to accept the Japanese surrender on Sept. 2, 1945.

After the war, Fellers played a major role in the occupation of Japan. Among his duties was liaison between HQ and the Imperial Household. Soon after occupation began, he wrote several influential memoranda concerning why it would be advantageous for the occupation, reconstruction of Japan, and long-term US interests to keep the Emperor in place if he was not clearly responsible for war crimes. In 1971, Hirohito conferred on Fellers the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure "in recognition of your long-standing contribution to promoting friendship between Japan and the United States." His role in exonerating Hirohito is the main subject of the 2012 film Emperor.

When Fellers retired in November 1946, he wrote and lectured extensively on national defense and foreign aid. From 1947 to 1952, he was an assistant to the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Fellers died of heart failure in Washington D.C. at the age of 77 years old.