393.115/258
The Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs (Hirota) to the American Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
Excellency: In Your Excellency’s note no. 872 dated February 4, 1938, you made reference to your note no. 866, and stated, upon instruction of your Government, that American missionaries had ascertained or had seen entry into, occupation of, and other depredations committed by Japanese military forces on properties of American missions at Soochow, Hangchow, and other places. You requested that the Imperial Government cause special measures to be promptly taken with a view to bringing to an end acts of the kind above mentioned, and that the Imperial Government give complete assurances that all losses and damages will be indemnified.
It has been affirmed on various occasions that it is the fundamental policy of the Japanese Government to do everything possible to respect the interests and property of the United States and of third countries, and that to give effect to that policy various appropriate and effective measures are being earnestly applied by every available means. I have already had the honor to inform Your Excellency of the preoccupation in putting such declarations into effect by my confidential notes no. 173 of December 24, 1937,44 and no. 17 of February 12, 1938.
In view of the fact that the various cases referred to by Your Excellency require thorough investigation, Japanese officials on the spot are now endeavoring to ascertain the facts by communication with the persons who discovered or saw the incidents under reference and with those who made report of these incidents. The Imperial Government is prepared to pay appropriate indemnification in those cases where, as a result of such investigations, definite evidence is obtained that injury was improperly caused by Japanese forces. The following conclusion with reference to the above-mentioned incidents occurs in the concluding portion of Your Excellency’s note under acknowledgment:
“It appears that these incidents have occurred with the knowledge, and some indeed in the presence, of Japanese officials, while others, such as the occupancy of mission properties by Japanese troops, were presumably by the express direction of military officers.”
The Imperial Government desires to make the reservation that it cannot concur in that conclusion until investigation of the actual circumstances should make available evidence of the facts.
I avail myself [etc.]