The Rev. Billy Graham said here yesterday that General of the Army Douglas MacArthur had once told him that he turned down an offer by Emperor Hirohito to make Japan a Christian nation.

The offer was rejected, Mr. Graham said, because the general believed it was wrong to impose any religion on a people. General MacArthur, the Baptist evangelist recalled, said that after the surrender of Japan the Emperor had privately declared his willingness to make Christianity the state religion.

The general asked time to “think about it,” Mr. Graham said, and after considering the proposal replied to the Emperor: “Never. No nation must be made to conform to any religion. It must be done on a voluntary basis.”

Mr. Graham, preaching at the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at the Waldorf‐Astoria, expressed his regret at the general's death. He prefaced his sermon by recalling the conversation, which he said took place just after General MacArthur had come back from the Far East.