394.115 Panay/2: Telegram

The Ambassador in Japan ( Grew ) to the Secretary of State

622. My 619, December 13, noon. The Minister for Foreign Affairs has just called on me in person at the Chancery and has informed me of the receipt of a Domei report from Shanghai that in following fleeing remnants of the Chinese Army Japanese planes had bombed three Standard Oil vessels and had sunk U. S. S. Panay while in the close vicinity on the Yangtze above Nanking. The Minister said that he had as yet received no official report but that he had come immediately to express to our Government the profound apology of the Japanese Government and that Saito20d would do the same to you. He said that Admiral Hasegawa had accepted full responsibility for the accident. He said that immediately after my visit this morning he had communicated my representations to the Japanese naval and military [Page 522] authorities. Hirota said, “I cannot possibly express how badly we feel about this.” The Navy and War Minister[s] have sent similar expressions of regret to the Navy and War Departments in Washington through the naval and military attachés here.

Repeated to Peiping for Nanking and Hankow.

Grew
  1. Hirosi Saito, Japanese Ambassador at Washington.