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The American Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs (Hirota)
Excellency: I have the honor, under instruction from my Government, to bring to Your Excellency’s attention reports and complaints from American residents that in the course of recent military operations at Nanking and Hangchow and other places, the Japanese armed forces have repeatedly entered American property illegally and removed goods and employees and committed other acts of depredation against American property, which has almost invariably been marked by American flags and by notices in English, Chinese, and Japanese issued by the American authorities and setting forth the American character of the property concerned. According to these reports, not only have Japanese soldiers manifested a complete disregard for these notices but they have also in numerous instances torn down, burned, and otherwise mutilated American flags. I am directed to impress upon Your Excellency the seriousness with which my Government regards such acts and to convey its most emphatic protest against them. My Government finds it impossible to reconcile the flagrant disregard of American rights shown by Japanese troops as described with the assurances contained in Your Excellency’s note of December 24, 1937,35 that “rigid orders have been issued to the military, naval and foreign office authorities to pay … greater attention than hitherto to observance of the instructions that have been repeatedly given against infringement of or unwarranted interference with the rights and interests of the United States and other third Powers”.
In view of the fact that a number of these acts are reported as having occurred subsequent to the receipt of the aforementioned assurances of the Imperial Japanese Government, and inasmuch as this disregard of American rights is reported as still continuing, the American Government is constrained to observe that the steps which the Imperial Japanese Government have so far taken seem inadequate to ensure that hereafter American nationals, interests and property in China shall not be subjected to attack by Japanese armed forces or unlawful interference by any Japanese authorities or forces [Page 566] whatsoever. My Government must, therefore, request that the Imperial Japanese Government reenforce the instructions which have already been issued in such a way as will serve effectively to prevent the repetition of the outrages.
I avail myself [etc.]